All his political life Bernie Sanders has been a passionate fighter for justice. But in the United States, even though the Sanders/AOC ‘Fighting Oligarchy Tour’ was wildly popular most Americans were content with the injustice. Everyone knew these tax cuts for the wealthy oligarchs were coming because Trump never hid the fact. He knew his supporters would buy that. They voted for it. A lot of poor people even voted for it. In some cases they voted for Trump for strange reasons. For example, many voted for Trump, I believe, because they enjoyed the cruelty of deporting immigrants, illegal or otherwise. They enjoyed trampling on the rights of vulnerable people. I was struck by the glee on their faces at the Republican National Convention in 2024 when they held signs that read, ‘Mass Deportation Now.’ There is something very sick about this country I once loved.
Bernie Sanders made another important point. Why are the richest people in the world getting richer while 800,000 people in the US sleep on the streets? And 60% of Americans are living pay cheque to pay cheque? Why are taxes being reduced on the rich while poor people have their Medicaid benefits cut and children of poor people have their nutritional intake reduced? In what kind of a world does this make sense?
It only makes sense from the point of view of the oligarchs.
Sanders believes that such maneuvers are only possible because of the corruption of politics by the huge influx of cash since the Citizens United case. The corrupt election finance laws in the United States are the problem. Those laws allow the rich to put unlimited funds into politics to fund both Democrats and Republicans and then to tell them what to do. This is what oligarchy is all about. And the United States has it. Government for the rich.
As a result of those laws and the corrupt system they generate as well as the current constitutional rules, and a conservative controlled Supreme Court, it will be very difficult for the U.S. to get out of this mess. Ever.
Bernie asked another good question: Does it make sense for the richest man in the world to be allowed to cut funding to support funding to support nutrition for poorest children in America?
Why is the United States the only major country not to guarantee health care to all of its citizens. To Bernie Sanders the answer is clear. The problem is caused by a corrupt system flooded with money from the rich so that it’s interests can be served at the expense of the majority of people. The system has been ruined by too much money.
Sander also asked, “Does it really make sense for Elon Musk, the richest man in America to own as much wealth as the bottom 52% of the population combined? Who thinks that makes sense?”
Here is another question from Sanders: “Can such a system be called anything other than an oligarchy?”
One more thing puzzled Sanders. At the same time as the American Congress has arranged for a $2.7 trillion tax cut to the wealthiest Americans $2.7 billion was cut from spending on cancer research by the Musk-led DOGE department. That doesn’t even benefit rich people! Does Elon Musk think he can buy a cure for cancer? Does it really make sense to put a chainsaw to work on cancer research? Or other important scientific research projects which have been cut? This is madness. The madness of Trump is the madness of oligarchy.
This is what happens when the United States elects as president a man who has the empathy of a turnup. Even capitalists must understand that such a corrupt system urgently needs reform.
On the tour with AOC, Sanders also said, “They own the Congress, they own the White House, but they don’t own us.”
Sanders also said, “I’ve been to every state of this country the people of this country do not want oligarchy. They do not want authoritarianism. And they want a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%.”
The people have the electoral power; they just have to seize it. That is what a fighter for justice is trying to do. But he needs help.