By Jim Heffernan
This book was published September 30, 2025 and I read it yesterday.(Feb. 8, 2026) It’s a slim 144 pages, tightly written and a partisan pleasure to read. The book title echoes the name of the rally tour that Bernie has made since last April. He held rallies in about 40 communities and drew more than 200,000 people. Attendence was high in “blue” areas and in “red” areas. The fact that he could gather enthusiastic crowds in places like Nampa, Idaho and Tulsa, Oklahoma testifies to the universality of his message.
Bernie is 5 years older than me and Trump. He has no illusions about higher office for himself. His motivation is expressed in the dedication of his book:
“This book is dedicated to my grandchildren
Dylan, Tess, Ella, and Cole. Like all young people on this planet,
they deserve the right to live in a world of peace, democracy, justice, and environmental sanity.
Let’s make it happen.”
That dedication captures the reason all of us should be interested in how the future of our country unfolds.
“Boomers” older than 70 entered adulthood with affordable housing, healthcare, and education. Since then, wages have largely stagnated and the costs of our basic needs have sky-rocketed. This has generated a mass of seething anger that fuels the forces disrupting our nation. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders fully recognize this and attract their following from it. In the process, fully 40% of the electorate have become apathetic about their government and institutions. Two factions of 30% are fighting for control. Blaming immigrants and the “free lunch” thinking of tariffs narrowly dominated the electorate in 2024. Those counterfeit issues distract us from the true menaces we face — inequality, climate change, and run-away deficits. Trump will be gone by 2028, oligarchy aims to remain until people like Bezos and Musk own everything.
I’m going to close with a couple of excerpts and a bonus link to Bernie speaking to Congress on Jan. 28, 2026.
“Oligarchy is a system in which a small number of extremely wealthy individuals control the economic, political, and media life of a nation. It is a system in which ordinary people have very little power to determine the future of their country. If you’re an American, it is the system in which you’re living. Increasingly, it is the system that is dominating people in almost every country on Earth. In America today, we have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of our country. Right now, the people on top have never had it so good. Meanwhile, while the rich get richer, the middle class struggles to pay the rent, put food on the table, and pay for health care. The poor live in desperation. Today, one man—Elon Musk—now owns more wealth than the bottom 52 percent of American households. Let me repeat that. One man, worth nearly $400 billion, now owns more wealth than the bottom 52 percent of American households. The top 1 percent own more wealth than the bottom 93 percent.” – Page 3 ( In September 2025, he cites Elon Musk’s wealth as $400 billion, on Feb. 7, 2026 it was reported to be $800 billion.)
“During his campaign for president, Trump gave long speeches at his rallies. He talked about a lot of things, and, in some cases, he followed through once he was elected. He said he would seal the borders to illegal immigration, and that has largely happened. He said he would end taxes on tips and overtime, and provide tax relief to seniors. And these things are now law. While Trump carried through on some campaign promises, on the most important economic issues facing working families he did exactly the opposite of what he proposed. In fact, Trump has betrayed millions of his working-class supporters—especially through provisions that were included in his landmark piece of legislation, the “Big Beautiful Bill.” Trump has made life a lot harder for the working families of this country.
Let’s be clear:
Trump did NOT campaign on giving a trillion dollars in tax breaks to his billionaire friends, or $900 billion in tax breaks to large corporations.
Trump did NOT campaign on making the largest cuts to Medicaid in American history and throwing 15 million low-income and working-class Americans off their health insurance plans.
Trump did NOT campaign on raising health insurance premiums by more than 75 percent, on average, for some 20 million Americans who receive their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act.
Trump did NOT campaign on reducing access to health care for millions of Americans by cutting funding for community health centers, rural hospitals, and nursing homes.
Trump did NOT campaign on taking away free school meals from up to 16 million low-income and working-class kids throughout the country. Trump did NOT campaign on doubling or, in some cases, tripling monthly student loan payments for millions of Americans who are already drowning in debt.
But it’s not just in his “Big Beautiful Bill” where he has betrayed his supporters.
Trump did NOT campaign on shutting down Social Security field offices or making it harder for seniors and the disabled to apply for their Social Security benefits over the phone. He did NOT campaign on firing over 7,000 employees in the Social Security Administration.
Trump did NOT campaign on making it harder for our nation’s veterans, those who put their lives on the line defending this country, to receive the health care and other benefits they have earned by proposing to fire 83,000 workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Trump did NOT campaign on a $50-billion-a-year voucher program that will create a two-tier education system in America: private schools for the wealthy and grossly under-resourced public schools for the working-class, poor, and disabled.
Trump did NOT campaign on substantially raising prices for the average working-class family by enacting arbitrary across-the-board tariffs.
Trump did NOT campaign on giving corporate bosses free rein to illegally fire, intimidate, or harass workers who want to form a union by effectively shutting down the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency in charge of holding corporate union busters accountable for breaking the law.
Trump did NOT campaign on eliminating the constitutional right of over a million civil servants, a third of whom are veterans, to collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Trump did NOT campaign on appointing more billionaires to his cabinet than any president in American history. Trump has not drained the swamp as he promised to do. Instead, Trump’s cabinet epitomizes the swamp.
Rethinking Our Values, Sense of Purpose, and National Priorities
The American people are hurting. They have lost faith in the current economic and political systems, and they believe our country is moving in the wrong direction. If we’re going to bring our people together and restore faith in our government and in each other, we need a bold economic and social agenda that speaks to the needs of the long-neglected working class of our country—the people that I grew up with. But we need even more than that. We need to question the fundamental moral values that underlie the dominant behavior in our society today.” Page 112
Here is the youtube link for Bernie’s address to Congress Jan. 28, 2026. I include it strictly because it brought me pleasure, seeing a man older than me speaking coherently in full sentences. It gives me hope for my future.
Link to Bernie in congress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSqJIciG5Js
Book is available at Cloud and Leaf Bookstore, Manzanita and Tillamook County Library.
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com