In response to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ claims that the Democratic Party needs to become more a grassroots party, former DNC chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz declared that the Democratic Party is already a grassroots party. This is interesting given who this claim is coming from. Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign from her position as DNC chair following an email leak in which it was revealed that the DNC had been favoring Hillary Clinton during the primaries. This was something that Sanders and his supporters had been complaining about, but the email leaks confirmed this. Not long after these emails were leaked Wasserman Schultz was booed off the stage when she attempted to speak.

The low voter turnout in 2016 demonstrates that the American people are dissatisfied with both parties. It also did not help that the two candidates that were running for those parties had historically low favorability ratings for presidential candidates. It is people like Wasserman Schultz who are largely to blame for this. Not only because of her unethical behavior that forced her to resign in the first place, but also because she, like many in the Democratic Party, refuse to confront the reality that the Democratic Party is not a grassroots party. We need to look no further than what is going on in Baltimore to see this.

The newly elected Democratic mayor of Baltimore, Catherine Pugh, expressed her support for increasing the minimum wage in Baltimore to $15 during her campaign. After being elected as mayor she recently vetoed a bill to raise the minimum wage. One of the issues that Hillary Clinton faced during the presidential election was that many Americans did not trust her. The perception that many had of Clinton was that she was not a trustworthy candidate and that she would say whatever the American people wanted to hear to get elected, even if she actually intended to do the opposite once elected. This is a view that even those who were close to Clinton expressed. Many voters feared that Clinton would do something like what Pugh just did.

Pugh’s betrayal of voter trust in Baltimore is but one example of how Democrats have been consistently supporting policies that are anything but grassroots. Other examples include the DNC’s recent rejection of a ban on money from corporate lobbyists or Democrats in the Senate voting down a bill to import cheaper medicine into America. Bernie Sanders, who is an independent, seems to be one of the few voices out that there recognizes the deep disconnect between the American people and the existing political order. Others, like Wasserman Schultz, are content with just pretending that a problem does not exist and that no change is required for the Democratic Party.

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Dwayne is the author of several books on the history and experiences of African people. His books are available through Amazon. You can also follow Dwayne on Facebook.