Bernie to Dems: Change course before you nosedive in November [View all]

[brooklynite]

Politico

Bernie Sanders has something to get off his chest: Without a course correction, he sees the Democratic Party on track to get shellacked this fall.

As the progressive Vermonter, not one to mince words, put it in an interview on Tuesday: “You really can’t win an election with a bumper sticker that says: ‘Well, we can’t do much, but the other side is worse.’”

“The Republicans stand an excellent chance of gaining control of the House and quite possibly the Senate,” Sanders said. While the GOP’s anti-abortion stance and opposition to more sweeping firearm restrictions may help Democrats, he warned that if they “think that they’re gonna march to victory based on those issues, I think that that is not correct.”

With the majorities flashing before Democrats’ eyes, the independent who caucuses with them is asking his leadership, from President Joe Biden on down, to acknowledge that the party can’t actually do what it wants with two centrist senators as their deciding votes. After that real talk, Sanders wants Democrats to make the case for more Democratic power in 2023 — through a Newt Gingrich-style “Contract with America.”