Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said working-class Americans have no voice under Democratic leadership. On Friday’s Real Time with host Bill Maher, panel guest John Heilemann and Russell Brand, the Vermont lawmaker criticized the Democratic Party for abandoning the working class in favor of “beautiful people.”
By “beautiful people,” Sanders refers to Hollywood stars and corporate giants.
“You say like they abandoned their cause to the beautiful people. Who are the beautiful people,” Maher said, seeking clarification.
Sanders named no names while explaining how the working class view of the Democratic Party has changed.
“You look really beautiful tonight here in L.A. Here’s the point, the point that I was making is that when FDR was president, when Truman was President, even when JFK was president, you go out on the street, and you say to people which party represents the working class in America. Most people, I think, agree, would have said the Democratic Party,” he stated.
According to Sanders, the reverse is the case today, as a bigger portion of the working class on the streets would stand with the Republican Party. He stated that Republicans have more support from the working class group than Democrats.
Maintaining that Democrats threw away their cause, Sanders alleged that they lost themselves in their aim to get corporate donations in an attempt to keep up with the Republican Party for the past 30 years.
Sanders’ thoughts on the Left wing’s loss of working-class support were not formed overnight. Last year, he asked the Democratic Party to correct its ways and fight for America’s working class and stop conforming to policies that benefit powerful corporations.
Over six years ago, following former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s loss of the Presidential seat, Sanders attributed her loss to working-class voters’ lack of belief in her.
“I think it is fair to say that the working class of this country didn’t believe that she [Clinton] was prepared to stand up and fight for them. Even if her policies were,” he said.
At a private fundraiser that year, former president Bill Clinton had dismissed working-class voters’ worries about the impact immigration has on the country’s economy.
“So when Trump says, ‘I’ll build a wall around Mexico and no more illegal immigrants can get in. Believe me, nobody in coal country lost a job because of a Latin-American immigrant. They lost their industry,” he said.
Hillary had also come under fire after she said her policies would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
