There are few politicians I have any respect for, yet one I can say that I unequivocally respect is Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT-I). This despite some of his failings—he supported the war in Afghanistan, for example; he has bought into the dominant narrative concerning Russia and Ukraine; he has refused to call Israel's genocide what it is. If this last point seems to discredit him, then it should be noted that no other influential politician in the US has been as outspoken as Sanders in supporting the Palestinians' right to dignity and life. He has even supported an arms embargo and an end to Israel's offensive. Over the years, he has proven incorruptible and consistent.

Another moment that made me respect Sanders was his speech that came on the heels of President Donald Trump's horrifying speech to Congress, in which Sanders walked out. The rebuttal that Sanders offered was far more than the feeble words by Elissa Slotkin, a hithertofore nobody in the Democratic Party that refused to call out Trump's lies and divisiveness in any strong way. Sanders, on the other hand, named the tactic as the "Big Lie"—repeating grandiose falsehoods until it is believed—and somberly proclaimed, "My friends. We are no longer moving toward oligarchy. We are living in an oligarchy." If only Sanders could have delivered the rebuttal.

And Sanders also proved prescient:

For the past several weeks, he and Elon Musk have been throwing hundreds of thousands of federal employees off their jobs. Now, I know some of you are saying, ​"That's too bad, but that's the federal government, not me."

But I want you to think about this: If they can arbitrarily throw federal workers out on the street today, what do you think that Musk and his fellow billionaires will be doing tomorrow when Artificial Intelligence and robotics explode in this country?

Do you think they'll give a damn about you and your families? No. You'll be out on the street as well.

Indeed, this is the direction in which we appear to be traveling.

The far-right forces that have seized control of the most powerful organizational apparatus in human history—the U.S. Federal Government—have already made clear their views that certain people are disposable. They seek to wall off America and support allied forces seeking to reinforce Fortress Europe as they express their anxieties about the decline of so-called white civilization. Climate change serves their interests, at least so they believe. With climate breakdown, mass migratory moments, and social upheavals, a bordered world in which wealth is hoarded for the elites may be justified. Then, as there is no longer enough to go around, the rest of the world has suddenly become "surplus".

"First they came for the socialists…" This time, they came for the migrants. Then pro-Palestinian voices. Leftists could be next. If the right-wing trend in Europe continues—as is likely—his process would culminate in the complete bordering off of the Western world and the sacrifice of anyone outside of it. The movie that comes to mind is Children of Men (2006). A professor at the University of Florida told me that the plan amongst world elites appears to be to do nothing about climate change, and sacrifice billions of people to maintain a lifestyle that, even then, is not sustainable.

Bernie is cognizant of the impending fascism, and climate breakdown, which, he noted, was not mentioned once in Trump's speech. While he acknowledged the power of the billionaire class, Sanders asserted that they are not omnipotent. We must stay united. He recognized, as he has before, that identity politics has its limits. This is a moment we must move beyond ethnic, racial, and religious lines. If there should be any basis of collective consciousness, it should be class and, especially, alliance between the middle and lower classes. Anything short of this will not be sufficient to redeem the nation.