Sanders slams Democrats for not helping poor people

US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has criticized Democratic leaders for not spending enough time trying to help working-class people and instead focusing on the economic fortunes of large industries.

During a campaign rally on Thursday in Springfield, Oregon, Sanders laid out in more detail than usual his views for shaping the Democratic Party’s agenda and the need for elected party officials to focus on achieving progressive political goals.

The US senator from Vermont spoke at length about how Democrats had not spent enough time trying to help working-class people obtain adequate health care and higher wages.

“The Democratic Party has to reach a fundamental conclusion: Are we on the side of working people or big-money interests?” Sanders asked the crowd.

“Do we stand with the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor? Or do we stand with Wall Street speculators and the drug companies and the insurance companies? Now our job is not just to revitalize the Democratic Party, not only to open the doors to young people and working people — our job is to revitalize American democracy.”

Sanders criticized Democratic leaders on many of the core issues of his campaign. He questioned whether leaders were thinking about the concerns of voters rather than the economic fortunes of large industries.

“In November of 2014, the midterm elections, 63 percent of the American people did not vote; 80 percent of young people and low-income people did not vote,” he said. “And I think the reason for that is the Democratic Party up to now has not been clear about which side they are on the major issues facing this country.”

Sanders also called for “automatic voter registration” and for getting rid of recently passed voter identification laws. He went on to urge the need to reform the campaign finance system, as he has in dozens of speeches.

“You can’t be for Wall Street and for the working people of this country,” Sanders said of Democrats. “You cannot be for the drug companies and for the needs of senior citizens and veterans. You cannot be on the side of those workers who have lost their jobs because of disastrous trade agreements and support those corporations who have thrown millions of our workers out on the street.”

Though Sanders remains behind Hillary Clinton in pledged delegates in the presidential primary race, he is still adamant that he wants to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

Sanders has galvanized a youth movement with his call for reducing wealth inequality, universal health care, free college education and campaign finance reform.

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