.@docrocktex26 second article on this. He laments that dems have “prioritized social issues” https://t.co/Kdoh1PPcQs

— Parry Black (@parryasblack) March 2, 2016

Bernie article from 2013, where he argues that the Democrats need to focus on winning the South by appealing to working class whites. How?

While he reserved his harshest criticisms for Republicans, a party of “extremists,” Sanders didn’t apologize for the Democrats. In his reading, the Democrats have become more and more reliant on corporate money and correspondingly have prioritized social issues at the expense of a progressive economic agenda. It’s not that Sanders disagrees with most Democrats on social issues—he’s been pro-choice for the entirety of his more than 30-year political career and proudly points out that Vermont was the first state in the nation to allow civil unions for same-sex couples.

But he argued that the rightward drift of the party on matters of income and wealth distribution along with its declining defense of social welfare programs has left working class voters deeply disillusioned and with nowhere to go.

“By and large, it would be hard to say that most Americans believe the Democratic Party is the party of working Americans,” Sanders told the crowd in Birmingham. “Both political parties are heavily influenced by big money and I think that people are in trouble and they don’t see anybody speaking up for them and the answer is they don’t vote or they vote on some tangential issues.”

But if candidates for office can put an egalitarian economic agenda front and center, Sanders is convinced they have a future in the South. They just might also get his blessing and some financial assistance.

I guess we can call that idea a wash.