Sanders Urges Supporters: Ditch Identity Politics And Embrace The Working Class

MIAMI, FL - NOVEMBER 19: Bernie Sanders speaks during the 2016 Miami Book Fair at Miami Dade College on November 19, 2016 in Miami Florida. Credit: mpi04/MediaPunch/IPX
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In a speech Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) urged attendees to move away from “identity politics” and towards policies aimed at helping the working class.

Sanders spoke to a crowd of more than 1,000 mostly young people at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston, according to a report from WBUR.

“The working class of this country is being decimated — that’s why Donald Trump won,” Sanders said, according to the same report. “And what we need now are candidates who stand with those working people, who understand that real median family income has gone down.”

Boston Magazine reported that an audience member told Sanders that she wanted to become the second Latina elected to the U.S. Senate and asked for his advice. Sanders responded by urging the crowd to move the Democratic Party away from what he called “identity politics.”

“It is not good enough for somebody to say, ‘I’m a woman, vote for me.’ That is not good enough,” he said, according to WBUR. “What we need is a woman who has the guts to stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies, to the fossil fuel industries.”

Sanders also addressed what he called “the racist background of Mr. Trump,” according to the student-run Daily Free Press, and mocked the idea that Trump ran against the establishment.

“The idea that somebody like a Donald Trump could pose as the anti-establishment candidate, could pose as the candidate of change, would be laughable if the consequences were not so dire,” he said.

This post has been updated.

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