Bernie Sanders Anticipates A Political Revolution “long Overdue”

The presidential speech of the State of the Union has triggered several reactions, especially from the representatives of the Democratic caucus, but it was the Independent Senator for the state of Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who devoted more time and detail to what he has cataloged as “major crisis” in the country.

For the Senator, the importance of Trump’s speech was not what he said, but precisely what he left out.

“President Trump talked tonight about the strength of our economy. Well, he is right (…) but what he failed to mention was that his first year in office marked the lowest level of job creation since 2010.” Sanders began a discourse divided into three parts (the country’s crisis, the lies of Trump’s campaign, and the false promises he held for the working class in the country).

The Senator argued that the president’s assertions about his administration’s aid to US workers were heavily dismantled with his recently approved tax reform and his general government policies, which are focused on the growth of the rich at the expense of cuts in fundamental programs for the middle and working class.

“Since March of last year, the three richest people in America saw their wealth increase by more than $68 billion. Three people, “he emphasized. “A $68 billion increase in wealth. Meanwhile, the average worker saw an increase 4 cents an hour.”

As is frequent in the Senator’s rhetoric, he strongly questioned the tendency of the current administration to prioritize the benefits to billionaires and large companies over the needs of the nation in general.

“At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, the rich continue to get much richer while millions of American workers are working two or three jobs just to keep their heads above water,” he explained, recalling that while the economic growth has been particularly positive for companies like Walmart, AT&T, General Electric or Pfizer, these same companies have fired thousands of employees, a reality very different from the one the president painted during his speech on Tuesday when he spoke of ” many jobs, minimum unemployment, and many salary bonuses.”

In the same way, the Senator went on to list Trump’s false promises: cuts to social security, Medicare, and Medicaid; lower prices for prescription drugs and tax reform and its benefits to the rich.

For Sanders (as for many of us who listen carefully to the president’s words), the most important thing was, however, what he didn’t say.

Trump didn’t talk about climate change, he didn’t talk about the democratic crisis in the hands of Republicans, and he didn’t talk about Russiagate. The president preferred to make up his failures by owning other people’s achievements and filling in the remaining spaces with incorrect facts.

But the Senator left a much more hopeful outlook: not only did he exalted the urgency of a bipartisan Dream Act, but the political responsibility that is now in the streets.

“In an unprecedented way, we are witnessing a revitalization of American democracy with more and more people standing up and fighting back,” he said. “A little more than a year ago we saw millions of people take to the streets for the women’s marches, and a few weeks ago, in hundreds of cities and towns around the world, people once again took to the streets in the fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice”.

Sanders was referring to community groups, activists, and NGOs that have decided to bet on different candidates against the rigid scheme to which the national policy is subject.

For the Senator, this is “the beginning of a political revolution, something long overdue.”

“Yes. I understand that the Koch brothers and their billionaire friends are planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in the midterm elections supporting Trump’s agenda and right-wing Republicans,” he explained. “They have the money, an unlimited amount of money. But we have the people, and when ordinary people stand up and fight for justice, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish. That has been the history of America, and that is our future.”