Sanders warns Biden: address working-class fears or risk losing to demagogue
www.theguardian.com
Sanders warns Biden: address working-class anxieties or risk losing election to demagogue

In an interview with the Guardian from his home base in Burlington, Vermont, Sanders urged the Democratic president to inject more urgency into his bid for re-election. He said that unless the president was more direct in recognising the many crises faced by working-class families his Republican rival would win.

“We’ve got to see the White House move more aggressively on healthcare, on housing, on tax reform, on the high cost of prescription drugs,” Sanders said. “If we can get the president to move in that direction, he will win; if not, he’s going to lose.”

The US senator from Vermont added that he was in contact with the White House pressing that point. “We hope to make clear to the president and his team that they are not going to win this election unless they come up with a progressive agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class of this country.”

Sanders’ warning comes at a critical time in American politics. On Monday, Republicans in Iowa will gather for caucuses that mark the official start of the 2024 presidential election.

Biden faces no serious challenger in the Democratic primaries. But concern is mounting over how he would fare against Trump given a likely rematch between them in November.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
        47·
        10 months ago

        https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-hamas-destroy-israel-ceasefire_n_6576fac1e4b0881b7917ddab

        “I strongly support and wish and hope that the United States will support the United Nations resolution that was vetoed, that we vetoed the other day,” Sanders said. “That was a humanitarian pause, humanitarian cease-fire, that would have by the way called for the release of all of the hostages held by Hamas, and would have allowed the U.N. and other agencies to begin to supply the enormous amount of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.”

        However, he added, “in terms of a permanent cease-fire, I don’t know how you can have a permanent cease-fire when Hamas, who has said before October 7th and after October 7th that they want to destroy Israel ― they want a permanent war. I don’t know how you have a permanent cease-fire with an attitude like that.”

        Weak shit tbh

        Better than nothing, but it was a pause regardless of him trying to spin it as a ceasefire.

        • Adub@lemmy.worldEnglish
          21·
          10 months ago

          The rare W for Senator Sanders right there and now he is backpedaling so his base will still buy his books in the future.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
            24·
            10 months ago

            Sanders is stuck in the bygone era of Labour Zionism and doesn’t seem to realize that his statement about Hamas applies to modern Israel too - you can’t have a permanent cease-fire with a settler-colonial entity, who has made it very clear that they want to annex the territory.

            • Adub@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              10 months ago

              It is strange that the the American radical left abandoned Labour Zionism after the USSR conducted the trials like the Doctors’ plot & decided selling weapons to Arabs to kill Jews was the way to go. Solidarity is quickly dispensed with when principles are weak. Maybe Sanders error is the same as people supporting Houthis now?

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                14·
                10 months ago

                The American radical left grew an anti-colonial character alongside the rise of Black Nationalism and the American Indian Movement, the breakup was inevitable because Labour Zionists were trying to build socialism in an apartheid colorismo ethnostate on stolen land 🤷‍♀️

                Without any international left holding them back, Revisionist Zionism conquered Israel and now they’re just openly fascist genocidal freaks. Sanders still thinks there’s a rational Zionist entity to negotiate with, but that ship sailed a long time ago.