The Democratic Party is once again in the wilderness. Donald Trump won not only the presidential election but the popular vote. The scale of short-term and long-term harm that is about to be unleashed on our communities, our country, and our planet is genuinely difficult to comprehend. To work our way out of this hell, it should be clear that Democrats need to chart a new path.

What does that path look like? There is one man in particular whose ideas need to be reckoned with: Bernie Sanders. Bernie has spent his entire career telling the same story about America, and it may just be the antidote to the one that Donald Trump successfully wielded in his return to power. And it’s not just his fans who are saying so. David Brooks, formerly one of Bernie Sanders’ most vehement centrist critics, admitted this week that “maybe the Democrats have to embrace a Bernie Sanders-style disruption—something that will make people like me uncomfortable.”

Donald Trump won this election by winning the working class, massively improving his margins among voters without college degrees, young men, and Latinos. These are precisely the groups that Sanders managed to inspire and win in each of his campaigns. Trump dominated the online and new media ecosystem exemplified by Joe Rogan; in 2020, Bernie went on Rogan’s show and won him over. Trump ran on rage, performing solidarity with the many Americans who feel anger right now; Bernie, too, is extremely angry, and he’s never been afraid to show it.

But this is perhaps the most vital thing to understand about Sanders’ approach. Human beings need stories. Stories, to be compelling—to anyone, but especially to people who are unhappyz—need villains. Trump has a story that features clear villains; like every fascist and rightwing authoritarian before him, he directs, channels, and amplifies voters’ anger towards groups that are easy to scapegoat, like immigrants and transgender people, as well as institutions that they feel have failed them, like the elites of both the Democratic and Republican parties. It’s simple, it’s visceral, and it works. Or at least, it works in a vacuum, when unhappy voters are not offered any other story about why their lives are harder, less secure, or more painful than they should be.

There’s no........

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