Sanders to Democrats: Resistance to Trump 'not good enough'
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said resisting President Trump is “not good enough” and that Democrats have failed to present the American people with a clear alternative in recent years.
“The American people, I think, not only want resistance to Trump, but I think they want what the Democratic Party in the last many years has not given them, and that is an agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class, because it’s not good enough,” Sanders told HuffPost after his rally Friday.
“‘Oh, well, you know, Trump is a terrible guy,’” Sanders continued, paraphrasing arguments critics sometimes use against Trump.
“Fine. You know, the majority of American people understand that. What’s your alternative? Why did Trump get elected? What do you have to say to a worker today who’s making 14 bucks an hour, who can’t afford health care? Tell me what you have to say. What do you have to say to kids who would like to go to college, who can’t afford to go to college?” he added.
Sanders, who caucuses with Senate Democrats, has made nearly a dozen stops on his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour since March. He has said the tour is meant to encourage more independent candidates to run.
“One of the aspects of this tour is to try to rally people to get engaged in the political process and run as independents outside of the Democratic Party,” Sanders told The New York Times in a March interview.
“There’s a lot of great leadership all over this country at the grassroots level. We’ve got to bring that forward. And if we do that, we can defeat Trumpism and we can transform the political situation in America,” he added.
Some Democrats have looked to the tour — which has featured fellow lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — as a model for the party to push back against the Trump administration while embracing a hopeful model for the future.
“If there’s any hope for the Democratic Party, it is that they’re going to have to reach out — open the doors and let working-class people in, let working-class leadership come into the party,” Sanders told the Times. “If not, people will be running as independents, I think, all over this country.”