BILLIONAIRE Michael Bloomberg, whose wealth amounts to $64bn, has seen his bid to purchase first of all the Democratic nomination to be its presidential candidate, and then to be the President of the USA falter badly on Wednesday night at the Nevada Forum.
Bloomberg had refused to take part in the Iowa and New Hampshire Primaries, concentrating on spending hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising in the main US states!
The forum in Nevada was the first major test for the former New York City mayor, and he failed badly.
Also on stage in Wednesday night’s debate in Las Vegas was Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, former US Vice-President Joe Biden, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg.
The Democratic Party’s leading right wingers, ex-vice president Biden and Massachusetts Senator Warren, flopped badly at the Forum, dealing a heavy blow at the plans of the Democratic leadership to advance both to be President and vice-president.
Sanders, the socialist candidate, won the primary in New Hampshire and the popular vote in Iowa, with former South Bend Indiana Mayor, Buttigieg, a complete newcomer coming second in New Hampshire.
A Washington Post-ABC poll on Wednesday showed Sanders at 32% with Biden falling to 16%. Bloomberg was third on 14% and Warren fourth on 12%. Everything was set for Bloomberg’s launching as the billionaire saviour of the Democratic Party’s right wing, but he failed badly.
Before the rally began, Sanders condemned him and a system ‘that allows billionaires to buy elections … My friends, that is called oligarchy, not democracy,’ Sanders said.
The great fear of the Democratic leaders is that Sanders will soon accumulate an unbeatable lead in delegates – required to win the Democratic nomination – if the field remains split by Bloomberg’s fellow right wingers, Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar.
The truth is that the millions of workers who support the Democratic Party have already had enough of the Bidens, the Obamas, and the Clinton family, all servants of Wall Street.
At the Forum, Sanders highlighted Bloomberg’s support of a stop-and-search New York City police policy that was directed against non-whites.
Elizabeth Warren warned the Democratic leaders ‘Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another,’ tying Bloomberg to Donald Trump. Biden highlighted Bloomberg’s past criticism of Barack Obama’s healthcare reform.
Pete Buttigieg warned that if Sanders and Bloomberg are the only candidates left standing after the next few rounds of voting, Democrats will be left with two polarising figures – ‘a socialist who thinks that capitalism is the root of all evil and a billionaire who thinks money is the root of all power’.
‘We shouldn’t have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down and another candidate who wants to buy this party out,’ he added.
But choose they must!
The Democratic Party is set to see the ‘mother of all battles’ to be presidential candidate, between Sanders who has the support of the US trade unions, and Bloomberg who it is said is ready to unite the party’s right wing by having Hillary Clinton as his running mate for vice president.
Sanders should stand for the Presidency, no matter what, even if the Democratic leadership manages to steal the nomination from him.
In fact it is high time that the US trade unions who support Sanders formed a Labour Party. US capitalism is on the rocks. It must not be allowed to take the working class down with it.
What is required is a Labour Party fighting for socialism, and the establishment of a section of the International Committee of the Fourth International in the USA, to lead the struggle, for a Socialist United States of America.