AOC, Sanders rally Nevadans to fight oligarchy and ‘defeat authoritarianism’

Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont came to Southern Nevada Thursday with a simple message: fight back.

“This country faces enormous crises,” Sanders said to a crowd at Craig Ranch Regional Park in North Las Vegas. “How we respond to these crises today will impact not only our lives, but the lives of our kids, future generations, and in terms of climate change, the very well being of the planet.”

Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders joined Democratic U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford on Thursday as part of the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour that is scheduled to travel to Arizona and Colorado for additional stops this week.

The two national Democratic figures spoke to the crowd about the ongoing Trump administration-fueled anxiety over inflation and the economy, and Republicans positioning themselves to cut Medicaid and Social Security. 

Both encouraged the crowd not to feel overwhelmed by perpetual news cycles detailing the chaotic efforts of the Trump administration and Elon Musk to dismantle the federal government while sidestepping Congress and attempting to stiff-arm the courts.

“When the system is stacked against you, it’s hard to feel like anything you do matters,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It’s hard to feel like we matter in this democracy, and it is easier to give in to despair.”

Horsford credited Sanders for building one of “the most powerful grassroots movements in history” as well as for a career “fighting for working people and health care as a human right.”

Horsford said there are more fights ahead as Republicans, at Trump’s bidding, plan to cut Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

“Right now, Republicans want to slash $880 billion from Medicaid,” Horsford said while the crowd booed in response. “That’s not cutting waste. That’s cutting people’s lifelines.”

Sanders said the only way to addressing the nation’s problems will require “a frank discussion about the economic and political realities facing our country.”

Since Trump’s victory in November, Democrats have been largely in the political wilderness, and a consensus strategy for going forward has been elusive.

The Trump Administration, Sanders said, is undermining democracy, “working aggressively to take away our freedom of speech and freedom of assembly” all while siding with authoritarians such as Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Both he and Ocasio-Cortez painted a picture of what they said is two different Americas: one that works for billionaires like Musk or Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and one that leaves behind working class people. 

Though Sanders said that isn’t new, the current efforts by the Trump administration along with Musk are exacerbating underlying problems. 

Musk, an unelected adviser who heads the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has been on a demolition spree in the federal government, slashing workforces in multiple federal agencies, and all but eliminating others, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

Several judges have ruled against actions taken by Musk and Trump, with many of those rulings expected to make their way to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday warned that Trump handed the keys of the country to Musk who is now “selling this country for parts to the richest people on the planet for a kickback.” 

“In exchange, he will bankroll his campaigns and those of his allies,” she said. “They scratch his back, he scratches theirs, and the rest of us are left behind.”

Musk has also vowed to use his fortune to finance primary challengers to any Republicans who defy him or Trump.

‘Primary Chuck’

Last week, House Democrats hoped to rein in some of the actions of the Trump administration,  and rallied the caucus to vote against a Republican-written continuing resolution to fund the government through Sept. 30. 

House Democrats warned the GOP measure was a power grab that would further enable and empower Musk and Trump to dismantle federal agencies and services without congressional input. 

Most Democratic senators echoed the House Democrats’ concerns. But U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Nevada U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and eight other Senate Democrats voted to advance the GOP-backed measure in efforts to prevent a government shutdown. 

Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday applauded Horsford and Nevada’s other House Democrats, as well Democratic U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, for voting to defeat the resolution. She declined to mention Cortez Masto.

Schumer’s decision to advance the bill averted a shutdown but did nothing to reassert congressional authority over spending, which has promoted outrages within the Democratic Party as well as pushback from constituents. 

Some in the crowd chanted for Ocasio-Cortez to “primary Chuck” when Schumer seeks re-election in 2028.

A goal of the tour, which Sanders launched in the Midwest four weeks ago, is to galvanize grassroots power of everyday people to “defeat authoritarianism and root out the corruption in the White House,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

She emphasized the movement’s diversity — and its inclusion. 

“No matter how you identify or what you believe, especially out here if you’re a trans kid or a family of a trans kid, an LGBTQ family, we can’t throw you under the bus,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “In fact, we can’t win without you.”

The comments come as more prominent Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have become critical of efforts to defend transgender rights and protections in the wake of Trump’s election. 

Ocasio-Cortez said the movement was about solidarity rather than “partisan labels or purity tests.”

“It’s about class solidarity,” she said, and the “people who came out here today to stand here together and say, our lives deserve dignity and our work deserves respect no matter who we are or where we come from.”

Sanders said it’s not just enough to challenge the Trump administration. He also called, as he has for decades, for drastic changes to campaign finance laws that allow corporations to control politicians while keeping peoples’ voices from being heard. 

“We are all here to say very loudly and clearly, no, we will not accept an oligarchic form of society where a handful of billionaires run the government,” he said. “No, we will not accept a society of massive economic inequalities where the very rich are becoming much richer, while working families across the country struggle to put food on the table.”