Abandoning Working Class People Could Be The Kiss of Death For Them
Some words worth reflecting on on both sides of the Canada/U.S border from U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders
Posted November 8th, 2024 on Niagara At Large
Niagara Region’s council chambers, as empty as I often imagine it these days, even during meetings
(A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug draper – This past November 7th, I sat down in front of my laptop at home and tuned into the budget meeting underway at Niagara Regional Headquarters where once again, and for the third year in a row, it is looking like people across the region could be slapped with a hike on the regional government side of their property tax bill that is well above the rate of inflation.
And once again, as I forced myself to watch another one of these meetings, the Regional Council left me, as I know it leaves others I’ve talked to in the community, with a feeling n that this is a club, and we, the people, are not any part of it.
Little wonder why, in recent years and unless there is a red hot issue on the agenda, the public gallery in the council chambers is so often virtually empty.
Despite of all the rhetoric coming from Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberals that they are working to make our lives better, I don’t think I am wrong to say that many of us out here share the same feeling of alienation from them too. Is there any wonder why they have tanked in the polls.
All those F**K Trudeau flags and bumper stickers out there – as much as I don’t like them – are trying to telling us something.
The day of reckoning for all politicians at all levels of government in this country who are operating in a bubble that disconnects them from the the concerns and struggles of everyday working people is coming.
With that I am posting this postmortem by Bernie Sanders on the November 5th U.S. federal election which may very well tell the story for coming federal, provincial and municipal elections here in Ontario and Canada too.)
From Bernie Sanders, an independent U.S. Senator for Vermont and former presidential candidate –
U.S. Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders
“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. 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.
Today, while the very rich are doing phenomenally well, 60 per cent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. Unbelievably, real, inflation-accounted-for weekly wages for the average American worker are actually lower now than they were 50 years ago.
Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, many young people will have a worse standard of living than their parents. And many of them worry that Artificial Intelligence and robotics will make a bad situation even worse.
Today, despite spending far more per capita than other countries, we remain the only wealthy nation not to guarantee health care to all as a human right and we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. We, alone among major countries, cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.
Today, despite strong opposition from a majority of Americans, we continue to spend billions funding the extremist Netanyahu government’s all-out war against the Palestinian people which has led to the horrific humanitarian disaster of mass malnutrition and the starvation of thousands of children.
Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign? 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.
In the coming weeks and months those of us concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice need to have some very serious political discussions.”
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders
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