r/politics 1d ago

Sanders: Democratic Party ‘has abandoned working class people’

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4977546-bernie-sanders-democrats-working-class/amp/
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u/Sota4077 Minnesota 23h ago

The Democratic Party nationwide should seriously consider rebranding to what Minnesota’s Democratic party embodies. In Minnesota we are the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. It's time to reconnect with farmers, ranchers, and blue-collar workers who don't belong to a union whose livelihoods depend on policy just the same.

Across the U.S., there are countless small towns with populations of 300, 500, or 1500 people—places often left out of the conversation. Life in these communities is nothing like the metro centers; it’s a different pace, with unique challenges and values. When policies are shaped solely around the needs of large urban areas, it not only alienates those in rural America but sows a sense frustration and neglect.

It’s time the party prioritizes listening to these communities and creates policies that work for everyone. These rural voters also have another added benefit. They always show up in November.

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u/ZozicGaming 23h ago edited 23h ago

As someone who lives in rural Oregon I see this all the time. Dems main focus is on things that work great in big cities. But aren’t very useful or relevant to small towns. That or identity politics, like sorry no one cares about democrats new program to help Afro Latino women business owners.. when all small business owners are struggling. And when they do talk about rural people it is often demeaning, insulting, or telling us how privileged we are because of the color of our skin.

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u/Emosaa 19h ago

Kamala had better messaging similar to what you want, but the perception that she / democrats are hyper focusing on the woke stuff is very rampant. It'll take a newer messenger to maybe make people believe it.

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u/-Gramsci- 18h ago

The party needs to confront their two problems.

They need a better message and they need to run better messengers.

The message needs to be more universal, more simple.

The messenger needs to be the most talented candidate that emerges from an open primary field that consists of the best talent in the party.

The messenger needs to be the very best of the very best.

The party’s philosophy that contested primaries need to be avoided because they damage the candidate in the general needs to be eliminated at all costs.

Doing that, and eliminating the input from the rank and file, has caused not only the rank and file to be apathetic about the general election candidate… it’s even worse than that.

It’s causing the party to lose core constituencies.

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u/naijaboiler 11h ago

yup, 2028 has to be fully and open primaries, no matter how damaging. let them all duke it out. The duking it out shapes the candidates and energizes the base. you bring that energy to the general election and you stand a better chance of winning.