US Senator Bernie Sanders calls for overhaul of Democratic Party
Former US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has called for a “transformation” of his political party to win more support among the American public.
Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Sanders said in order to reconnect with people, Democrats need to focus on the working class and fight big money interests.
“We need a total transformation," said the 75-year-old Senator from the state of Vermont.
“We need to open up the party to working people, to young people and make it crystal clear that the Democratic Party is going to take on Wall Street, it's going to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, it's going to take on corporate America that is shutting down plants in this country and moving our jobs abroad,” he added.
Fresh off of a divisive leadership election, Democrats are still recovering from a disastrous run under former President Barack Obama, which saw them lose the White House and both houses of Congress to Republicans.
The party was looking forward to unite behind their new leader after a tight race between former US labor secretary Tom Perez and black Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota.
Perez, backed by former Vice President Joseph Biden and other key figures of the Obama administration that backed Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid, narrowly defeated Ellison – the first-ever Muslim elected to the US Congress , who enjoyed the support of Sanders and many of his allies.
The campaign for the next leader demonstrated in many ways the divisive 2016 presidential primary between Sanders and Clinton, where the former was pushed out of the race by pro-Clinton elements within the DNC.
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President Donald Trump pointed out the similarities in a tweet, saying that the DNC vote was “rigged” against Ellison, in the same manner that the party was biased against Sanders in the presidential election.
Sanders rejected the president’s analogy in his CNN interview, but also admitted that he was not “impressed” with the way Perez was elected.
Trump’s presidential election campaign had been hit with many controversies since its inception in early 2015. But he still managed to stun the world by defeating the heavily-favored Clinton.
However, numerous polls taken before the presidential election showed that Clinton and Trump were deeply unpopular politicians, while Clinton’s rival in the Democratic primary elections, Bernie Sanders, enjoyed relatively high popularity.
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