They want to know why Food industry posts record profitswhen they can’t pay their grocery bills.

They want to know why they can’t afford to go to the doctor or pay for their prescription drugs and worry about going to the doctor. bankrupt if they end up in the hospital.

Donald Trump won this election because he harnessed that anger.

Did he address any of these serious issues in a thoughtful or meaningful way? Absolutely not.

What he did was divert the festering anger in our country to a greedy, out-of-touch corporate elite, in a policy that has served their political goals and will ultimately further enrich their fellow billionaires.

Trump’s “genius” is his ability to divide the working class so that tens of millions of Americans reject solidarity with their fellow workers and pave the way for huge tax breaks for the very rich and big corporations .

Although Trump did talk about capping credit card interest rates at 10 percent and a new trade policy with China, his basic explanation for why the working class was struggling was that millions of Illegal immigrants have invaded America and we are now a country in trouble. “occupied country”.

In his pathologically dishonest world, undocumented immigrants illegally participate in our elections and vote for Democrats. They are creating massive crime, driving down wages and eliminating our jobs. They receive free health care and other benefits that are denied to American citizens. They even eat our pets.

This explanation is grossly racist, cruel and fallacious. But it’s an explanation.

And what are Democrats saying about the crises facing working families? What is their reasoned explanation, hammered out day after day in the media, in the halls of Congress and at public meetings across the country, of why tens of millions of workers, in the richest country in the world, struggle to put food on the table or pay the rent? Where is the deeply felt outrage that we are the only major country in the world that fails to guarantee health care for all as a human right while insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies make huge profits?

How do they explain the support of billions of dollars in military aid to the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has created an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, causing massive malnutrition and starvation among thousands of children ?

In my opinion, Democrats lost this election because they ignored the justified anger of the American working class and became defenders of a rigged economic and political system.

This election was largely about class and change and Democrats, in both cases, were often on the wrong side. As Jimmy Williams Jr., the president of the painters unionsaid: “The Democratic Party continues to fail to prioritize a strong, working-class message that addresses the issues that truly matter to working people. The party did not make clear why workers should vote for them, just that they were not Donald Trump. This is no longer enough!

As an independent member of the United States Senate, I am part of the Democratic caucus. As such, I was proud to work with President Biden on one of the most ambitious pro-worker agendas in modern history.

We passed the American Rescue Plan to get us out of the COVID-19 economic downturn; made historic investments in rebuilding our infrastructure and transforming our energy system; we have begun the process of rebuilding our manufacturing base; reduced the cost of prescription drugs and canceled the student debt of five million Americans. Biden promised to be the most progressive president since FDR, and on domestic issues he kept his word.

But unlike FDR, these accomplishments are almost never discussed in the context of a blatantly unfair economy that continues to fail ordinary Americans. Yes. Over the past few years, we have made positive changes. However, we must recognize that what we have done is far from enough.

In 1936, in his second inaugural address, FDR spoke not only of his administration’s enormous accomplishments in combating the Great Depression, but also of the painful economic realities that millions of Americans were still experiencing.

Roosevelt’s words remain relevant today: “I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day after day…I see millions deprived of education , leisure and the opportunity to improve their lot and their lot. of their children… I see a third of a nation poorly housed, poorly clothed, poorly fed.

Of course, the world today is profoundly different from what it was in 1936. We are not in an economic depression. Unemployment is relatively low. People are not at risk of starvation.

But Democratic leaders must recognize that in a rapidly changing economy, working families face enormous economic hardship, anxiety and despair — and they want change. The status quo does not suit them.

In politics, you can’t fight something with nothing. The Democratic Party must determine which side it stands on in the great economic struggle of our time, and it must provide a clear vision of what it stands for. Either you stand with the powerful oligarchy of our country or you stand with the working class. You can’t represent both.

Even though Democrats will be in the minority in the Senate and (likely) the House of Representatives in the new Congress, they will still have the opportunity to present a strong legislative agenda that meets the needs of working families.

If Republicans choose to reject these bills, the American working class will find out pretty quickly which party represents them and which party represents corporate greed.

In my opinion, here are some of the working class priorities Democrats need to fight for:

We must end Citizens United and stop billionaires from buying elections.

We must increase the federal minimum wage by $7.25 to reach a living wage – at least $17 an hour.

We must pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act to make it easier for workers to form unions and end illegal union busting.

We must protect seniors by increasing Social Security benefits and extending the solvency of the program by removing the taxable income cap.

We must restore defined benefit pension plans so that workers can retire securely.

We must do like every other rich country and guarantee health care for all as a human right, starting with expanding Medicare to cover home health, dental, hearing and vision care.

We must cut the price of prescription drugs in half, no more than what is paid in other countries.

We must guarantee paid family and medical leave.

We must guarantee equal pay for equal work.

We must create fair trade policies that benefit workers, not just corporate CEOs.

We need to build 3 million units of affordable and low-income housing.

We must make tuition free at public colleges and universities, make child care affordable for all, and strengthen public education by paying teachers the salaries they deserve.

We must adopt a progressive tax system that addresses the massive income and wealth inequality we experience by requiring that the richest start paying their fair share of taxes.

We must save taxpayer dollars by ending the massive waste, fraud and abuse that exists at the Pentagon.

These are extremely popular ideas. The Democratic Party would do well to listen to the clear directives of American voters and put them into practice. The fact is simple: if you stand with the workers, they will stand with you. In my opinion, if Democrats implement a program like this, they can win back our country’s working class and the White House.

Bernie Sanders is an independent United States senator from Vermont.