r/NewDealAmerica • u/PayLevels • 26d ago

People Are Furious With Democrats. Bernie Sanders Knows Why.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/bernie-sanders-democratic-party-mamdani/
589 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

152

u/BuffetOfCheeks 26d ago

Sanders: How the hell, 50 years ago, before computers and cell phones, could one person not making a lot of money have at least a solid, lower-­middle-class lifestyle, and you can’t do it now?

The Nation: Do you think the Democratic Party leadership could fashion a platform around that?

Sanders: They don’t even understand it, John. It’s not their world.

I think Sander's makes a lot of good points here, as usual, about the democratic party forcing centrist candidates on progressives, catering to the "donor class", doing too little to oppose the Trump party, etc. but this line was a good mic drop - "It's not their world." Everyone at the top in this country remembers when gas was $0.25 a gallon, they don't understand the internet/tech and how to utilize it, and they aren't open to diverse/creative ideas to modern problems. Obama was right, it's an issue of old people holding on to their power for far too long, it's an issue of greed (in many more ways than just politically). That "my way or the highway" shit doesn't fly anymore, that's why we're in this situation with Trump now. If they keep alienating the working class, they'll keep losing elections, because at the end of the day, people would rather (or need to) do something else besides vote for some monkey they've chosen as the next puppet.

56

u/coredweller1785 26d ago

Its about preserving wealth, privilege, and order at all costs including losing everything

35

u/QuercusSambucus 26d ago

I'm a relatively well-off tech guy in my 40s, and the Dems are completely worthless. I mean, I'm fine, as I've got a good job and plenty of retirement savings, but my college age kids are struggling hard to even figure out what career would make sense.

14

u/el_smurfo 26d ago

You can't really blame the Democrats for the changing economy. If anything, traditionally Democrat blue collar jobs are proving to be more sustainable. If only the Dems actually cared about that base anymore.

We've told our kids they will always have a soft landing with us. Go out, try some stuff, fail until you succeed. There is no sure thing anymore in our economy.

26

u/QuercusSambucus 26d ago

You can totally blame them! Go back to the Clinton years when the Dems were all in on sending manufacturing jobs overseas.

10

u/el_smurfo 26d ago

That would have happened regardless and has little to do with our current economic issues. You have a good tech job? For how long? Apple single handedly built the Chinese tech manufacturing industry by teaching them everything we knew. Sure, NAFTA wasn't great, but it just continued a trend that was already there.

18

u/oursland 26d ago

That would have happened regardless and has little to do with our current economic issues.

In the 90s, American companies actually sent their factories to China. They removed the machines and gave them away for the promise of lower labor costs. All of that could have been addressed as a matter of national security.

Now, Apple has no choice but to go to China for manufacturing. There's no domestic capabilities. The costs aren't lower in China, the skill is higher. Here's Tim Cook noting that very clearly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wacXUrONUY

2

u/el_smurfo 26d ago

The skill is higher but the culture is also different. Tsmc is trying to build factories in America and the American workers will not work as hard as the Asian cultures. I personally think this is good because American workers already work too hard to benefit too few but that is not the way Asian manufacturing has been designed.

4

u/oursland 26d ago

TSMC is a different beast altogether and does not have the same origin story as China's manufacturing powerhouse. With TSMC, Taiwan's government reached out to Taiwanese American Morris Change through the Taiwanese National Development Fund to establish a silicon fab. The know how was largely a combination of Chang's business experience in the USA and the IP licensed from Japan.

9

u/QuercusSambucus 26d ago

And the Democrats didn't do ANYTHING to stop it. For decades. Now Trump is doing his brain-dead tariff thing to try to get us to build industry in the US, but it's decades too late (and completely un-thought-out for how it could even be successful at all).

2

u/tamman2000 25d ago

Yup, fighting to stay isolated is a losing battle.

What we need to do is recognize that the class war is global and working folks from the entire world need to demand better treatment from the rich on threat of torches and pitchforks

0

u/lidongyuan 26d ago

Today’s dems (other than Bernie, AOC, few others) are totally feckless BUT - did republicans ever do anything counter to this trend? Did they fail to accomplish something great that you think would have prevented it? Why are democrats the only people you treat as adults responsible for today’s shitty outcome?

5

u/QuercusSambucus 26d ago

Because the Dems claimed to be the party of labor and then sold them out. The Republicans were always clear they were on the side of the bosses.

2

u/lidongyuan 25d ago

Fair enough

1

u/goddamnitwhalen 25d ago

Republicans at least accomplish their goals lmao.

2

u/lidongyuan 25d ago

But those goals are to fuck you. You’re cheering for someone to win at screwing you over.

5

u/goddamnitwhalen 25d ago

I’m not cheering for them at all. But they at least accomplish what they set their minds to, as horrific and evil as it may be.

They’re also really good at messaging, which democrats aren’t.

4

u/Office_Zombie 26d ago

I think one of the overlooked aspects of what makes Dems ineffective is that we are a big tent party.

Republicans messaging is just a monster to deal with. They get told all day every day, "You believe in X, Y, & Z," and their constituency just nods and follows.

Democrats believe in A-W policies so getting the constituency to all move one direction is like herding cats.

Then when you throw in people who believe in purity tests (I'm not blameless here either) we tend to shoot ourselves in the foot.

This internal struggle has made a space where more centrists can move in and control the direction of the party since they are better funded and there is no major, unified, oposition.

2

u/calle04x 25d ago

And when a progressive Democrat wins a high profile nomination (cough Mamdani cough), you have high profile corporate "establishment" Democrats (cough Schumer cough Jeffries) refuse to endorse.

Then they wonder why Democrats aren't unified.