âI would have loved to run against him, to tell you the truth,â he says of Trump. âHeâs a fraud and heâs a phony. Thatâs what he is, and he has to be exposed for that.â
Even with Trump out of office, Sanders feels we are still on the precipice. Democrats need to speak to the struggles of the white working class, he says, something that âsometimes part of the Democratic elite does not fully appreciate.â He adds: âWeâve got to take it to them. I intend, as soon as I have three minutes, to start going into Trumpworld and start talking to people.â
âItâs absolutely imperative if democracy is to survive that we do everything that we can to say, âYes, we hear your pain and we are going to respond to your needs.â Thatâs really what this is about. If we donât do that, I fear very much that conspiracy theories and big lies and the drift toward authoritarianism is going to continue. You got all these folks out there who are saying, âDoes anybody pay attention to me?ââ
(...)
When I ask Sanders if he thinks A.O.C. could be president someday, out comes the list.
âThatâs not what I want to get into,â he barks. âI want to get into what this legislation is about.â
âYou donât want to discuss âFree Britneyâ?â I ask.
Re: Bernie Sanders' op-ed on Palestine-Israel .... hear! hear!
This is not just about international law or ethics and morality.
It should be about reducing blowback against American targets, and ultimately bringing peace and security to all countries in the region, including pre-1967 Israel. Very few Americans have died as result of support for the Israeli conquest of territories taken in 1967. I count roughly 30,000 between 1967 and 2021. Frankly, for the price of backing such an ambitious and controversial ethnic-cleansing nation-building project, that is a small price to pay.
Does that mean it is OK to sacrifice more American lives for this project?
There will be opportunities to sacrifice American lives in violent conflicts that are of vital national security interest for the USA going forward. Guaranteed. Just not this one.
Over more than a decade of his right-wing rule in Israel, Mr. Netanyahu has cultivated an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of racist nationalism. In his frantic effort to stay in power and avoid prosecution for corruption, Mr. Netanyahu has legitimized these forces, including Itamar Ben Gvir and his extremist Jewish Power party, by bringing them into the government. It is shocking and saddening that racist mobs that attack Palestinians on the streets of Jerusalem now have representation in its Knesset.
These dangerous trends are not unique to Israel. Around the world, in Europe, in Asia, in South America and here in the United States, we have seen the rise of similar authoritarian nationalist movements. These movements exploit ethnic and racial hatreds in order to build power for a corrupt few rather than prosperity, justice and peace for the many. For the last four years, these movements had a friend in the White House.
