 So, like all of us, Bernie Sanders is growing increasingly frustrated with the Democratic Party's incompetence and unwillingness to fight for the American people. And in an interview with Steven Greenhouse of The Guardian, he kind of laid it all out and said what we were all thinking. And it's really nice to see someone on the inside confirm what those of us on the outside are seeing. He's not really saying anything new, but what he's saying is really important because few people in DC are willing to stand up to the Democratic Party leadership. And it's not like his criticism here is extremely harsh, it's relatively tepid. But still, for him to call out the Democratic Party and explicitly say they've abandoned the working class and they need to turn things around, that really is significant. It's important. He as a senator can create headlines and put pressure on the Democratic Party. So not only is he calling on them to do better, but he's actually proposing a strategy for them to adopt rather than just doing nothing. In an interview with The Guardian, Sanders called on Joe Biden and the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to push to hold votes on individual bills that would be a boon to working families, citing extending the child tax credit, cutting prescription drug prices and raising the federal hourly minimum wage to $15 an hour. Such votes would be good policy and good politics. The Vermont senator insisted saying they would show the Democrats battling for the working class while highlighting Republican opposition to hugely popular policies. It is no great secret that the Republican Party is winning more and more support from working people, Sanders said. It's not because the Republican Party has anything to say to them. It's because in too many ways, the Democratic Party has turned its back on the working class. He praised Biden for pushing for improved childcare and extending the child tax credit. But he said it would also be good to show working people that you are willing to step up and take on the greed of the ruling class in America right now. He pointed repeatedly to the high prices for prescription drugs as an example of corporate greed. Now, repeatedly throughout this interview, Bernie Sanders also calls on Democrats to stand up to their donors, and they won't do this, but it still needs to be said. And the subtext throughout all of this is a message to President Biden. You have to try at least. I mean, we know that you don't care. But even if you do the bare minimum and pretend to care, that is more than just doing nothing because currently we're in the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. People are suffering a multitude of crises. The child tax credit has cut child poverty in half and that expired. So as it stands, going into the midterms at the end of this year, Democrats have basically nothing to brag about. The good things that Biden did, such as withdraw from Afghanistan and reduce the drone war, these are things that the media has propagandized. So you can't really brag about this and expect a surge in your approval rating. So they're in a position where they have no choice. They have to fight for Americans if they want to even stand a chance of winning. And Bernie is saying, fight, do something. And here's even a strategy that you might be able to use that could be effective. It probably won't work. But still, if you force people like Kirsten Sotema and Joe Manchin and Republicans, mind you, to put their names on something, to tell the American people explicitly, we don't support an extension of the child tax credit. We don't support a $15 an hour minimum wage that is important. We all saw the way that Kirsten Sotema's national reputation tanked when she gleefully voted down a $15 an hour minimum wage. So what Bernie is saying is, OK, you're not going to get things passed in a giant package like Build Back Better. So let's try to hold individual votes on each of these. And most of them probably won't pass. But if we can get a lot of them through, that's pretty important. But I mean, they're not going to listen to Bernie Sanders and the media won't cover what Bernie Sanders is saying. So this will kind of fall on deaf ears. But nonetheless, I do want to read what Bernie Sanders is saying specifically about why he's advocating for the strategy to kind of disaggregate all of these policies within Build Back Better and have individual votes on each of them. Sanders voiced frustration with the lack of progress on Biden's Build Back Better legislation, which the Democrats sought to enact through budget reconciliation, a process that requires only a simple majority to pass. That effort was slowed by lengthy negotiations with centrist senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kirsten Sotema of Arizona. It seems like they have a typo there. They're actually right wing senators and not centrists. And then blocked when Manchin said he opposed the $2 trillion package sparking left wing theory and deep frustration in the White House. We have tried over the last several months, which has been mostly back to our negotiations with a handful of senators. Sanders said it hasn't succeeded on Build Back Better or on voting rights. It has demoralized millions of Americans. Sanders added if I were senator cinema and the vote came up to lower the outrageously high costs of prescription drugs, I think twice if I want to get reelected in Arizona to vote against that. If I were Mr. Manchin and I know that tens of thousands of struggling families in West Virginia benefited from the expansion of the child tax credit, I think long and hard before I voted against it. Sanders also called for legislation on another issue. He has championed having Medicare provide dental vision and hearing benefits. Quote, all these issues, they are just not Bernie Sanders standing up and saying this would be a great thing. He said they are issues that are enormously popular. And on every one of them, the Republicans are in opposition. But a lot of people don't know that because the Republicans haven't been forced to vote on them. So when you see these articles about how the Democratic Party establishment is spooked at the approval rating of Joe Biden and they're worried about losing out on younger voters, this is free advice that Bernie Sanders is giving to them. And I think it's almost inevitable that they are going to reject this advice. But I mean, at least we have something to throw in their faces when they inevitably lose at the end of the year and try to blame the left for pushing the party too far left. I mean, that's a joke at this point because what have they done? Even rhetorically speaking, they aren't saying what we want to hear as voters. They aren't saying anything that would be indicative of a leftward shift. Everything that they do is means tested. It's focus group driven and even the most milk toast policies can't get through. So you have to at least try. But I mean, I think that even though Bernie Sanders is giving them all of this fantastic advice, which I feel like it's common sense, they're still going to reject it. Joe Biden has just he's given up on being president. He's basically given up on trying to contain COVID, fully embracing Donald Trump strategy at this point. Of just letting it wreak havoc on the country and to really demonstrate how clueless he is, he's going to Georgia to campaign for voting rights. And he argues that this is because Georgia is kind of ground zero for voter suppression. But both Democratic senators from Georgia, John Ossoff and Rafael Warnock support voting rights legislation. So what you need to be doing is going to West Virginia, Arizona, to put pressure on the two senators that are standing in your way. Joe Biden, even though I don't think he's that competent, he knows this, he has to know this, but I think that he doesn't actually care about this. So that's why he's not fighting. He's perfectly comfortable blaming Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sonoma just throwing his hands up and saying, we tried, we just didn't have the votes. He doesn't want to actually fight about it. He doesn't care. So it doesn't matter that they're going to get wiped out in 2022 and all hope of getting anything passed will diminish at that point. But he's just, you know, he's done. He's checked out. He did his part. He gave us $1,400 checks after promising 2000. And he thinks that's enough. They were able to brag for a few months about how the child tax credit cut childhood poverty in half, and now it hasn't been extended. And that really helped out families. But, you know, rather than fighting for that, which is an easy win, he's just he's done. He did his part. OK, I mean, I don't know what to tell you. I think that they know that this is going to lead to their electoral defeat at the end of the year. But I think that Democrats are anticipating this and they're hopeful that that is the case, because when they have a control of all branches of government minus the Supreme Court, a lot of pressure is on them. But when they lose one branch of Congress, when they lose the Senate or the House or maybe both, then all of the pressure diminishes because voters know that, you know, they're not going to get a branch of Congress controlled by Republicans to go along with anything regardless of how centrist that legislation is, because Republicans will purposefully obstruct everything just to make sure that the Democrats aren't even mildly successful. So at least some Democrats know this and they want to lose because it's a lot more easier to say Republicans are blocking our agenda than it is to defend your own party failing when you're in control of Congress and you can actually take action. So what Bernie Sanders here is saying is absolutely correct. And I only wish more people in Congress would speak up and directly criticize the Democratic Party's failures and their corruption by him telling them to stand up to their donors. That actually is really important. It won't matter at the end of the day because the media won't cover what he's saying, but if enough people in Congress say this and they repeat it, then the American people will know, OK, it's corruption. That's the lowest common denominator. That's the thing that's blocking all progress. So I guess this is what we should go after. This is what we should put pressure on Democrats. When when they're when they're doing something, of course, the system blocks a price or a bill that will lower the cost of prescription drugs will look at the donors that she's received from the pharmaceutical industry. But it just nothing will happen. And I expect nothing. And even when my expectations are to the floor, Democrats can't even meet the bare minimum of my expectations. So I mean, I don't know what to say. I like that Bernie Sanders is speaking out here. It's not going to make a difference. At least he's saying what people need to hear.