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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism summary
Bernie Sanders
What it Would Take to Change the Status Quo That Enriches Billionairs and Holds the Working Class Down
3.9 (16 ratings)
12 mins
6 key ideas
Audio & text
What is It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism about?
It’s OK to be Angry About Capitalism (2023) is a critique of the economic and political system in the US. It offers a blueprint on how to move past unbridled capitalism onto a fairer and freer future.
About the Author
Bernie Sanders is a US politician who served as the US senator for Vermont from 2007 to 2022. For his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, he organized a successful grassroots movement. He advocates for universal healthcare, raising the minimum wage, and combating climate change.
Table of Contents
It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism
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Key idea 1 of 6
What Went Right, What Went Wrong
For both his presidential campaigns, Sanders ran on a platform of social democratic ideas such as free health care, making billionaires pay taxes, and protecting the climate. Surprisingly, in the 2016 Democratic primary, Sanders won 22 states. He was more popular with young Black and Latinx voters than any other candidate. He did this without relying on money from billionaires. Instead, his campaign was fueled by millions of small donations.
In the end, Hillary Clinton took the nomination and eventually lost to Donald Trump. But it’s hard to call Sanders’s campaign a failure. He and his team organized a big, diverse, progressive grassroots movement. They did so by holding local rallies, knocking on doors, and using social media.
When Sanders ran again in 2020, his team was able to build on this momentum. He won the first three Democratic states. But while the people seemed to want Sanders, the Democratic establishment didn’t. They rallied behind Democratic moderate Joe Biden. Other moderate candidates abruptly backed out of the race to secure more votes for Biden. Meanwhile, senator Elizabeth Warren stayed in the race despite poor results, dividing the progressive votes between her and Sanders. In this way, the Democratic establishment helped Biden win key states on Super Tuesday. Eventually, Sanders had to make the tough decision to suspend his campaign.
But while the campaign ended, the movement didn’t. To more and more people, his ideas – which had previously been dismissed as too radical in the media – now seemed necessary to build a fair America.
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Who should read It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism
- Everyone interested in the idea of democratic socialism
- Those who’d like to understand Bernie Sanders’s political agenda
- Anyone concerned about inequality
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