In an op-ed for USA Today on Wednesday, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders slammed members of the Democratic Party for attacking left-wing policies like Medicare for All and blaming them for the group’s failures in the House of Representatives and Senate.
“Now, with the blame game erupting, corporate Democrats are attacking so-called far-left policies like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal for election defeats in the House and the Senate. They are dead wrong,” he wrote.
As reported by Common Dreams , House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her centrist colleagues allegedly blamed the party’s lost congressional seats on the agenda pushed by progressive Democratic lawmakers. According to the publication, Majority Whip James Clyburn warned that socialized medicine would cause Democrats to lose the two runoff races in Georgia that could help them take control of the Upper Chamber.
Nevertheless, Sanders believes otherwise. He noted that all 112 of the co-sponsors for Medicare for All on the November ballot won their races. In addition, he highlighted that all but one of the 98 co-sponsors of the Green New Deal on the same ballot won their races.
“It turns out that supporting universal health care during a pandemic and enacting major investments in renewable energy as we face the existential threat to our planet from climate change is not just good public policy. It also is good politics.”
Interestingly, a Fox News exit poll found that 72 percent of voters favored a shift to a government-run health care plan, while 70 percent were supportive of increasing government spending on renewable and green energy.
According to Sanders, the best bet for Democrats is not to move away from popular policies like criminal justice reform and living wage jobs but move toward them and ensure that the working class is addressed amid the economic despair they feel during the coronavirus pandemic.
The former presidential candidate argued that Americans are in favor of a government that works for the country as opposed to a small group of people.
“That’s the right thing to do, that’s the moral thing to do and, for the Democratic Party, that is the way to win elections.”
Along with Sanders, progressive firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has expressed similar sentiments. As The Inquisitr reported, she voiced support for Joe Biden during the election but now believes that focus should be on pressuring his administration to adopt the policies for which Sanders has famously advocated. In particular, she has argued the importance of Biden appointing progressive leaders to his cabinet positions.