US Senator Bernie Sanders, 83, has said that he will fight against President Trump’s “oligarchy,” saying that US President Donald Trump’s actions are destroying the US and global economies.
As Trump’s most vocal opponent, Bernie Sanders addressed tens of thousands of people protesting Trump, saying, “We no longer have a choice but to ‘fight the American aristocracy.'” Politicians, union representatives, and guests, including musical performers, took to the stage at Gloria Molina Grand Park in Los Angeles on Saturday before speeches by Sanders and Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Your presence here in the thousands is making Donald Trump and Elon Musk very worried,” Sanders told the excited crowd. The self-proclaimed socialist leader, who has never been a member of the Democratic Party, has been drawing crowds on his nationwide tour of “fighting the aristocracy” for the past two months. His progressive, leftist rhetoric has echoed the voices of those opposed to Trump’s policies and frustrated by the lack of political resistance to Trump from establishment Democrats.
American folk rocker Neil Young gave a musical address to a Los Angeles crowd on Saturday, playing an electric guitar and chanting “Take America Back!” Feminist singer and songwriter Maggie Rogers called the event “Berniechella,” referring to the massive Coachella music festival held in the California desert. Alex Powell, a 28-year-old art teacher, said Americans need hope. “I’m really disappointed with the response from the Democrats, I want more action from them, more outrage,” he told AFP.
-psychological trauma-
“Donald Trump’s new term is painful, it’s really scary,” Powell said, describing how some of his middle school students were “traumatized” after one of their parents was deported from the US under Trump’s anti-immigration campaign. Trump has raised many complaints among supporters, including sweeping cuts to government funding and threats to health care and research.
The crowd was excited at the mention of Tesla and Xe owner Elon Musk. The South African billionaire has been tasked by Trump with dramatically reducing government spending, which Sanders supporters see as a symbol of the corrupting influence of wealth in politics. “Sanders has been a model socialist leader his entire life. He was right ‘all the time.’ America has been terribly affected by the nexus of money and politics,” Vera Loh, a 27-year-old participant at the event, told AFP.
Loh said he was shocked by the apathy of many Democratic Party leaders after defeating presidential candidate Kamala Harris last November. “The party has focused a lot on minorities. If people don’t see this as a class war, we will lose out on identity politics,” Loh said. “We want higher wages, we want housing, we want to be able to buy things,” Loh told AFP.
Bernie Sanders at the “Fighting Oligarchy” rally in Denver
– ‘Totalitarian society’ –
“We live in a moment where a handful of billionaires control the economic and political life of our country,” Sanders said Saturday. Trump is “rapidly moving America toward a totalitarian form of society,” he said. Senator Sanders of Vermont believed that he would encourage new independent candidates to run for president without the Democratic label.
Sanders has no ambitions to run for president in 2028, but he has wooed rising progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Regardless of your race, religion, gender, identity or status, even if you disagree with me on some things, I hope this movement is not about partisan labels or purity tests, but it is about class unity,” Senator Cortez, 35, told the assembly on Saturday.
“He would be a good candidate for president,” former Republican supporter Leslie Henderson told AFP. Frustrated by the environment since January, Henderson, a 52-year-old nursing assistant, attended her first political rally with her husband. “I hope it’s not too late,” he said, “Americans are terrified that Trump will rule for an unconstitutional third term.” “If no one stands up and says anything now, there could be midterms or even another presidential election. Aren’t we forced to think about this?”
