Democrats who aren't busy convincing themselves that right-wing lies masquerading as rumors are in fact true things are focusing on how to fight Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans in the field of legislation. So is not-actually-a-Democrat Bernie Sanders, who earlier this week brought a huge printout of a Donald Trump tweet onto the floor of the Senate to try to shame the President-elect into not cutting Medicare or Social Security. Sanders followed that up with an appearance on Al Sharpton's Politics Nation Sunday morning in which he laid out how he thought the Democratic Party should keep fighting the incoming Trump administration.
Sanders and Sharpton talked plans for fighting against cuts to social programs, specifically Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, since as Sanders pointed out, Trump ran on the idea that he wasn't the kind of Republican who wanted to cut those programs. And if there's one thing we know about Donald Trump, it's that he keeps his promises. One way to fight, according to Sanders are his efforts "to revitalize the Democratic Party, and get this party to be a party that doesn't simply go out to wealthy people's homes and raises money, but becomes a grassroots party."
Sanders also took the opportunity to hype up the series of rallies happening next weekend in which Democratic members of Congress, unions and other left-leaning organizations will gather in cities across the country in support of Medicaid, Planned Parenthood and Social Security. "We're going to stand up and fight back in a way that we have never fought back before against this Trump administration and Republican agenda."
Sharpton asked Sanders if reaching out to independents who have leaned Republican would mean sacrificing diversity and leaving behind other pieces of the traditional Democratic coalition. According to Sanders, the party can move forward with more African-Americans, Latinos and women in leadership positions while still talking about "fundamental economic issues."
"We need not less diversity, but more diversity," Sanders said. "We gotta bring our people together, all of our people, to say we're going to create a damn government that represents all of us and not just the 1 percent."
