Dislike for Rich People Motif
Sanders makes no secret of his dislike of rich people (although after penning this book he can definitely count himself among their number.) The first way in which he lets the reader know this is by the way in which he calls them "the rich", rather than rich people, or the successful; his term shows that he doesn't actually consider them to be people at all but rather a large group that he seems to dislike as a theory, without meeting any of them in particular.
Throughout the book his disdain for the super wealthy is an evident motif. He does not like the one percent, and does not believe they should be allowed to keep as much of their money as they do. He also hates big businesses because he feels that they own far to large a percentage of the country, which in turn gives them too much power and influence.
Crowd Size Symbol
Sanders is obsessed with the size of the crowds who turn up to hear him speak at his rallies. This is because he sees crowd size as a symbol of popularity and of success; the larger the crowd, the more popular he perceives himself to be.
Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez Symbol
The author sees this young congresswoman as a symbol of the new democratic socialism that he is working to popularize. This is a kind of socialism that is "prettied up" for public consumption and is seen as a more palatable version of socialism. Ocasio-Cortez is a symbol this.
Media Motif
Sanders' dislike of the media as a whole is a motif throughout the book because he feels that the conglomerates that own newspapers and news channels are enforcing a lack of coverage of his campaigns. He also dislikes the way in which they report on the interests of the company owners rather than on the stories that affect the majority of Americans every day.
Hillary Clinton Motif
Sanders did not hide the fact that he considered Clinton to be a bad candidate for President whilst he was running against her for the nomination. This is a motif that continues in the book because he not only goes over this reasoning again throughout the book but he also shows that he is campaigning for candidates whose views represent his own rather than hers; considering that she was the Democratic candidate for President, this is highly unusual. Throughout the book, it is Sanders' policies that he puts forward rather than Clinton's.
