1003
submitted 1 week ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Summary

Bernie Sanders criticizes the Democratic Party for neglecting the working class, leading to their recent election losses.

He highlights issues like economic inequality, job displacement, healthcare costs, and foreign policy as key concerns for the American people.

Sanders questions whether the Democratic leadership will address these issues or remain beholden to big money interests.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 39 points 6 days ago

Bernie is correct for the 100th time. But is little too late now. Unless Dems are serious about tackling working class issues. I don't see anything changing. Many people view the Dem party not for the average person anymore.

[-] demizerone@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago

The party is done. I switched to being a Independent. The machine is too big to change from the outside, and those that are the inside are blind to what is happening to regular people that would result in voters not showing up or just voting for a Fascist.

[-] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Every path people have tried to reform the party or change course ends up dead end. I'm over it. I'm not doing the whole lesser evil shit anymore. I wish them the best because I don't want Republicans to endlessly win. Until Dems choose to stand for something collectively, outside donor interests all the time. It will be a loop of them losing elections.

[-] hydrospanner@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

Agreed 100%.

If they did this, they would easily carry states with high populations of blue collar and union laborers. Stop paying lip service and actually do it.

States that have had major manufacturing centers in the late 20th century like the Rust Belt.

Like...Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

The Democratic party is just paying the price for ignoring blue collar middle class voters since the late 80s. They took those votes for granted, and they lost them over time. Just like after blue collar folks they then took the votes of minorities for granted...and now they're losing those.

All they need to do is ask what they've done for these people lately...like in the past few decades. And when they came really answer that in any terms other than what they prevented the other guys from doing, they shouldn't have to wonder why enthusiasm for their party's candidates is at an all time low.

Literally ZERO people I know personally have actually liked and actively, enthusiastically supported any democratic presidential nominee since Obama. That's twelve fucking years and zero candidates that got people excited and inspired. Most of my friends voted for these candidates, but nobody liked them.

Honestly, if it weren't for the opposition being so unbearably awful, I'd almost be happy to see the Democratic party handed loss after loss until and unless they learn their lesson and stop taking their base for granted.

[-] Hackworth@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

Do people mean anything other than commodity and gas prices when they say "working class issues?" I feel like abortion, healthcare, education, and student loans are also working class issues, but I take it that's not what people mean.

[-] Incandemon@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 days ago

Let's start with the 70% or so of people that report living paycheck to paycheck[1] rather than claiming that the 'economy is doing fine. Let's even acknowledge that inflation is making good and housing prohibitively expensive[2].

The things you mentioned are important. For people that are struggling to keep a roof over their heads though the issue of Healthcare or education tend to be less critical than keeping food on the table. We can't keep saying the economy is doing fine while people keeping trying to tell us it isn't.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-statistics-2024/

[2] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/price-tracker/

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The supposed strong economy is based on the average, which is brought up by the ultra-wealthy and their dragon hoards. The median is still getting shit on. There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

[-] Hackworth@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

I appreciate the sources and the rigor. But is it not the left that's consistently pushing for a higher minimum wage? For exploring solutions like UBI or even just expanded social safety nets for the people who fall out the bottom?

The costs of healthcare continues to skyrocket, when we're already paying twice what other nations are. Healthcare bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy. But is it not the left (sorry, I started the "is it not" thing, and I feel like I need to keep it going, ahem...) that's been pushing universal healthcare? For transparency in hospital costs?

I'm just saying that I don't think it's accurate to say the DNC has "abandoned the working class." The DNC's never been able to communicate effectively (or perhaps they've just never been believed) when they try to explain that they haven't abandoned the working class. And they're not very good at fellating microphones.

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

You're conflating the DNC with actual leftism.

[-] Hackworth@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Well yeah, but it's not like they haven't tried. I've certainly been frustrated watching the DNC try for decades to get some version of progressive policy passed only to succeed in the most compromised ways. But usually the reason is simply Americans. My office mate is certain that Jesus is coming back soon. What do you do with that?

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Not talk to it.

[-] Incandemon@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 days ago

Yes. UBI has been a leftist conversation point for the last few years. Overall though the Democratic Party is opposed [1]. Two years ago when asked if the democrats would step up efforts to help people in financial straights the response was an effective no [2]. If I remember correctly that was even a campaign promise from Joe Bidden, that nothing significant would change.

And despite that, when the democrat's made promses when it comes time to follow through they have a hard time enacting their goals. I will grant that a big chunk of that is republican interference, but the democrats seem to be extremely hesitant to use the levers of power available to them to follow through. When one side is blatently, openly cheating, its folly to keep trying to play by old rules.

And please don't get me wrong, nothing I'm saying should be taken as endorsement for the Republicans. I want to live in a world of rational debate and law. However, both sides have to agree to that for it to work. When one side wants to win at all costs the democrats can't keep playing from the same old book forever.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/policy-2020/economic-inequality/universal-basic-income/

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/us/politics/biden-economy-midterms.html

[-] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Democrats passed the ACA without any Republican support. They should have passed MFA then. It was terrible and made my life much harder at the time. It's better now, but barely. My wife has a low paying government job and her health insurance costs went up significantly more than her 2% raise. Both of us took cuts in net pay while food, property taxes and seemingly everything else went up. What have Dems done about housing, pay, taxes, food costs in the last term? Nothing. Oh, Biden got one drug to be cheaper. But I'm not a diabetic. Yet.

[-] Hackworth@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago

Didn't have any student debt?

[-] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 0 points 6 days ago

I only have an associate's degree which was very affordable and I worked thru school but I guess I get to help pay for those who took on a lot more debt. If that had been on the table maybe I'd have gotten more education.

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

This is temporarily embarrassed millionaire rhetoric. This is the reason the DNC gets away with platforming milquetoast horseshit in the first place.

[-] Hackworth@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

S'all about getting yours, eh?

[-] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 0 points 5 days ago

When you're struggling to feed your kids, yeah, mine is on the list. That doesn't mean I don't help other people but our government taxes the struggling and literally sets cash on fire as a thank you.

[-] Hackworth@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Reduction in access to abortion and contraceptives will only increase the number of people in this country struggling to feed kids. We could also talk about school lunch programs and support services in general.

[-] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 0 points 5 days ago

I constantly bring up school lunch programs but I get downvoted on sites like this because I choose unpopular context. For example, Biden spent money on something, I say - he could have funded school lunches, but instead lunch ladies get to go back to collecting food debt.

[-] Hackworth@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

President Biden included funding to expand the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) in the his Fiscal Year 2024 budget.

The budget earmarks over $15 billion in funds to allow more school districts to take advantage of CEP, which allows schools that have a high percentage of low-income students serve universal free meals.

The White House has advocated for the expansion of universal free meals at school and aims to provide free school meals to 9 million more students by 2032 as part of its National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. [March 2023]

They also apparently made them more nutritious.

this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2024
1003 points (97.5% liked)

News

23284 readers
1309 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS