Last Saturday Bernie Sanders took his Fighting Oligarchy Tour to Warren, Michigan. Located in Macomb County, the ancestral home of the Reagan Democrats, a crowd of over 10,000 people showed up.
Filling the gymnasium of Lincoln High School, multiple overflow rooms, and the school grounds, the generationally diverse but overwhelmingly white attendees were still feeling the Bern and looking for signs of hope. Early in the Trump 2.0 administration and without an active campaign or a candidate to rally for, it’s clear that Bernie still draws a crowd. But what’s next for the 83-year-old senator and those activated by his two presidential runs?
Berine’s warm-up acts, former Michigan gubernatorial and potential senatorial candidate Abdul el-Sayed and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, may point to his choices for a successor as working class tribune. His most akin counterpart in national office, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, was not part of the lineup. The UAW members I spotted in line lamented Bernie’s losses and were also eager to hear from Fain. A former member still rocking her old local’s jacket told me she was “trying to break out of the doom scrolling which has been negative and depressing.”
Shawn Fain appeared in the “Eat the Rich” t-shirt he famously wore during the union’s Stand-Up Strike in fall 2023, inspiring a chant from the crowd. He spoke to the power of working class solidarity in withholding labor to secure demands — “the only thing that’s won decent healthcare is the labor movement and people willing to fight for it” — and highlighted the 4,000 Volkswagen workers in Tennessee who unionized last year and are now working on a contract.
He drew clear lines in the class war, calling Elon Musk a con man for his attacks on Social Security. Proclaiming that “billionaires don’t have the right to exist” drew huge applause. Fain introduced Bernie as a hero for the working class.
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Making his way through the multiple overflow rooms of Lincoln High, Bernie recalled its namesake and quoted the Gettysburg address, calling for a government of, by, and for the people. He noted that his tour stops were in GOP districts won by slim margins, including this one represented by Congressman John James. Denouncing authoritarian budget cuts by oligarchs, he implored James and other Republicans to vote for a reconciliation bill. In typical Bernie style, he brought the receipts and listed the draconian cuts in the name of DOGE — $880 billion from Medicaid, $230 million from nutrition programs, layoffs of 83,000 VA workers — and highlighted the 30,000 people who die each year waiting for SSI disability benefits.
Referring to Donald Trump’s inauguration speech, Bernie walked through each lie — stolen elections, undocumented people voting, climate change as a Chinese hoax, Ukraine invading Russia — as deflections from the real issues of the working class. He spoke of the creation of a parallel universe, promoted by right-wing social media, telling Americans to “give up on your government” with the goal of complete privatization. He provided alarming yet familiar statistics omitted in Trump’s recent address to Congress: 60% of the country living paycheck to paycheck, the decline of U.S. life expectancy, and the wealthy living an average of seven years longer than working class people. While claiming that we were turning our backs on democracy, he was soft on U.S. support for Israel, stating that it “had a right to respond [to October 7th] but not to wage war,” which drew a response of “it’s not a war, it’s a genocide” from a few corners of the crowd.
Distinguishing himself from mealy-mouthed Democrats’ response to Trump and Musk, Sanders called for going on offense. He called out those buying influence, including billionaires in the Democratic Party. Asserting that a progressive agenda is widely popular, with campaign finance reform at the top of the list, Bernie played all of his hits: healthcare as a human right, tuition-free college, $17 minimum wage, public funding of elections, overturning Citizens United, women’s right to control their own bodies. He pledged to reintroduce Medicare for All and the PRO Act. Saying “despair is not an option,” he recalled movements of ordinary people standing up against injustice, for the end of slavery and segregation, for women’s liberation, for workers’ right to organize.
The set was full of Bernie classics, but there was a lack of new material. Stating that unions are more popular than ever, he didn’t encourage the crowd to join one, or organize their workplace or community. Without an election looming and a candidate to vote for, the speech was light on what is to be done. There wasn’t even a call to contact one’s representative in Congress. The famously independent senator didn’t recommend joining a protest or a local block club, let alone the largest socialist organization in the country in over 100 years. To quote Lynyrd Skynyrd, “and this bird you cannot change.”
Hearing Bernie plainly say what few politicians will — that our country has been sold to the highest bidder and it’s the people who should call the shots — is a message that drew thousands out on a chilly afternoon. It recalls the hope of his 2020 presidential run, in our present era of despair. Clearly the masses are riled up, but how should they channel their righteous anger? What is the vehicle for expressing their political power between now and the midterms? What steps must be taken to harness this energy before it dissipates back into a call to “vote blue no matter who” in 2026?
