Sanders: Obama lost touch with grass-roots movement

Nicole Gaudiano | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Obama's biggest political mistake was losing touch with the grass-roots movement that helped him get elected, Sen. Bernie Sanders told USA TODAY's editorial board Monday.

Sanders, I-Vt., who has said he'll decide by March whether to run for president, said Obama ran a "historical" and "extraordinary" 2008 campaign. But Obama believed incorrectly after the election that he would be able to negotiate with Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner, Sanders said.

"I believe that no president, no matter what his or her views, no matter how smart he or she may be, is ever going to accomplish anything for the working class and the middle class in this country without the active — italicized — active continuous support of grass-roots America," Sanders said during an hour-long, wide-ranging discussion.

Sanders said he agrees with Obama on many issues, disagrees with him on some and considers the president "one of the smartest guys who's ever been in the White House."

Sanders, the top-ranking minority member of the Senate Budget Committee, said change is possible only when millions of people are involved.

"If you say, 'Thank you for electing me, now I'll go back and I'll see you in two or four years,' that is a recipe for failure," he said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sanders said there's a "huge dichotomy" between what grass-roots America feels on many issues, including pay equity for women and workers, and what happens in Washington.

"Political leadership has got to be in touch with people at the grass-roots level if anything is going to be accomplished, and Obama made a mistake in that," he said.

Sanders acknowledged that Obama has actively used social media to maintain ties with young voters, and he said most Americans support much of the president's agenda. But he noted that Republicans took control of the Senate in the last election by linking Democratic candidates to that agenda.

Sanders said the nation's leaders need to make a "revolutionary change" in how they inspire the public by encouraging people to lobby lawmakers and stage large public demonstrations to rally support for causes.

"We have to figure out how you make that connection between the American people and the legislative process," he said.

Sanders, 73, the son of a Polish-Jewish immigrant father and a New York-born mother, is a former mayor of Burlington who has served in Congress longer than any other independent. He has caucused with Democrats since his days as Vermont's lone congressman, beginning in 1991.

A self-described democratic socialist, he said lessons can be learned from the Scandinavian approach to governing — focusing on health care as a right, free higher education and an emphasis on environmental issues and childhood poverty.

Sanders said the middle class is collapsing and the gap between rich and poor is widening. The country is moving toward allowing a small number of billionaires — such as Republican brothers Charles and David Koch — to control the economic and political systems, he said. Sanders called that "absolutely a frightening scenario."

He said that process was aided by the Supreme Court's ruling in 2010 allowing corporations and unions to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections.

"It may well be that within a couple of years, the Koch brothers themselves, just themselves, will have a political organization stronger than either the Democrat or Republican Party, and of course, they're working with the Republicans," Sanders told the USA TODAY editors.

Sanders has been testing his message in early-voting states, including Iowa, which holds the nation's first presidential caucus. He said working people have "a hunger" for political leaders to start "taking on the billionaire class," and he predicted a "very significant rebellion" will happen as the wealthiest 1% of Americans get richer and everyone else gets poorer.

"I think the pot is boiling, and the American people are saying enough is enough, this country belongs to all of us and not just the top 1%," he said.

Among the decisions Sanders is weighing as he considers a presidential bid is whether to run as an independent or a Democrat. He said people are dissatisfied with the two-party system, believing that Republicans have become "extremely" right wing and Democrats haven't been vigorous enough in representing working families.

But campaigning outside the two-party system requires candidates to be billionaires or to find some other way to establish a political infrastructure in all 50 states, he said.

"To run a serious campaign, we need some serious money," Sanders said. But he said that if he runs for the White House, he will reject donations from corporate political action committees.

"Can somebody run a campaign if you're not a billionaire and if you're not beholden to the billionaire class?" he asked. "Or is it now too late in American society for us to do that? And if it is too late, it's a sad statement."

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