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Barn Berning across America: AOC, Bernie Sanders take their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour national

The irony of Representative AOC and Senator Bernie Sanders traversing across the nation on their "Fighting Oligarchy" tour is almost too hypocritical to handle.

By:

Amanda Head

March 28, 2025

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“AOC”) and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders are crusading against the wealthy on their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour and some politicos are calling out the irony.

At one of their latest tour stops in Denver, a crowd of roughly 30,000 people came to see the event, according to the The Denver Post. At one point in his speech, Sanders proffered the crowd, “what I think is the worst addiction in this country, the most dangerous, is the greed of the oligarchs. How much money do you need?” Sanders owns homes in Washington, D.C., Burlington, Vt., and a summer camp on New England’s Lake Champlain. When asked about his homes during an interview in November with Investors Hangout, he argued that contrary to criticism, his trio of domiciles are “middle-class.”

Whereas Republicans previously were perceived to represent wealthy Americans, that has demonstrably changed. According Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data reported by Bloomberg, the wealth shift has produced a political climate which heavily favors the Democratic Party in America’s richest districts. As of 2021, 65% of Americans who make over $500,000 a year vote Democrat. 74% of taxpayers in districts that vote Republican had a household taxable income of less than $100,000. Furthermore, eight of the ten richest counties in the country vote Democrat.

During the duo’s appearance in Arizona last Thursday, Sanders told the crowd, “we’re not going to allow you and your friend, Mr. Musk, and the other billionaires to wreak havoc on the working families of this country. No, you’re not going to destroy Social Security. You’re not going to destroy Medicaid. You’re not going to destroy the Veterans Administration.” Republicans, including President Trump have repeatedly asserted that they will not cut these programs.

AOC followed the same songbook railing against the wealthy. “We’re going to throw these bums out and fight for the nation we deserve.” Sanders chimed in, “You know who the biggest criminals are in this country? They are the CEOs of major corporations who are robbing us every single day,” she told the crowd in Arizona.

While she is one of the youngest members of Congress, she is a prolific fundraiser, often benefitting from the benevolence of C-Suite donors. Since 2018, she has raised roughly $49 million. She also has been accused of not aligning words with actions after receiving donations from billionaires like Tom Steyer in 2018.

Evan Barker, a lifelong Democrat who helped raise millions of dollars for Democrats and volunteered at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, came out as “disenchanted, lost, sad and alone” in an article published by Newsweek last fall.

In addition to fundraising and volunteering for Democrats, she also served as an alternate delegate for former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and an intern for former President Barack Obama’s campaign. She now says, “It’s impossible to unsee what I’ve seen. I can only go forward. I’m not going back.”

And she’s not alone. She spoke to Furthermore Podcast on Monday and cited family members’ parallel shifts. “Pretty much my entire family voted for Democrats. I have an uncle who voted for Barack Obama twice. And he was a Navy veteran and was also in the laborers union in Missouri, and since 2016 he’s voted for Donald Trump.”

The political shift goes back a generation further in her family: “same case with my grandma, who wasn’t in unions herself, but worked blue collar jobs and was married to construction workers, and definitely benefited from unions and has also switched over to Donald Trump, as well as my mom, which, she was sort of like the longest holdout, and is now a Trump supporter.”

That shift likely impacted voter turnout in 2024. Former President Joe Biden registered 81.2 million votes in the 2020 election. Former Vice President Kamala Harries garnered 74.7 million votes, thought that number is being challenged in a number of states like California which allowed vote counting after Election Day. Therefore, 6.5 million Biden voters sat out the 2024 election and declined to vote for Harris. According to Barker, that sentiment exists in the party down to its core. “I worked on the campaigns directly as a staffer, but I know other staffers that are still working on Democratic campaigns because it’s their livelihood, it’s their only experience, and they feel very disenchanted, and they feel like they can’t really say what they feel and what they think, because they’re still afraid of being canceled.”

If Democrats have managed to build a new party image, it isn’t bearing out in polling data, either. In an SSRS survey sponsored by CNN, Democrat and Democrat-leaning voters were asked who best represents the core values of the party.

Ocasio-Cortez garnered the most votes, but only with 10%. Kamala Harris received 9%, and 8% went to Bernie Sanders. All of the other names, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, received 6% or less. 5% of respondents said that no one best represents the core values of the party.