Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has spent the better part of 2025 on a mission: challenging what he calls America’s entrenched oligarchy. His “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which has already reached more than 300,000 people in 21 states, is more than just a series of speeches—it’s a rallying cry against a political and economic system that, Sanders says, is rigged for billionaires at the expense of everyone else. From Republican strongholds like Iowa to liberal havens in California, Sanders’ message is finding a surprisingly diverse audience. Progressives, Independents, and even some Republicans have turned out in droves, united by a common frustration: rising costs, stagnant wages, and the sense that the American dream is slipping further out of reach.
“We are living today in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. You’d think most people would feel that—but they don’t,” Sanders told Katie Couric on her podcast, according to Yahoo News. “And they don’t because the reality is that in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, almost all of the new wealth and income is going to the people on top.” It’s a refrain that echoes through his latest book, Fight Oligarchy, and at every stop on his national campaign.
Sanders’ grassroots approach is anything but rhetorical. He’s targeting Republican-held districts—especially those where the margins are slim—and leaving behind organizers to mobilize local communities. His team is even working with thousands of young people, encouraging them to run for school boards, city councils, and state legislatures. “We’re supporting candidates running for U.S. Senate, governor, [and] House of Representatives,” Sanders explained on Couric’s show. The idea: real change starts from the bottom up, not the top down.
This bottom-up strategy comes at a time of deep discontent with the Democratic Party. According to Pew Research Center data cited by Yahoo News, just 38 percent of U.S. adults view the party favorably—a figure even lower than the Republicans’ 43 percent. Sanders, never shy about critiquing his own party, blames this on Democratic leaders being “too much beholden to wealthy corporate interests and not paying attention to the needs of the vast majority of the people, who are struggling, working-class people.”
On October 20, Sanders appeared on The View and doubled down on this message. Pressed by co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin about the party’s low approval ratings, Sanders said, “I think the Democratic Party has got to make a very fundamental decision, okay? I think that Trump won a lot of working-class people not because they wanted tax breaks for billionaires. Not because they wanted to throw 15 million people off the healthcare they have or double health insurance premiums. That is not why working-class people voted for Trump. I think they voted for Trump because they looked at Democrats and said what do you stand for? What side are you on?” (Fox News)
Sanders insists the party must return to its roots. “We need the Democratic Party once again to say to the billionaire friends, thank you, and their corporate sponsor, thank you. We’re going to stand with the working class of this country,” he told viewers. He pointed out that most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to afford healthcare, childcare, housing, and even food. “Healthcare is a human right, not a privilege!” he declared.
The senator’s activism has dovetailed with a wave of “No Kings” demonstrations across the nation. Over the weekend, Sanders spoke at what he described as a “Love America rally” in Washington, D.C., part of a sprawling protest movement that saw approximately 26,000 rallies nationwide. “This was taking place not only in large cities, but in small towns all over America,” Sanders said. “More people came out to say no to Trumpism than in any single day in the history of America and we should all be very proud.” (Fox News)
But the fight Sanders is waging isn’t just against Republicans. As The New Republic reported on October 23, the past few months have provided a case study in how oligarchy operates in America. The magazine described how billionaires have passed legislation that enriches themselves—like the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which is projected to deliver over 70 percent of its benefits to the richest fifth of Americans in 2026. The richest 1 percent will receive an average net tax cut of $66,000, costing the government $1 trillion. Meanwhile, the bill would leave 14 million more Americans uninsured by 2034 and cut more than $1 trillion from Medicaid—the largest reduction in the program’s history.
The Trump administration, led by budget chief Russ Vought, has sought to fire more than 4,000 federal workers across at least seven agencies, with potential layoffs exceeding 10,000. Federal workers in the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights—those who protect vulnerable populations—are among those targeted. The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, for example, has already lost half its staff, leaving attorneys with crushing caseloads and tens of thousands of unresolved cases. Trump himself made the administration’s motives clear, telling reporters he was laying off “people that the Democrats want,” and that further cuts would “just deepen pain for the political left.” (The New Republic)
This pattern, The New Republic argues, is part of a broader trend: billionaires leveraging their wealth to buy political power, then using that power to further enrich themselves while dismantling public programs. The magazine points to polling from battleground districts showing that 73 percent of likely voters support raising taxes on billionaires, with even higher support among independents and Democratic primary voters. Progressive leaders—including Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—have championed wealth taxes, such as a 5 percent annual tax on fortunes over $50 million and 10 percent on those above $250 million. Independent analysts estimate such measures could raise $6.8 trillion over a decade and curb the growing concentration of wealth.
Yet, as Salon observed in an October 23 analysis, the roots of today’s economic inequality run deep. The United States, the article notes, has the highest rates of childhood and senior poverty among major countries. Half of older workers have no retirement savings, and a quarter of seniors scrape by on $15,000 a year or less—all while the country boasts 800 billionaires. The piece criticizes Democratic leaders for clinging to corporate-friendly policies that have alienated working-class voters and paved the way for Trump’s brand of faux populism. “Current Democratic leadership hardly conveys any orientation that could credibly relieve the economic distress of so many Americans,” Salon writes, arguing that the party remains “in a debilitating rut, refusing to truly challenge the runaway power of corporate capitalism.”
Sanders himself has often echoed this critique. In a 2019 op-ed, he wrote, “Structural problems require structural solutions…‘Access’ to health care is an empty promise when you can’t afford high premiums, co-pays or deductibles. And an ‘opportunity’ for an equal education is an opportunity in name only when you can’t afford to live in a good school district or to pay college tuition.”
As the 2026 elections approach, Sanders and his allies are pushing Democrats to offer more than a rollback of Trump-era policies. They want a unified, forward-looking agenda that confronts oligarchy head-on and restores faith in government’s ability to serve the many, not just the few. Whether the party will heed this call remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the battle lines for America’s economic future are being drawn, and the working class is demanding a seat at the table.
