Bernie Sanders Says Americans Are Living In An 'Oligarchy On Steroids'
Senator Bernie Sanders (independent, Vermont) just described inequality in America as “oligarchy on steroids.”
During Sunday morning’s episode of Meet the Press, Sanders said there was a crisis of democracy in the US, and he wants to fight back by getting average, working class Americans to run for office.
Asked if his current cross-country “Fighting Oligarchy” tour with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was meant to help Democrats or inspire people to start a third party, he told moderator Kristen Welker, “We are trying to strengthen the American democracy.”
The senator then highlighted a glaring statistic about wealth disparity in the country.
“We are living ... in the richest country in the history of the world and yet you have one person, Mr. Musk, who owns more wealth than the bottom 53% of American households,” Sanders said. “That is insane. That is oligarchy on steroids.”
After helping usher President Donald Trump into office, Elon Musk has been wielding unprecedented influence as an unelected member of the White House inner-circle.
Though he told Tesla investors that he plans to spend less time in Washington, DC, during the car company’s dismal first quarter earnings last week, he’s already gutted a slew of essential programs while at the helm of the budget-busting initiative known at the Department of Government Efficiency.
Sanders went on to point out the number of American workers “living paycheck to paycheck,” and alarming rates of children and seniors living in poverty, and said that Americans are hungry for “an economy that works for all of us, and not just for Musk and other billionaires.”
While the independent said he was partnering with Democrats to fight against Trump’s “movement toward authoritarianism,” his tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and his attacks on the social welfare system, Sanders also claimed the country’s current two-party system just isn’t working.
“We’re on the same page, but what Democrats lack right now is a vision for the future,” he insisted.
Sanders had a solution: push “working people” to seek office, no matter what party they choose to run for.
“You want to run as a Democrat? Great. You want to run as an independent? That’s great, but you’ve got to get involved in the political process because right now the two-party system is failing the working class of this country,” he explained.
Sanders’ message seems to be resonating with Americans of all stripes. During his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, the far-left politician has been drawing huge crowds in places long thought to be conservative territory.
Earlier this month during an event in Idaho with Ocasio-Cortez, he said, “We don’t accept this blue state/red state nonsense. We are the United States of America, not red states, not blue states.”
Watch Sanders’ full interview on Meet the Press here.