Bernie Sanders and the Attack of the Millionaires

With Bernie Sanders seemingly headed for a decisive victory in tomorrow's New Hampshire primary, it seems that the Millionaire's Club is starting to feel the heat, or the Bern.

For first there was Rex Murphy on the National, denouncing Sanders for his class politics, and suggesting he's a communist.

Even though that tool of Big Oil is a millionaire, and lives in one of the glitziest condos in my neighbourhood. So it's yet another conflict of interest to add to Rexy's record.

And then yesterday, charging out of the gate like an enraged bull, came that other well known millionaire.



Bill Clinton.

Bill Clinton uncorked an extended attack on Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday, harshly criticizing Mr. Sanders and his supporters for what he described as inaccurate and “sexist” attacks on Hillary Clinton.

“When you’re making a revolution you can’t be too careful with the facts,” Mr. Clinton said, deriding Mr. Sanders’s oft-mentioned call for a political revolution.

Accusing Sanders of running a dirty campaign, even though his campaign is probably the cleanest in American history.

But then why should we be surprised that the Millionaire's Club is so agitated? When Bill and Rexy must hate this message...



Especially Clinton.

Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, combined to earn more than $153 million in paid speeches from 2001 until Hillary Clinton launched her presidential campaign last spring, a CNN analysis shows.

The two also reported at least $7.7 million for at least 39 speeches to big banks, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic 2016 front-runner, collecting at least $1.8 million for at least eight speeches to big banks.

And the reason the rich are feeling so threatened is because so many Americans are so angry. The American dream is fading, the middle class is shrinking. 

And as Alexander Panetta writes, both Sanders and Donald Trump are riding on the wings of a working class revolt. 

The rumpled socialist and the bewilderingly coiffed billionaire may be different personalities, with different worldviews, proposing different solutions. But they’re pointing to the same issues, real or alleged: free trade, decent jobs shipped overseas or replaced with machines, and an indifferent political class distracted by the priorities of its campaign donors among the mega-wealthy one per cent.

For Sanders, the proposed fix involves a drastically expanded social-safety net: free college tuition, Canadian-style health care, and paid parental leave. For Trump, it’s about kicking out millions of illegal migrants from Mexico, who are working under-the-table for cheaper salaries than Americans would.

Which is why Bill Clinton is trying to shift the battlefield from class politics to the gender struggle.

By appealing to the many progressives who believe that the time has come for a woman to be President.

But while that is a worthy goal, and one that I share, I don't think it's going to work for the Clintons this time.

Not when they don't have the support of the young who are flocking to Sanders in huge numbers.



Sanders took 84 per cent of the youth vote in Iowa, according to exit polls that showed Clinton winning richer, older voters.

Who want to believe in something better.

And will almost certainly believe that Clinton's attack on Sanders is an attempt to divide them, and continue to support Bernie as the one who can unite Americans.



And all I can say is who knows where this one is going?

But it's hard not to feel that whatever happens, the United States will never be the same again.

The seeds that were planted by the Occupy movement are finally beginning to bear fruit.

The millionaires are quaking in their boots. 

The future is on the march.

Go Bernie go...



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