Friday, June 8, 2012 by The Nation
Bernie Sanders Sees Threatening 'Aggressiveness Among the Ruling Class'
Governor Scott Walker says that, with his victory in Tuesday’s recall election, he will
“tell Wisconsin, tell our country, and we tell people all across the
globe that voters really do want leaders who stand up and make the tough
decisions…”
“There
is,” says Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), “an aggressiveness out there
among the ruling class of this country, among the billionaires who are
saying: ‘You know what? Ya, we got a whole lot now, but we want even
more. And we don’t give a damn about the middle class. We don't care
about working families. We want it all. And now we can buy it.’ ”
Actually, cutting taxes for CEOs and corporations and then balancing
budgets on the backs of teachers, nurses and snowplow drivers isn’t
exactly tough work. Redistribution of the wealth upward is common
practice these days.
That said: Walker’s right about the fact that his victory speaks to the state, the nation and the world.
But what does it say?
US Senator Bernie Sanders has a wiser assessment than Walker, who raised and spent the better part of $35 million to defend himself—and had another $15 million spent in his favor by so-called “independent” groups. The whole process, say Sanders, is “hugely scary stuff.”
“There is,” the senator says, “an aggressiveness out there among the
ruling class of this country, among the billionaires who are saying:
‘You know what? Ya, we got a whole lot now, but we want even more. And
we don’t give a damn about the middle class. We don't care about working
families. We want it all. And now we can buy it.’ ”
Referring to Wisconsin as a “testing ground” for the no-limits
campaign spending that has been ushered in by the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United
ruling, Sanders said, “I have a deep concern that what we saw in
Wisconsin can happen in any state throughout this country and in the
presidential election.”
“I think that people do not fully understand the disaster that Citizens United was,” Sanders said of the 5–4 US Supreme Court decision in radio conversation with Ed Schultz.
“What that did is open the floodgates so that billionaires like the
Koch brothers and others are now prepared to spend unbelievable sums of
money to elect extreme right-wing candidates.”
“Right now, we are moving toward an
oligarchic type of society where big money not only controls the
economy—they’re going to have a very, very heavy say in who gets
elected.” --Sen. Sanders
Sanders is a leading supporter of amending the Constitution in order to assure that all Americans—not just billionaires and corporations—have a voice in American politics.
“Right now, we are moving toward an oligarchic type of society where
big money not only controls the economy—they’re going to have a very,
very heavy say in who gets elected,” argues the independent senator from
Vermont.
What Sanders describes is scary.
But, as he well notes, “grassroots Wisconsin” mustered 47 percent of
the vote in opposition to the money power. And they gave the Democrats
control of the state Senate, creating the first formal legislative check
on Walker’s governorship since his election.
“This is not the time to [throw your hands up in despair]. This is
not the time to do that,” he adds. “This is the time to organize for the
taking on all of this money.”
As usual, the gentleman from Vermont is right.
There is no point in getting scared.
It is time to get organized to address that which scares us: an assault on nothing less than the basic underpinnings of democracy.
© 2012 The Nation
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