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.
Julia Conley, 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 #DCBeltway.'
"'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 #WorkingClass 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 #LowIncome and working Americans desperately need, no to huge #TaxBreaks for the #wealthiest people in this country,' said Sanders.
"The senator announced his tour earlier this month as #ElonMusk, 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.'"
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-donald-trump
#Oligarchy #OligarchyTour #StillSanders #BernieSanders #USPol #CorporateInterests #Corporatocracy #CorporateColonialism
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