Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the reelection of former President Trump would be the “end of democracy” in an interview released Saturday by The Guardian.

“It will be the end of democracy, functional democracy,” Sanders said in the interview.

The Vermont senator also said in the interview that he thinks that another round of Trump as the president will be a lot more extreme than the first.

“He’s made that clear,” Sanders said. “There’s a lot of personal bitterness, he’s a bitter man, having gone through four indictments, humiliated, he’s going to take it out on his enemies. We’ve got to explain to the American people what that means to them — what the collapse of American democracy will mean to all of us.”

Sanders’s words echo those President Biden made in a recent campaign speech during which he said that Trump’s return to the presidency would risk American democracy. The president highlighted the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in an attempt to cement a point about Trump and other Republicans espousing a kind of extremism that was seen by the world on that day.

  • Socsa
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    10 months ago

    The “Genocide Joe” shit is so obviously right wing astroturfing I legitimately cannot read it without imagining trump sitting at a computer typing with his index fingers.

    To be very clear - there are some very big issues with the military support of Israel which should discussed out in the open. But doing the Trump name calling thing isn’t engaging in good faith. It’s obvious trolling.

    • HACKthePRISONS@kolektiva.social
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      10 months ago

      >The “Genocide Joe” shit is so obviously right wing astroturfing I legitimately cannot read it without imagining trump sitting at a computer typing with his index fingers.

      got some evidence for this accusation?

      • Socsa
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        10 months ago

        Evidence of me imagining how Trump types?

          • Socsa
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            10 months ago

            Are you asking me how I know that leftists who want Donald Trump to win are fake leftists?

            • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              Call us fake leftists if you like but if you need our votes what you label us is irrelevant. We aren’t voting for Joe Biden again. Stop voting for procorporate trash in the primaries.

              • drewofdoom@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                If you’re not skeptical of single issue leftists, then you should be more skeptical in general.

                We know that there was a LOT of foreign astroturfing in 2016. And 2020. 2024 will likely repeat this trend, but armed with AI.

                We’ve already seen one weak “it was AI and fake” argument from Roger Stone. Going to see a lot more of that this year, too.

                So he careful who you trust, because they just might have an agenda.

                • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  If you’re not skeptical of single issue leftists, then you should be more skeptical in general.

                  That’s certainly a convenient way to dismiss people who don’t think Democrats should be supporting genocide.

                  It’s been great watching centrist Democrats cave and capitulate endlessly over the course of decades, only to find out that the single issue they will actually hold firm on is supporting the genocide they’ve always wanted.

                  • drewofdoom@lemmy.world
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                    10 months ago

                    Oh, I’m firmly against genocide. I’m also against the death penalty. I lean a lot more socialist and am what most on the right would consider an “extreme leftist” (even though my views are pretty much center left when you consider global politics).

                    I think that relations with Israel are very complex, and Biden is fucking them up. I don’t support what his administration is doing in thar regard.

                    But I also lived through the last Trump presidency, and I know what is at stake. Most of the astroturfing we’ve seen aimed at the left for the last decade, at least, has been an attempt to suppress the Democratic vote by latching onto a single issue to point to and say, “see! The Democrats are just as bad!”

                    When people don’t show up for the presidential, down ballot votes suffer, too.

                    And in the end, will you want to vote for the guy who supports Israel and wants to destroy democracy, or the guy who supports Israel and wants to retain democracy? Because those are the likely choices.

                    So keep the pressure on. Call your representatives and let them know of your disapproval. But please stop with this, “the Democrats are evil because of this one thing,” bullshit. Politics are complicated, and you should be able to recognize and weigh more than one issue at a time.

              • mightyfoolish@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                The people who are the ones who complain with:

                Stop talking about “BOTH SIDES” like they are equally evil

                seem to be die hard Democrats. I do agree with them that there is definitely is an issue where the “non-Republican” vote is split into many sections. This leads to the issue where the Democrats are mad at other non-Republicans for “splitting the vote” and causing their party a tough time.

                Lately, all Democrats do is cry about Trump while offering no solutions to the circumstances that put him in such a place in the first place. As if electing Biden stops Republicans from being Republicans? Medicare and Medicaid are being cut severely. Biden has been the president where scalping is finally lower and all he does is spend extra on killing.

                As you have noticed, negotiation about genocide isn’t even an option with them. We have to elect their official or we get, wait for it, genocide and fascism? 😱

                To Biden fans: If getting rid of Trump is your truly your biggest worry than vote for a progressive president with us!

                tldr: The Republicans have become so unbelievable that the insanity and inability of Democrats to do anything is normal to many people.

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Of course they don’t. But making wild accusations and insults is a lot easier than reexamining their positions.

        • acceptable_pumpkin@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          How completely naive. Is this your first or second election? Your moral black and white approach is incompatible with the real world. A vote for a 3rd party candidate is essentially a vote for Trump in the way American elections work. That’s a fact.

          This is as idiotic as the “Bernie or bust” people.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            But since, like I said, making wild accusations and insults is easier than reexamining your positions, you have chosen to belittle me personally.

            Let’s examine the centrist thought-terminating cliches one by one, shall we?

            How completely naive.

            It’s not naive to notice that centrists sling abuse when their positions are challenged from the left. It’s all they do when they know they’re wrong. Supporting genocide is wrong, by the way. I have to tell you that because I’m not certain you’ve ever considered that it might be undesirable.

            Is this your first or second election?

            This one is neat because not only does it contain the ageist assumption that anyone younger than the speaker must be wrong, it’s also gaslighting.

            A vote for a 3rd party candidate is essentially a vote for Trump in the way American elections work. That’s a fact.

            This is now the fourth time in this thread that I’ve had to clarify that I’m voting for Biden, because centrist Democrats immediately assume that any condemnation of his support for genocide is advocacy for not voting, voting third party, or voting for Trump. He still shouldn’t be supporting genocide. He still needs to stop. He still cannot expect the votes of anyone for whom his support for genocide is a dealbreaker until he ceases his support.

            • acceptable_pumpkin@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              “He still cannot expect the votes of anyone for whom his support for genocide is a dealbreaker until he ceases his support.”

              And my point is that those people would be foolish in throwing away their votes. If Trump wins, it’ll be even worse for everyone involved. The only way to make changes in this two party system is to make sure the current extreme right wing Republican Party falls apart, forcing them to the center. This would allow the democrats to shift back to the left as they should be. Having our choices as a literal dictator and a very centrist Democrat are not great choices.

              • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                And my point is that those people would be foolish in throwing away their votes.

                Foolish or not, they exist. If Biden wants their votes, he cannot continue to support genocide.

                And no, that wasn’t your point. It might be your point now, but that’s not what you led with. Your initial replies to me were all baseless accusations, incorrect assumptions, gaslighting and abuse. None of those are points.

                The only way to make changes in this two party system is to make sure the current extreme right wing Republican Party falls apart, forcing them to the center.

                And we do that by… supporting genocide?