They want to know why the food industry is enjoying record profitswhile they can’t afford their grocery bills.

They want to know why they can’t afford to see a doctor or pay for prescription drugs, and they worry about going bankrupt if I end up in a hospital.

Donald Trump won this election because he used this anger.

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

What he did was divert the festering anger from our country to a greedy and disconnected corporate elite in a policy that served their political goals and will end up further enriching 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.

While Trump talked about capping credit card interest rates at 10 percent and a new trade policy with China, his underlying explanation for why the working class was struggling was that millions of illegal immigrants had invaded America and that now we are one “occupied country”.

In his pathologically dishonest world, undocumented immigrants illegally participate in our elections and vote for Democrats. They create massive amounts of crime, drive down wages and take our jobs. They receive free healthcare and other benefits that are denied to American citizens. They even eat our pets.

This explanation is extremely racist, cruel and wrong. But it is an explanation.

And what do Democrats have to say about the crises facing working families? What is their full explanation, hammered out day after day in the media, in the halls of Congress, and in town meetings across the country, as to why tens of millions of workers in the richest country on earth are struggling to put food on the table or pay the rent? Where is the deeply felt outrage that we are the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care for all as a human right, while insurance and drug companies make huge profits?

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

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

This election has been largely about class and change, and the Democrats, in both cases, have often been on the wrong side. That Jimmy Williams Jr., president of the Union of Painterssaid, “The Democratic Party has continued to fail to prioritize a strong, working-class message that addresses issues that really matter to workers. The party didn’t make a positive case for why workers should vote for them, just that they weren’t Donald Trump. That’s not good enough anymore!”

As an independent member of the US Senate, I caucus with Democrats. In that capacity, 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 economic recession caused by COVID-19; made historic investments in rebuilding our infrastructure and transforming our energy system; the process of rebuilding our manufacturing base has begun; reduced the cost of prescription drugs and forgave student debt for 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 achievements are almost never discussed in the context of a grossly unfair economy that continues to fail ordinary Americans. Yes. In recent years we have made some positive changes. We have to admit, though, that what we’ve done is nowhere near enough.

In 1936, in his second inaugural address, FDR spoke not only of his administration’s enormous achievements 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 family disaster looms over them day by day…I see millions denied education, recreation, and opportunity to better themselves fate and destiny. of their children … I see a third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clothed, ill-fed’.

Of course, the world today is profoundly different than it was in 1936. We are not in an economic depression. Unemployment is relatively low. People do not face hunger.

But Democratic leadership must recognize that in a rapidly changing economy, working families are facing an enormous amount of economic pain, anxiety and hopelessness — and they want change. The status quo is not working for them.

In politics you can’t fight something without nothing. The Democratic Party must determine which side it stands on in the great economic struggle of our time and must provide a clear vision of what it stands for. You are either with the powerful oligarchy of our country, or you are with the working class. You can’t represent both.

While Democrats will be in the minority in the Senate and (likely) the House in the new Congress, they will still have the opportunity to put forth a strong legislative agenda that addresses the needs of working families.

If the Republicans choose to vote these bills down, working class Americans 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 that Democrats need to fight for:

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

We must raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25 to a living wage – at least $17 an hour.

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

We must protect the elderly by increasing Social Security benefits and expanding the program’s solvency by raising the taxable income ceiling.

We need to bring back defined benefit pension plans so workers can retire safely.

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

We must cut the prices of prescription drugs in half, not more than what is paid in other countries.

We must offer guaranteed paid family and medical leave.

We must guarantee equal pay for equal work.

We need to create fair trade policies that work for workers, not just corporate CEOs.

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

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

We need to adopt a progressive tax system that addresses the massive income and wealth inequality we face by requiring the very rich to start paying their fair share of taxes.

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

These are extremely popular ideas. The Democratic Party would do well to listen to the clear directives of the American voters and follow them. The simple fact is: if you stay with the people who work, they will stay with you. In my opinion, if the Democrats stick to an agenda like this, they can win back our country’s working class and the White House.

Bernie Sanders is an independent US senator from Vermont.