That was a question that
rep Bernie Sanders (D-VT) asked in a town hall meeting:
One Simple QuestionSome of the answers were heart-rending: like the young family whose baby contracted pneumonia when they couldn't afford both baby food and heat.
Sanders comments on this are spot-on:
Sanders notes that corporate media has completely dropped the ball in informing the citizenry of the staggering economic inequality of our times. "When you talk about the collapse of the corporate media in terms of responsibility," he says, "it's not just the War in Iraq. The other huge story that they have missed is the collapse of the middle class – the fact that we have tens of millions of people working longer hours for lower wages; that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. For the first seven years of the Bush administration, simply the stenographers for what the President was saying: ‘The economy is robust. We have strong economic growth. Unemployment is reasonably low.' The metaphor is – it's like the operation was a success but the patient died. The economy is doing great, except for 90% of the people in the economy. The reality is that we have the hollowing out of the American economy. Median family income declined by $2500 in the last seven years. 8 million people lost their health insurance. 3 million people lost their pensions. This is a strong economy? You've gotta be insane to believe that. And yet that is what the Bush Administration was talking about and that's what the corporate media kept on talking about."
Sanders believes the mission of progressives at this moment is twofold. "Number one, we have got to let the American people understand that they are not alone," he says. "What ends up happening when the media doesn't talk about the reality facing ordinary people, then people think ‘I must be failing, why can't I make it?'… And the second thing… we have to come up with a progressive agenda which begins to address this economy."
Sanders is bringing together "friends in the Congress, elected officials, and our friends within the progressive community – the environmental groups, the labor groups, the economic groups, social justice, civil liberties, etc." – to pursue an inside-outside strategy, building the agenda and mobilizing support at the grassroots to challenge the corporate wing of the Democratic party.
"The goal here is to raise these issues during the campaign," Sanders says, "and have something to present to Senator Obama the day that he's elected. We know that there is enormous pressure on Obama to be looking to the corporate wing of the Democratic party rather than the progressive wing of the Democratic party. The only way we can move this country in a progressive way is with an agenda supported by the grassroots…. We need to figure out how you do it, how to involve grassroots in the process, and how you raise those issues in intelligent ways in the campaign. Ultimately what this agenda must offer, and what I believe the American people are prepared to support – especially with an inspiring leader like Obama – is a fundamental change in our national priorities."
More at:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/329713Anyone know if this guy is on a short list for vice-presidential candidates? Maybe Bernie Sanders is the
anti-Clinton Obama needs to announce he's moving to the left. Maybe he's an emerging leader in the
uprising needed to turn the Democratic party back to its pro-worker roots.
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