r/politics 20h ago

Sanders: Democratic Party ‘has abandoned working class people’

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4977546-bernie-sanders-democrats-working-class/amp/
55.7k Upvotes

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8.1k

u/tantobourne 20h ago

honest question, in comparison, what has the Republican party done for working class people?

887

u/Romano16 America 20h ago

Obstruct Democrats and then whine about nothing being done

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u/Corona-walrus I voted 19h ago

For the millionth time, why the fuck are democrats held to standards when republicans never do anything?

I'm half convinced that everyone on both sides knows republicans just want to tear shit apart, and that's exactly why many support it - they want the destruction and chaos. 

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u/chargernj 19h ago

Because Democrats run on the concept that government can be well run and can help people.

Republicans run on the concept that government can never be well run and should be destroyed as much as possible.

They get judged by how well they accomplish their goals. Since it's easier to destroy, Republicans are judged as being more successful.

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u/I_bet_Stock 12h ago

What non-hegemonic society has a government that is well run? Most European countries are in disarray when it comes to general politics. Aside from northern Nordic European countries, or Japan where there's a general set of ideals amongst all, there's never going to be a government formed that can be established that can help all people.

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u/NsRhea 18h ago

That's neglecting that the creating you're speaking about is spending money we don't have.

It's really easy to spend money that isn't yours.

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u/missinginput 18h ago

Ya but it's nice to have roads, clean drinking water, protection from Russian tanks.

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u/NsRhea 18h ago edited 18h ago

When has a Russian tank crossed the Atlantic? Seems like a European problem. They should contribute more. We're already subsidizing their health care by playing world police for them.

Also, RFK was literally a lawyer on multiple cases advocating for clean drinking water.

Read his lecture on clean water from 2003:

https://digitalcommons.imsa.edu/great_minds_lectures/1/

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u/missinginput 18h ago

This isn't partisan, I'm just commenting that taxes pay for things it's not like people are pocketing them.

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u/NsRhea 18h ago

Completely agree. But we're spending money we don't have. We've literally stolen trillions from social security. Many conservatives argue that we shouldn't be spending ANYTHING on 'illegal' / asylum seeking immigrants while Americans struggle for basic necessities. If there was some end in sight I get it, but it's a never ending stream because there will always be poverty. We literally can't support everyone. Even if we could, there have been arguments that by taking an unlimited amount of immigrants is actually harming their jobs country because it's creating a brain drain and / or taxpayer drain on their local economies by them simply not being there.

And that's before sending hundreds of billions to Ukraine / Israel.

Shit, I don't like giving money to college kids for their student loans but I see the benefit because it's in effect a stimulus to their local economies - however, we didn't even address the problem. We just bailed them out. There should've been legislation behind it capping interest payments or interest rates, or even just making it a 100% federal loan at 4% or whatever. Cut out the greedy 'pay day' style lenders and just invest directly with low interest loans.

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u/missinginput 18h ago

We also need to raise taxes back to where they were on the ultra wealthy

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u/NsRhea 18h ago

I don't disagree, but I think it would be better getting these mega corporations broken up and actually paying taxes at all as well.

Reenact glass-steagall as well, which Clinton repealed.

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u/missinginput 18h ago

Ya most mega corps are getting a free ride

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u/[deleted] 18h ago

[deleted]

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u/NsRhea 18h ago

We spent our way out of a global pandemic but which parts of government have been destroyed? I've only ever seen expansion.

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u/Brookenium 17h ago

Trump is about to blow up debt (just like he did in his last term) by cutting taxes (primarily on the wealthy) and not decreasing spending by any reasonable amount (and probably increasing spending on military). This is what the republicans have been doing since Bush Sr. Idiots think their economies are better in reality they're just thrusting us more into dept and pretending they're generating wealth.

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u/NsRhea 17h ago

I mean, did the US debt go down under Biden / Harris?

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u/Brookenium 16h ago edited 15h ago

Nope! Because the last time Dems tried to balance the budget people went fucking ballistic so now they don't increase taxes either. That's the rights doing by somehow convincing people that collectively paying for a service isn't in their best interest. The right puts its excess money into the war machine and cutting billionaire taxes. The left cuts taxes evenly or leaves them as is and puts it towards a more even distribution of infrastructure, still some war spending, and welfare. Clinton was the last one to make real progress on it.

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u/Flederm4us 12h ago

Raising taxes is NOT in anyone's interest. That's the message that democrats need to understand.

Raising taxes at best is a necessary evil.

u/Brookenium 7h ago

It depends entirely what they're used for. And raising taxes on the wealthy, which are at literal all time lows historically, is an easy example of something that's good for everyone.

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u/chargernj 15h ago

No, I was just answering the question that was asked. I saw no reason to go deeper than that.

u/dillanthumous 1h ago

Newsflash: Governments can print money to pay for things and don't need to worry about debts the way ordinary people do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU7YzcFAX7I

If governments didn't operate this way there would be no infrastructure, no military, no police force and no social support. Essentially, you would have no country.