Bernie Sanders has not missed a beat since the primary or the general election, and he remains enthusiastic. His message to Rachel Maddow and progressives was clear. He pointed out that Trump has no mandate and what Democrats need to do.
Bernie Sanders still going strong
Bernie Sanders made clear the fact that most Americans want progressive policies but Democrats failed to connect with many voters.
Rachel Maddow told Senator Bernie Sanders that this election felt different. She asked Sanders what he tells people who say they are scared because Trump is president.
“I think there are legitimate reasons to be afraid,” Sanders said. “This guy will have his finger on the nuclear button. I think it is important, though, is to remember there have been very difficult times in American history. We’ve had a very rocky history. And I ask people who say, ‘Oh, things are so awful today.’ Well sixty, seventy years ago, black kids in the South were going to segregated schools, could not drink in a white water fountain. People fought back. A woman lost her run for president this year. A hundred years ago today women did not even have the right to vote, couldn’t go to the schools they wanted. You [Maddow] are sitting here. Right? You are a leading correspondent. That wasn’t the case fifty years ago. Gay rights, think about the revolution that’s taken place over the last twenty years; the trade union movement and the struggle that workers have to face. I get impatient, Rachel when people say ‘Ah, you know, I am giving up. I’m in despair.’ Forget about that. You have to fight back as people have throughout the history of this country. Our people have stood up and fought back. And the most important point as I said a moment ago, all of these issues, the majority of the people are with us. We have gotta go out and reach out to people. Bring them into the political process. And fight for the kind of nation that we know we can become. If there is anything that I learned running for president, there are so many decent good wonderful people out there who want to create a nondiscriminatory society, want to create a society of environmental justice, of social justice, and economic justice. I believe that is the majority spurred in this country. And our job is to mobilize those people.”
Earlier in the interview, Bernie Sanders pointed out that Congressman Keith Ellison has the skills necessary for the type of grassroots operation needed to engage citizens and activate them to vote in their own interest. He also enumerated the realities that most Americans support the progressive values he ran on.
Democrats have a lot of work to do. I think it will become easier as Trump voters realize they’d been had.