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kleptocracy
Thousands in Midwestern GOP Districts Attend Sanders' First Stops on Tour to Fight Oligarchy
"It's like there's only one person who is actually able to sidestep the demoralization and frustration," said one observer.
Feb 22, 2025
After addressing more than 3,400 Nebraska residents in Omaha Friday evening, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday made his second stop on his National Tour to Fight Oligarchy—telling Iowa City, Iowa residents that "Trumpism will not be defeated by politicians inside the D.C. Beltway."
"For better or worse, that is not going to happen," said the Vermont Independent senator, whose broadly popular policy proposals have long been dismissed by Democratic leaders as unrealistic and radical while President Donald Trump has increasingly captured the attention of the working class Americans who would benefit most from Sanders' ideas.
"It will only be defeated by millions of Americans in Iowa, in Vermont, in Nebraska, in every state in this country, who come together in a strong grassroots movement and say no to oligarchy, no to authoritarianism, no to kleptocracy, no to massive cuts to programs that low-income and working Americans desperately need, no to huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country," said Sanders.
The senator announced his tour earlier this month as Elon Musk, the head of the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE) who poured $277 million on the president's campaign, swept through numerous agencies, with DOGE staffers setting up illegal servers, seizing control of data, shutting federal employees out of offices, and working to shut down operations across the government.
Since Trump took office for his second term just over a month ago, roughly 30,000 federal employees have been fired or laid off—part of Musk's push to cut $2 trillion in federal spending in order to fill the $4.6 trillion hole that Trump's extension of the 2017 tax cuts would blow in the deficit.
Republican lawmakers have also pushed to include cuts to Medicaid, and Trump this week signaled he would back Medicare cuts after repeatedly insisting he would not slash the popular healthcare program used by more than 65 million Americans, in order to save money while handing out tax cuts to the same corporations and ultrawealthy households that benefited from the 2017 tax law.
"Today in America we are rapidly moving toward an oligarchic form of society where a handful of multibillionaires not only have extraordinary wealth, but unprecedented economic, media, and political power," said Sanders in Iowa City, which like Omaha is represented by a Republican U.S. House member who narrowly won reelection last November and has faced pressure to reject the GOP budget plan. "Brothers and sisters, that is not the democracy that men and women fought and died to defend."
Sanders began his tour in Omaha and Iowa City to pressure the Republican House members there—Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) out of supporting the GOP's proposed cuts.
"Together, we can stop Republicans from cutting Medicaid and giving tax breaks to billionaires," said Sanders ahead of the Iowa City event.
Sanders drew loud applause when he noted that the increasingly oligarchic political system extends past just Trump, Musk, and Republican lawmakers.
"The role of billionaires in politics, it's not just Musk, it's others," he said. "It's not just Republican billionaires, it is Democratic billionaires. It is the corruption of the two-party system."
Progressive activists and journalists in recent weeks have expressed growing frustration with Democratic leaders as they have publicly appeared to throw up their hands and deny they have any power to fight Trump's attacks on immigrants, transgender children, and other marginalized people.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has garnered scorn for meeting with Silicon Valley executives to "mend fences" with the powerful tech sector—where numerous CEOs have signaled support for Trump during his second term.
Ken Martin, the newly elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, said last month that the party should continue to take money from "good billionaires."
Some Democratic senators have voted for Trump's Cabinet nominees even as members of the caucus have accused Musk of orchestrating a coup on Trump's behalf, and leaders including Jeffries have reportedly become "very frustrated" with progressive advocacy groups like Indivisible and MoveOn for organizing grassroots efforts to pressure the Democrats to act as a true opposition party.
Meanwhile, Sanders this weekend has captured the attention of thousands of people in Republican districts along with hundreds of thousands of people who have watched his anti-oligarchy tour online.
"The energy around what Bernie is doing is insane," said Matt Stoller, a researcher at the American Economic Liberties Project. "It's like there's only one person who is actually able to sidestep the demoralization and frustration."
Jeremy Slevin, a senior adviser to Sanders, reported that in Iowa City, the senator gave "not one, not two, but three different speeches to overflow crowds," with 2,000 people lining up to see him speak "on a freezing cold day in a Republican district."
Pointing to the enthusiasm shown in Nebraska and Iowa, Sanders supporters questioned the idea, reportedly embraced by Democratic consultants and politicians, that "Americans don't understand the word oligarchy."
"Bernie Sanders launched an anti-oligarchy tour, and it's the only thing that has popularly resonated within the Democratic Party base," said Stoller. "That's fascinating and notable."
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As GOP Pushes Tax Giveaways for the Rich, Sanders Launches 'National Tour to Fight Oligarchy'
"Today, the oligarchs and the billionaire class are getting richer and richer and have more and more power," the senator said. "This country belongs to all of us, not just the few. We must fight back."
Feb 13, 2025
As Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration scour the federal public services infrastructure looking for cuts to healthcare, food assistance, and consumer protections that could offset the $4.6 trillion deficit hole the GOP is intent on creating by extending tax cuts for the rich, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is preparing for a "National Tour to Fight Oligarchy."
With Americans inundated with news about Trump's billionaire megadonor, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, ransacking federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency—and little to no news about President Donald Trump's supposed plans to reduce the cost of living—Sanders (I-Vt.) is intent on speaking directly to voters during his nationwide town hall tour, titled, "Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here."
The senator, who garnered support from working-class Americans and young voters during his Democratic presidential runs in 2016 and 2020, will kick off the tour with stops in Omaha, Nebraska on February 21 and Iowa City, Iowa on February 22.
The first stop lies in the House district represented by Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who this week expressed some hesitation about voting for a GOP budget proposal that could include steep spending cuts, including potentially to Medicaid. Bacon's district was carried by former President Joe Biden in 2020 and former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.
A Sanders aide toldPolitico that the senator aims to influence the Republicans' fight over the budget, which has reportedly made some GOP members of the House, where the party holds a slim majority, uneasy about backlash from voters in upcoming elections in 2026 and 2028.
As Common Dreamsreported on Tuesday, a recent poll by progressive think tank Data for Progress showed voters from across the political spectrum don't want lawmakers to make cuts to federal student loans, Medicare, Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or renewable energy programs—all of which the GOP has eyed as it aims to do the bidding of wealthy donors and extend the 2017 tax cuts which primarily benefited the country's top earners.
In a statement, Sanders on Wednesday said his town hall tour will help Americans make sense of how they "can fight back against President Trump and Elon Musk," who are "quickly moving the country toward authoritarianism, oligarchy, and kleptocracy."
"Today, the oligarchs and the billionaire class are getting richer and richer and have more and more power," Sanders said. "Meanwhile, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and most of our people are struggling to pay for healthcare, childcare, and housing. This country belongs to all of us, not just the few. We must fight back."
Allies of the progressive senator said his direct engagement with voters is also likely a response to Democratic leaders' approach to the first weeks of Trump's second term in office. While Democratic lawmakers have spoken out against Musk's attempted takeover of federal agencies and some have pushed for strategic opposition to the Trump agenda, leaders in the party complained in a closed-door meeting this week about progressive advocacy groups that have urged the Democrats to act as a genuine, cohesive opposition party.
In a press conference this week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) appeared perplexed by the idea that Democrats should try to counter Trump's agenda, saying Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the party is "not going to go after every single issue" as it fights the president.
Last week, Jeffries garnered scorn for meeting with more than 150 donors in Silicon Valley in an effort to "mend fences" as numerous high-profile tech executives have aligned themselves with Trump.
The House leader also appeared unmoved by "The Weekly Show" host Jon Stewart's suggestion in an interview this week that the Democrats have "gotten away from New Deal values" and should focus on pushing for policies that help the working class rather than simply improving "messaging."
Anna Bahr, a spokesperson for Sanders, told Politico that "it may be hard to believe, but at least one person in Washington is more interested in talking with working-class people than running for office or fundraising."
"Sen. Sanders is doing what he has always done: meeting people all over the country to discuss our failed healthcare system, housing crisis, and the wealth and income inequality that is only intensifying," said Bahr.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who co-chaired the senator's 2020 presidential campaign, told the outlet that the Democratic Party needs Sanders "in strategic states making the case to define the future of our party for the next 20 years."
"Sen. Sanders has been a prophet for where the Democratic Party needs to go in standing up for working-class Americans," said Khanna, "and opposing the unholy alliance of wealth and power."
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'Extremely Dangerous Time': Sanders Warns of Oligarchs' War on Working Class
"Does anyone really think that the oligarchs give a damn about ordinary Americans?" the senator asked. "Trust me, they don't."
Feb 11, 2025
As U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday continued their effort to gut the federal government, Sen. Bernie Sanders warned that "the oligarchs, with their unlimited amounts of money, are waging a war on the working class of our country, and it is a war that they are intent on winning."
A week after delivering a speech that sounded the alarm about "America's dangerous movement toward oligarchy, authoritarianism, and kleptocracy," Sanders (I-Vt.) took the Senate floor again to target the world's three richest people—Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg—and the politicians who serve them.
"We are living in an extremely dangerous time," the seantor said Tuesday. "Future generations will look back at this moment—what we do right now—and remember whether we had the courage to defend our democracy against the growing threats of oligarchy and authoritarianism."
As chair of Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk's targets have included the U.S. Agency for International Development, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Department of Education, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a critical U.S. Treasury Department payment system. Reporting—and remarks from the billionaire—suggest that the agencies responsible for Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are next.
"As we speak, right now, Elon Musk, the wealthiest man on the planet, is attempting to dismantle major agencies of the federal government which are designed to protect the needs of working families and the disadvantaged," said Sanders. "These agencies were created by the U.S. Congress and it is Congress' responsibility to maintain them, to reform them, or to end them. It is not Mr. Musk’s responsibility. What Mr. Musk is doing is patently illegal and unconstitutional—and must be ended."
Sanders also detailed Trump and his allies' attacks on the federal judiciary, which has delivered a series of blows to the Republican president's agenda since he took office last month.
"Mr. Trump and his friends are not just trying to undermine two of the three pillars of our constitutional government—Congress and the courts—they are also going after the media, in a way that we have never seen in the modern history of this country," the senator said. While recognizing that the media "makes mistakes every day," he added that "I do hope that every member of Congress understands that you cannot have a functioning democracy, you cannot have a free flow of information, you cannot have the pursuit of truth, without an independent press."
The senator also how the top three billionaires impact what information reaches people by buying news outlets and social media platforms—as Musk did with Twitter, which he rebranded X, and Bezos did with The Washington Post and Twitch. Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has made his money through Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
"They will use the enormous media operations they own to deflect attention away from the impact of their policies while they 'entertain us to death,'" Sanders warns. "They and their fellow oligarchs will continue within our corrupt campaign finance system to spend huge amounts of money to buy politicians in both major political parties."
"Does anyone really think that the oligarchs give a damn about ordinary Americans?" he asked. "Trust me, they don't."
Sanders warned that "if we do not stop them, they will soon be going after the healthcare, nutrition, housing, and educational programs that protect the most vulnerable people in our country—all so that they can raise they money they need to provide huge tax breaks for themselves and for others billionaires. As modern-day kings who believe they have the absolute right to rule, they will sacrifice, without hesitation, the well-being of working people in order to protect their power and their privileges."
However, he also stressed that "the worst fear of the ruling class of our country is that the American people—whether they are Black or white or Latino, whether they are urban or rural, whether they are young or old, gay or straight, whatever—the fear of the ruling class is that the American people come together to demand a government that represents all of us, not just the people on top."
"The oligarch's nightmare is that we will not allow ourselves to be divided up by race, religion, sexual orientation, or country of origin and will come together and have the courage to take them on," he declared. "If we stand together, we're gonna win this fight, and not only will we save American democracy, we're gonna create the kind of nation that I think most of us know we should become."
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