When will the good people at TLP - and they are good - stop willfully ignoring the top reason Democrats cannot reconnect with the working class?
It’s the money, stupid. When you have to raise millions to run for the House, tens of millions for the Senate, a billion for the White House, how can you depart from economic royalism? How can you offer anything more ambitious than “25K for your first mortgage?” You can’t.
If, despite this constraint, you want to retain the Party’s brand as champions of the downtrodden, the only way to at least simulate a fight for social justice is identity politics and elevating victimhood.
Dems aren’t stuck because neoliberal economics and identity politics are intellectually compelling. These zombie ideas persist because anything more serious would alienate potential donors.
The GOP’s response to this dilemma is no better: doubling down on an ideology that pleases their donors and buying off the voters with promises which are hollow (tariffs and tax cuts fix everything) but at least sound ambitious. Dems make tiny promises and Republicans make empty promises. Choose your poison ☠️, and for voters it’s no choice at all.
A solution? Make voters the donors with a democracy vouchers-type system of public financing.
TLP articles do a great job describing what’s gone wrong with the Democratic Party, but barely attempt to explain why. Campaign finance, more than any other factor, is why.
A more direct response that only the Democratic Left won't understand is that in a politically center/Right, center/Left nation -- which the U.S. remains -- elections will invariably be won by which party has won the greater support of the center.
Labeling Republicans as fascists while embracing transgender sports, open borders and bigger government is not going to make it for Democrats, or even liberal patriots. Their fortunes began to crumble when they embraced the Bernie Sanders wing of the Party to win in 2020, and will not improve under current paltry polling favorite AOC.
Relinquish the open borders, trans sports radical Left wing to third-party status and get back to the center by appealing to dissaffected Republicans.
I agree with a lot of the proposals here. Dems need to stand for:
1. The end to ALL irregular/illegal immigration
2. Increase immigration judges to quickly clear back log of asylum claims
3. Normalization of the status of immigrants already in US for more than a few years
4. Future legal immigration with emphasis on high-skill/English proficiency, not low-skill labor
5. Increased antitrust/white collar crime enforcement and support for labor union formation
The white working class suffered a triple whammy: decline of the Rust Belt due primarily to the Oil Shocks of the 70s, then offshoring of industries that took manufacturing jobs and low-wage immigration that took the local jobs like landscaping and construction. Also reduced anti-trust enforcement and support for unionization. Increased transfer payment and expanded Medicaid/ObamaCare made up some of the loss of income, but did not replace the dignity of labor. Keep low tariffs to preserve the low prices for goods, but let well-educated English-speaking doctors and lawyers and such in to drive down the wage premium these professions enjoy vs the rest of the developed world. Encourage formation of sectoral unions (like in Europe) to raise low wages.
What a great essay, and there's too much here to comment on, but I just wanted to say I thought of this essay when seeing a graph in the FT of support for "Fair Trade" Both conservatives and liberals were at about the same place, up until election season. Then liberals began supporting it more and more, and then after the election support doubled while conservative dropped down a percent or two. Anti Trump it looks like.
Media keeps saying the less well to do will be hurt most by tariffs. I have strong doubts, though I have to admit the media has done a great job of convincing people. How much of our families budget buys imports? Almost none. Gas, insurance, real estate taxes, tuition, rent, health care, all domestic.
Myself, an unaffiliated senior citizen voter, who voted for Obama twice and Trump 3 times, has seen the everyday effects of globalist policies in my small home town in CT. That is, the invasion by migrants, maybe legal but I suspect illegal. I've lived here 35+ years and have never seen anything else like it, over-crowded stores and multiple foreign languages spoken by the adults and their children. Fine, if they are law abiding, but if my property taxes spike, like this year over $500, I'm not happy about having to help support all these extra folks. And our elitist Senators, Blumenthal and Murphy, have nothing to reply to my emails except the Democrat Party line. As usual, these globalist Democrats, do not have to face the consequences of their actions like their constituents. AMERICA FIRST!!!
How would an American equivalent of Blue Labour feel about small businesses? It’s easy to praise small business, in part because they and the labor movement have a common foe in big business. But when labor and small business conflict (over the minimum wage, worker safety laws, attempts to unionize at small companies, requirements for employers to give more generous benefits), who would this kind of populist Democrat side with? I would hope they’d side with labor, but I wouldn’t be shocked if some didn’t.
(Of course, it depends what we mean by “small business.” It doesn’t necessarily make sense to put old-fashioned local shops, self-employed freelancers, and tech-focused “startups” in the same category.)
The increase in the Gini coefficients isn't caused by an rising gap between working classes and middle classes but by the immiseration of both by the oligarchs. The abiding failure of the Democrats is the blindness to the fact that they are the Establishment. Not only are they pushing a set of unpopular social policies but they are the home of the oligarchs and their minions in the clerisy. The Republicans you should be criticizing are the leftovers from their incomplete revolution and not MAGA who share many of your economic priorities. Should your version of resisting Trump prevail we are back with globalism. Populist fusion is the way.
"they are the home of the oligarchs and their minions in the clerisy."
The blinders at work here are pretty stunning. The richest oligarch in the world, Elon Musk, is enshrined at the heart of the MAGA government, and dicing up the state according to his whims, overriding the apportionment role of Congress. He's doing this from an unelected position never approved by a legislative body, with a thousand conflicts of interest at work.
Not a single MAGA Republican has spoken out against any of this. (nor against a million other institutional transgressions, but that's another story)
So if this is what MAGA does when given power--explicitly enlist the state apparatus to empower the high guard of the billionaire class--it's quite clear who the party of the oligarchs is: the one in power right now.
When will the good people at TLP - and they are good - stop willfully ignoring the top reason Democrats cannot reconnect with the working class?
It’s the money, stupid. When you have to raise millions to run for the House, tens of millions for the Senate, a billion for the White House, how can you depart from economic royalism? How can you offer anything more ambitious than “25K for your first mortgage?” You can’t.
If, despite this constraint, you want to retain the Party’s brand as champions of the downtrodden, the only way to at least simulate a fight for social justice is identity politics and elevating victimhood.
Dems aren’t stuck because neoliberal economics and identity politics are intellectually compelling. These zombie ideas persist because anything more serious would alienate potential donors.
The GOP’s response to this dilemma is no better: doubling down on an ideology that pleases their donors and buying off the voters with promises which are hollow (tariffs and tax cuts fix everything) but at least sound ambitious. Dems make tiny promises and Republicans make empty promises. Choose your poison ☠️, and for voters it’s no choice at all.
A solution? Make voters the donors with a democracy vouchers-type system of public financing.
TLP articles do a great job describing what’s gone wrong with the Democratic Party, but barely attempt to explain why. Campaign finance, more than any other factor, is why.
www.savedemocracyinamerica.org
A more direct response that only the Democratic Left won't understand is that in a politically center/Right, center/Left nation -- which the U.S. remains -- elections will invariably be won by which party has won the greater support of the center.
Labeling Republicans as fascists while embracing transgender sports, open borders and bigger government is not going to make it for Democrats, or even liberal patriots. Their fortunes began to crumble when they embraced the Bernie Sanders wing of the Party to win in 2020, and will not improve under current paltry polling favorite AOC.
Relinquish the open borders, trans sports radical Left wing to third-party status and get back to the center by appealing to dissaffected Republicans.
Period. Full stop.
I agree with a lot of the proposals here. Dems need to stand for:
1. The end to ALL irregular/illegal immigration
2. Increase immigration judges to quickly clear back log of asylum claims
3. Normalization of the status of immigrants already in US for more than a few years
4. Future legal immigration with emphasis on high-skill/English proficiency, not low-skill labor
5. Increased antitrust/white collar crime enforcement and support for labor union formation
The white working class suffered a triple whammy: decline of the Rust Belt due primarily to the Oil Shocks of the 70s, then offshoring of industries that took manufacturing jobs and low-wage immigration that took the local jobs like landscaping and construction. Also reduced anti-trust enforcement and support for unionization. Increased transfer payment and expanded Medicaid/ObamaCare made up some of the loss of income, but did not replace the dignity of labor. Keep low tariffs to preserve the low prices for goods, but let well-educated English-speaking doctors and lawyers and such in to drive down the wage premium these professions enjoy vs the rest of the developed world. Encourage formation of sectoral unions (like in Europe) to raise low wages.
What a great essay, and there's too much here to comment on, but I just wanted to say I thought of this essay when seeing a graph in the FT of support for "Fair Trade" Both conservatives and liberals were at about the same place, up until election season. Then liberals began supporting it more and more, and then after the election support doubled while conservative dropped down a percent or two. Anti Trump it looks like.
Media keeps saying the less well to do will be hurt most by tariffs. I have strong doubts, though I have to admit the media has done a great job of convincing people. How much of our families budget buys imports? Almost none. Gas, insurance, real estate taxes, tuition, rent, health care, all domestic.
Myself, an unaffiliated senior citizen voter, who voted for Obama twice and Trump 3 times, has seen the everyday effects of globalist policies in my small home town in CT. That is, the invasion by migrants, maybe legal but I suspect illegal. I've lived here 35+ years and have never seen anything else like it, over-crowded stores and multiple foreign languages spoken by the adults and their children. Fine, if they are law abiding, but if my property taxes spike, like this year over $500, I'm not happy about having to help support all these extra folks. And our elitist Senators, Blumenthal and Murphy, have nothing to reply to my emails except the Democrat Party line. As usual, these globalist Democrats, do not have to face the consequences of their actions like their constituents. AMERICA FIRST!!!
How would an American equivalent of Blue Labour feel about small businesses? It’s easy to praise small business, in part because they and the labor movement have a common foe in big business. But when labor and small business conflict (over the minimum wage, worker safety laws, attempts to unionize at small companies, requirements for employers to give more generous benefits), who would this kind of populist Democrat side with? I would hope they’d side with labor, but I wouldn’t be shocked if some didn’t.
(Of course, it depends what we mean by “small business.” It doesn’t necessarily make sense to put old-fashioned local shops, self-employed freelancers, and tech-focused “startups” in the same category.)
The increase in the Gini coefficients isn't caused by an rising gap between working classes and middle classes but by the immiseration of both by the oligarchs. The abiding failure of the Democrats is the blindness to the fact that they are the Establishment. Not only are they pushing a set of unpopular social policies but they are the home of the oligarchs and their minions in the clerisy. The Republicans you should be criticizing are the leftovers from their incomplete revolution and not MAGA who share many of your economic priorities. Should your version of resisting Trump prevail we are back with globalism. Populist fusion is the way.
"they are the home of the oligarchs and their minions in the clerisy."
The blinders at work here are pretty stunning. The richest oligarch in the world, Elon Musk, is enshrined at the heart of the MAGA government, and dicing up the state according to his whims, overriding the apportionment role of Congress. He's doing this from an unelected position never approved by a legislative body, with a thousand conflicts of interest at work.
The MAGA leader has 13 billionaires in his cabinet, and the richest presidential administration in history. https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-tapped-unprecedented-13-billionaires-top-administration-roles/story?id=116872968
It's a long-standing pattern, still repeating itself; said leader openly bragged just a week ago about enriching his billionaire friends through the 'liberation day' tariff whiplash. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-billionaire-profits-dropped-tariffs-b2731386.html
Not a single MAGA Republican has spoken out against any of this. (nor against a million other institutional transgressions, but that's another story)
So if this is what MAGA does when given power--explicitly enlist the state apparatus to empower the high guard of the billionaire class--it's quite clear who the party of the oligarchs is: the one in power right now.