Bernie Sanders has made no secret of his distaste for the Democratic Party establishment during this year’s hotly contested presidential primary. Now he’s putting it all on paper, writing a New York Times editorial calling on the party to “wake up” in time for this year’s general election, which figures to pit Sanders’ rival Hillary Clinton against New York businessman Donald Trump.
Sanders starts by discussing the recent vote in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union:
Surprise, surprise. Workers in Britain, many of whom have seen a decline in their standard of living while the very rich in their country have become much richer, have turned their backs on the European Union and a globalized economy that is failing them and their children.
Sanders calls attention to the U.S. factories that have closed, leaving workers without jobs as corporations continue to reap profits. He is careful, though, to reject the xenophobic sentiments that both Trump and the UK Leave campaign have used.
Let’s be clear. The global economy is not working for the majority of people in our country and the world. This is an economic model developed by the economic elite to benefit the economic elite. We need real change.
But we do not need change based on the demagogy, bigotry and anti-immigrant sentiment that punctuated so much of the Leave campaign’s rhetoric — and is central to Donald J. Trump’s message.
Sanders argues that Americans should reject the Trans Pacific Partnership, a free trade deal favored by the Obama administration and previously endorsed by Clinton (she now says she is against it).
Sanders closes by saying that if the Democratic Party doesn’t respond to citizens’ demands for a more fair economy, they are in for a shocking result, just like in Britain.
