Joanna Walters - Bernie Sanders and other progressives plot Democratic party comeback
Newly emboldened,
populist voices of the Democratic party called on Sunday for the grassroots
revival of progressive forces in America, to remake the party and rebound
following Donald
Trump’s crushing victory over Hillary Clinton in the presidential
election.
Vermont senator Bernie
Sanders, who was defeated
by Clinton in the Democratic primary, and Keith Ellison, a rising
progressive star and a leading contender to become the new chair of the party,
both called for redirecting of party efforts away from the wealthy liberal
elite. “We have to do a lot
of rethinking,” Sanders told CBS on Sunday. “Democrats have focused too much on
a liberal elite, which has raised incredible sums of money from wealthy people
but has ignored … the working class, middle class and low income-people in this
country. “Now we need to create
a grassroots movement of millions of people who want to transform this
country.”
Sanders promised to
fight Trump on environmental regulations, and said he wanted millions to
campaign on forcing Republicans to action on climate change, which Trump
has denied exists. He also repeated
his rejection of Trump’s campaign rhetoric on immigrants, women,
isolationism and Muslims, saying: “We will not accept racism, sexism or
xenophobia.”
The senator, who has
described himself as a democratic socialist, admitted he might find common
ground on finance reform with Trump – if the Republican held to his word to be
“the champion of working people” and has “the courage to stand up to Wall
Street”. The senator also said he agreed with Trump on the need to rebuild
America’s infrastructure and overhaul international trade deals.
“If he’s for creating
a trade policy so that corporate America starts investing in this country, not
in China, yeah, we can work together on that,” Sanders said.
But he said he feared
the government would devolve into an oligarchy, with a small number of
extremely wealthy people in control of the US economic levers. Sanders reserved
criticism for Democrats,
as well, in their deference to the rich. He criticized the party for failing to
appreciate that average working Americans are working longer hours for low
wages, are upset and “worried to death about the future generation”. “Trump tapped that,”
he said.
Asked whether he
supported the Democratic leaders that will now be in charge of that party’s
side in Congress, Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer in the House Senate
respectively, Sanders said: “I’m not into leaders, I’m into building a movement
that transforms this country.”
An African American
from Minnesota, the first Muslim to serve in Congress, and leader of the
Congressional Progressive Caucus, Ellison is considered a rising star in the
party. Last year, he was one of the few Democrats to seriously believe that
Trump could win the Republican nomination – a prediction he made on the same
ABC programme, This Week, drawing laughter – and he was one of most
outspoken supporters of Sanders in the Democratic primary.
“We should have to put
the voters first, not the donors first. I love the donors and we thank them.
But it has to be the guys in the barber’s shop, the lady in the diner, the
folks who are worried about whether their plant is going to close,” he said…
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