‘Straight-up BS’: Democratic chair attacks Bernie Sanders’ election critique
www.theguardian.com
Sanders’ analysis that Democrats lost because they failed working-class voters scorned by party chair Jaime Harrison

Amid Democratic mourning over the loss of the presidential election to Donald Trump, the party chair risked deepening already growing divisions by rebuking the leftwing Vermont senator Bernie Sanders for saying Democrats have “abandoned working class people”.

“This is straight up BS,” Jaime Harrison, the Democratic National Committee chair, said on Thursday. “[Joe] Biden was the most pro-worker president of my lifetime – saved union pensions, created millions of good paying jobs and even marched in a picket line.”

Harrison also defended Kamala Harris, the vice-president who lost the election to Trump, for proposing policies that “would have fundamentally transformed the quality of life and closed the racial wealth gap for working people across this country”.

He said: “From the child tax credits, to [$]25k for a down payment for a house to Medicare covering the cost of senior healthcare in their homes. There are a lot of post-election takes and this one ain’t a good one.”

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    91·
    2 months ago

    I’m developing a nasty feeling that Democrat wonks are ideologically incapable of understanding that the price of bread has gone up 20% since '21.

    • ryepunk [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      60·
      2 months ago

      the-democrat But inflation has gone down! And the wage growth has never been higher. The economy is actually booming and you stupid plebs don’t even know it!

        • ryepunk [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          35·
          2 months ago

          Wage growth is a wildly difficult thing to categorize and analyze as a result. The largest percentage points gained came from the working class wages getting several dollars an hour more, but typically from the 9 bucks an hour range into 12 or 13 an hour, because employers literally were unable to get people working in grocery stores. So big percent gain but I’m real dollars and when coupled with inflation of rent and food it basically meant they were and are still falling behind.

          Of course you have the “middle class” as well which saw moderate wage gains as well, but most of these people are more likely to swap jobs for raises rather than beg for raises from a current employer. Those who didn’t job hop were seeing 4% gains iirc? Which when you roll together with the 12% of working class increases, does indeed paint a picture of “wow lol at all these gains were seeing the economy is doing great!”

          But again the “middle class” is probably more upper class than actually middle, which has basically shrunk to such a small piece of the pie that it’s like the top 60-80% (so only 20% of the people) of families and so I don’t think they’re actually hurting at all, compared to the bottom 60% of working class folks who are balanced on a knife’s edge and it literally doesn’t matter to them who is in power, life sucks, it’s hard and they are just trying to last as long as possible before a health care issue knocks them out.

          That’s my take on it, I get most of my numbers from what sam seder talks about on his show, but I have the complete opposite take from him. The economy is a shambling zombie that doesn’t know it’s dead and is just waiting to collapse.

        • TerminalEncounter [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
          15·
          2 months ago

          Sometimes it’s literally up as a cohort of app wage earners, but like 1% lol. And I bet most of that is just the top 10% of wage earners getting decent raises (maybe more broad but only union members)

          Taken together, there’s been a decrease as wage increases have not been close to inflation overall. Their big business lobbyists and friends and the business owner politician themselves really really don’t want any wage growth, the dems as constituted right now will never work to meaningfully increase wages

          • REgon [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
            12·
            2 months ago

            Taken together, there’s been a decrease as wage increases have not been close to inflation overall.

            nerd But they have increased, if they hadn’t then people would be even worse off smuglord

      • MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        36·
        2 months ago

        You could argue that a pandemic which killed millions while Trump talked about drinking bleach was their Truss tanks the economy in a day moment. 2020 was an abboration that got Biden over the line. I’d argue the yanks are one election cycle ahead on this trajectory compare to us Brits, rather than one election cycle behind.

    • SacredExcrement [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      43·
      2 months ago

      They didn’t technically ‘end it’, they let it expire, but functionally yes. They let Joe Manchin (remember that boogeyman) ‘air concerns’ and act as the scapegoat for letting it end.

        • SacredExcrement [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          18·
          2 months ago

          I don’t think they wanted to do it to begin with, beyond the positive boost they get from doing it. What social programs have liberals actually started in the last 20 years?

          A pitifully half assed government health care plan?

          Doing it the way they did means they get to use it as a plank they ‘fulfilled’, they can let it expire and blame Joe Manchin and Conservatives for ‘killing it’, and then they don’t have to keep it around

          • SevenSkalls [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
            5·
            2 months ago

            I would argue the infrastructure bill was good. Forget what that was a part of, maybe the Inflation Reduction Act? It’s helped my local city build up their public transportation and roads more.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      31·
      2 months ago

      I think so, and this dork’s analysis is consistent with that since the dems keep trying to claim credit for programs that helped people years ago, which they ended, as though anyone remembers or gives a shit when they’re struggling now.

  • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]@hexbear.net
    English
    54·
    2 months ago

    A conclusion of the Chair’s (false) argument is that appealing to the working class doesn’t win elections, therefore why should they be appeal to in the future

    Dems preparing to move ever rightward

    • TerminalEncounter [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      30·
      2 months ago

      It is remarkable that he’s the first president ever to do that, and it’s literally the bare minimum of supporting the working class. That he’s the first is more of an indictment of the US government than a sign of progress

    • Rod_Blagojevic [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      52·
      2 months ago

      punished-bernie stalin-gun-1hillary-contempt

      I would be glad to have him back as an enemy of the DNC. For all his flaws and all the disappointment of his willingness to associate with Biden, he really does seem to hate the democratic party insiders and I have fun seeing it. If Hillary kills him I think we should regard him as a martyr.

  • goose [he/him]@hexbear.net
    English
    42·
    2 months ago

    I’m going to seal myself in a sensory deprivation chamber and induce a coma that reduces my brain activity to the bare minimum required to sustain life in order to see if it is possible to somehow beat the DNC at a “learn nothing” competition