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Who's Afraid of the Word 'Oligarch'?
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Who's Afraid of the Word 'Oligarch'?

The crowds at Bernie Sanders' 'Fight Oligarchy' tour prove that ordinary Americans understand more about the meaning of the word than patronising Democrats give them credit for, says Matt Bernardini

Matt Bernardini
May 04, 2025
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Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez greet a crowd of 36,000 at the 'Fighting Oligarchy' rally in Los Angeles, Saturday 12 April 2025. Photo: Jim Ruymen/UPI/Alamy

It’s not an election year, but you wouldn’t know it from the massive crowds across America. With Bernie Sanders speaking again to thousands of enthusiastic fans, you might think it was 2016 or 2020 again. But no instead this is 2025 and Sanders is on his Fighting Oligarchy Tour, barnstorming the country and highlighting the extreme wealth inequality that we face in America and how to deal with it.

And as usual a schism has emerged within the Democratic Party, with the old guard once again seeking to tone down the anger that so many average Americans feel.

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Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, who has emerged as the up and coming leader of the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, chastised Sanders for using the word and said that the party should use the word “kings” instead.

She added that the party should retake the flag and ditch the woke label. Ignoring the fact that the woke label was only used disingenuously as a Republican attack, these kinds of empty suggestions seek to avoid exactly the problem that Sanders so rightly campaigns on. The massive disparity in wealth between the rich and the poor.

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