Democratic Party's role after losing the presidential election now is to hold President- elect Donald Trump accountable, former White House aspirant Bernie Sanders said today.
"He (Trump) won the election. I did everything I could to see that he not become elected, but he won. Our job now is to hold him accountable," Sanders, who lot to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the primaries, told CBS News.
"Mr. Trump claimed that he was the champion of the working class of this country. And, as you know, there are millions people who are working longer hours for low wages. They don't have any health care. They can't afford to send their kids to college. They can't afford child care," the 75-year-old Vermont Senator said.
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Sanders said if Trump has the courage to take on Wall Street, to take on the drug companies, to try to work forward, go forward to create a better life for working people, the Democratic Party will work with him on issue by issue.
"But if his presidency is going to be about discrimination, if it's going to be about scapegoating immigrants or scapegoating African-Americans or Muslims, we will oppose him vigorously," Sanders said.
Now that the Democrats have lost the White House, House of Representatives and the Senate, it is time for the party leadership to do a lot of rethinking and ask themselves, how does it happen that they have a President, a US Senate, a House, and most governorships around this country that are controlled by people who want to give huge tax breaks to billionaires, in many instances, want to cut social security and medicare and medicaid, Sanders said.
He called for introspection as to how people who do not even believe in the concept, the understanding of climate change, which is virtually unanimously agreed to by the scientific community have been elected to the offices.
"How does it happen that they win elections and Democrats lose? And I think what the conclusion is, is that Democrats are focused too much with a liberal elite, which is raising incredible sums of money from wealthy people in the upper middle class, but has ignored to a very significant degree the working class and the middle class and low-income people in this country," Sanders rued.
"Look, the truth is, in my view, this country is moving toward an oligarchic form of society, where a handful of billionaires and large corporations control the economy. As a result of Citizens United, they now control our political system, where the Koch brothers and the billionaires can buy elections," he alleged.
"They have undue influence over the media as well. What the Democratic Party has got to say to working people, we are on your side. You know what? We are going to take on Wall Street. We're not going to take their money. We're going to lower the cost of prescription drugs. We're going to raise the minimum wage. We're not going to be the only country, major country on Earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all people," he added.
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Sanders said the party has to make a decision as to which side it is on.
Democrats have got to stand with the working families of this country, Sanders said.
Responding to a question, Sanders said Trump won the elections as he tapped into the anger of the people of the country.
"I think Trump has very, very good political instincts...Trump tapped that anger. Now, what our job is to do is to see, what are his solutions?...Our job is to say, Mr. Trump, you talked about being the champion of the working families. All right, now produce. Your rhetoric was great. Now do something," Sanders said.
"But we will not accept racism. We will not accept sexism or xenophobia," he asserted.
Sanders said it is time to rethink whether or not the Democratic Party can simply spend so much time and energy raising money from wealthy people and putting ads on television.
"What we need to do is create a grassroots movement of millions of people who want to transform this country and make it the kind of country that we know that we can have," he said.
"There is no rational reason why we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, no rational reason why we are the only major nation on Earth that doesn't guarantee health care for all people. We don't have paid family and medical leave.Why are our kids going to see a lower standard of living than their parents? We can transform this country," he said.
"We're a wealthy country. We can do it. But we have to have the courage to stand up to the billionaire class and corporate America and Wall Street to do it," he asserted.
