Bernie Sanders fights apathy on American left

Bernie Sanders is emerging as one of the most vocal opponents to US President Donald Trump, with the 83-year-old senator drawing tens of thousands of people to his “fighting oligarchy” rallies around the country. Supporters packed the Gloria Molina Grand Park in Los Angeles on Saturday as guests including politicians, union representatives and musical acts took to the stage before speeches by Sanders and Democrat representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“There are some 36,000 of you, the largest rally that we have ever had,” Sanders told the cheering crowd. “Your presence here today is making Donald Trump and Elon Musk very nervous.”

The self-described socialist, an independent who has never been a member of the Democratic Party, has been attracting crowds over the past two months on his nationwide “fighting oligarchy” tour.

His progressive, leftist rhetoric has resonated with people opposed to Trump’s policies and with those disappointed in established Democrats’ lack of political resistance to Trump. Folk rock legend Neil Young led the LA crowd on Saturday in chanting “Take America Back!” while he played the electric guitar. Feminist singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers dubbed the event “Berniechella,” a nod to the massive Coachella music festival taking place in the Californian desert. Alex Powell, a 28-year-old art teacher in the audience, said Americans “need hope.”

“I’m really disappointed by the Democrats’ response, I want more action on their part, more outrage,” she told AFP.

“Donald Trump’s new term is distressing, it’s really scary,” Powell said, describing how some of her middle school pupils were “traumatized” after one of their parents was deported from the United States under Trump’s anti-immigrant campaign. Sanders addressed a litany of grievances, including Trump’s massive cuts to government funding and threats to healthcare and research.

Mentions of Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and X, drew boos from the crowd.

The South African billionaire has been tasked by Trump with dramatically reducing government spending, and is for many Sanders supporters a symbol of the corrupting influence of wealth in politics.

Sanders was “right the whole time,” 27-year-old Vera Loh told AFP.

“The collusion of money and politics has had terrible effects.”

Loh, a housekeeper, said she was stunned by the apathy of many Democrat leaders since Trump’s defeat of presidential candidate Kamala Harris in November.

“The party put too much focus on minorities,” Loh said.

“If people don’t see it as a class war, then we just get lost with the identity politics.” She told AFP she wanted politicians to remember “we want higher pay, we want housing, we want to be able to afford things.”

“We are living in a moment where a handful of billionaires control the economic and political life of our country,” Sanders said on Saturday.

Trump is moving the United States “rapidly toward an authoritarian form of society,” he said.

The senator from Vermont hopes to encourage new independents to run for office without the Democrat label, at a time when the party is at an all-time low in the polls.

Sanders has no ambitions to run for president in 2028, but has taken rising progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez under his wing.

“No matter your race, religion, gender, identity or status, no matter if you disagree with me on some things... I hope you see that this movement is not about partisan labels or purity tests, but it’s about class solidarity,” the 35-year-old congresswoman told the crowd on Saturday.

“She would make a good presidential candidate,” Lesley Henderson, a former Republican supporter, told AFP.

Depressed by the news since January, the 52-year-old nursing assistant was attending the first political rally of her life with her husband. “I just hope it’s not too late,” she said, alarmed by Trump’s talk about ruling an unconstitutional third term. “If no one’s standing up and saying anything now, what makes us think that there might even be midterms, or a next presidential election?”