Bernie Sanders Touts Populist Vision at the DNC

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night in a fiery speech that laid out a worker-oriented, populist vision for Democratic governance. Pointing to the dire state of the country in 2020, he touted the administration’s COVID record, arguing that it was proof that “when the political will is there, government can effectively deliver for our country.”

Now, he suggested, there is something wrong with the way the U.S. is run, arguing that there are too many Americans struggling to make ends meet. Instead, in perhaps a subtle critique of the current administration, he proclaimed that “we need an economy that works for all of us, not just the billionaire class.” 

Sanders argued that Democrats must prioritize broad social welfare initiatives, including expanding access to healthcare, cutting prescription drug costs, raising the minimum wage, promoting union membership, strengthening public education, and guaranteeing that every American can attend college.

In a direct rebuke to Democratic Party elites that rebuffed his campaign in 2016, he asserted that the time has come to get big money out of the American political process. “Billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections,” he said, “including primary elections!”

Sanders’s speech was notable for the relative absence of both of the main political characters of the day. Neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris featured prominently in his address, although he did direct a jab at the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Instead, he kept his vision for a new Democratic Party firmly in the spotlight.

He ended his speech with a call for Democrats to stand up against wealth and power at home and abroad—at home, by enacting the populist economic policies he laid out in his speech, and abroad by working to “end this horrific war in Gaza, bring home the hostages, and demand an immediate cease-fire.” 

As he pronounced those words, a number of pro-Palestinian protestors outside of the convention were being led away under arrest by Chicago police forces.