We Have Not Seen the Last of Bernie Sanders

We need a New Democratic Party capable of organizing and mobilizing Americans in opposition to Donald Trump’s Republican party, which is about to take over all three branches of the USA government.

Jonathan Alter reported for The Daily Beast in February that “sources close to former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that he will nearly certainly run for president as an independent if Republicans nominate Donald Trump and Democrats nominate Bernie Sanders”.

This could be criticized as “Monday-morning quarterbacking”, but there is an important lesson to be learned from this disaster.

The Clinton campaign did not emphasize these issues, but I tend to think that the GOP certainly would have. “Some of the polls out there suggest that might have been the case”.

Sanders’ comments underscored a key takeaway from last week’s election. “When millions of people stand up and fight back we will not be denied”. Winnie Wong, organizer of the online group People for Bernie, told NPR that majority will take their activism to other causes, and future elections. “People are angry and they’re frustrated”.

As a result, Republicans have achieved an unprecedented grip on power – with majorities in the House, Senate and governorships across the USA – while holding opinions Sanders is convinced are wrong.

Resentment won this election. “It is time for profound change”.

While pledging to keep the president-elect accountable, Sanders also cemented his own role in creating “major, major reforms” within the Democratic Party and leading his revolution. “We need blue-collar workers to vote blue”, said Tim Ryan, a 43-year-old congressman from OH, the epicenter of the Trump quake.

“People are angry. People are upset”.

In the industrial Midwest and Great Lakes, a region running from Pennsylvania through OH and MI to Wisconsin, whites turned out en masse to vote for Republican Donald Trump. “I did everything I could to see that he not become elected, but he won”. Sanders favored “looking into” the institution. Numerous people who once pledged their vote to Sanders are now protesting in cities across the United States.

Shut out of power, US Democrats are in the throes of self-examination, trying to figure out how to reconnect with a neglected constituency: white Americans disenchanted with globalization. And then Sanders channeled his infectious campaign trail spirit and passionately expressed that as divided as this country feels, there has never been more of a need for Americans to stand united.

Sanders acknowledged that the president-elect does have some policies that he thoroughly agrees with.

And I think a lot of people who voted for Barack Obama in 2008, voted for Barack Obama in 2012, and who like Barack Obama, said, “You know what, I’m going to go for Trump because he has been clear about feeling the pain of working families”. I’ll be there first, planting the flag. “And I think post-primary not dealing with that effectively as a party drove a number of people [away from Clinton]”.

Sanders also called upon Trump to rescind the appointment of Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon as chief strategist and senior counsel from his team and called the appointment “totally unacceptable”.