“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders said.
“First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”
“Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign?” Sanders asked.
“Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful Oligarchy which has so much economic and political power? Probably not.”
I think one way the party screwed up was by not cultivating younger Democrats to contend for the nomination this year. It’s not like 2024 or Biden’s age snuck up on anybody - they should have had a slate of viable options ready besides him. The Harris campaign was brilliantly run, especially on such short notice, and I don’t blame her or the campaign one bit for failing. But as many analysts have pointed out, the public didn’t feel like they knew her - the VP is surprisingly not super visible. One thing Trump had in his favor was that he was “the devil you know”. He had already been President and we’re still here, whereas they didn’t feel they knew Harris. I thought that changed radically as the summer went on. She really seemed to grab everybody. It was electric and exhilarating. But apparently not enough.