Arthur Camins is a lifelong educator and social justice activist. In this post, he explains why Democrats are wrong to pursue Republican voters with Republican themes instead of promoting policies that uplift the common good. Centrism has not helped the Democratic Party.
He writes:
Republicans lead. Democrats follow. And that makes all the difference. Libertarian and wealth-protecting Republican ideologues invest to influence and change most people’s normative ideas and values, whereas Democrats seek to discern and appeal to what voters already think. That has been the case for decades. It has been a triumph for conservatism and the protection of privilege. For Democrats, it remains a losing strategy to win elections, a disaster for a more equitable nation, or any hope of avoiding the worst effects of climate change.
The Republican’s route to power has been to shift public thinking toward several big ideas and implied values: Resources are scarce and therefore competition and inequity are natural and inevitable. Therefore, the pursuit of personal advancement is the only reasonable course of action. In that context, the advance of underrepresented minorities has been understood as coming at the expense of White people. The values message has been, “Look out for yourself because no one else will.” That dystopian message is designed to enable Republicans’ core idea: Financial regulation and taxes on wealth are a counterproductive limitation.
Responding to Republican inroads with white working class and lower-middle class voters in the Nixon and Reagan years, Democratic leadership, led in particular by Bill Clinton, pursued a different approach. They attempted to gain or retain political office by discerning how people already think and crafting appeals and policies to meet them. In pursuit of votes of the elusive undecided voters, Democrats picked up on conservative themes, ceding the war of ideas to Republicans.
For example, upon signing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 and in an exchange with reporters on August 22, 1996, President Bill Clinton said, “The new bill restores America’s basic bargain of providing opportunity and demanding, in return, responsibility.”
Clinton was responding to Ronald Reagan’s characterization of minority welfare recipients as con artists eating steak and driving Cadillacs living off the tax contributions of hardworking, law-abiding white workers.
The theme was still very much in play in 2013 when in an economics speech at Knox College, President Obama declared:
“Here in America, we’ve never guaranteed success — that’s not what we do. More than in some other countries, we expect people to be self-reliant. Nobody is going to do something for you. We’ve tolerated a little more inequality for the sake of a more dynamic, more adaptable economy. That’s all for the good. But that idea has always been combined with a commitment to equality of opportunity to upward mobility — the idea that no matter how poor you started, if you’re willing to work hard and discipline yourself and defer gratification, you can make it, too. That’s the American idea.”
So, we have Democrats at the highest level parroting the conservative shibboleth that poverty is a problem of the failure of personal responsibility and self-discipline rather than racism and inequity built into the structure of our socio-economic system.
Mainstream Democratic response to the push for charter schools is yet another example of their acceptance of deeply conservative language and with it, its underlying ideology. Publicly supported alternatives to democratically governed public education have several roots: getting tax dollars for religiously based schools; support for schools to skirt the Supreme Court rulings against the segregationist separate-but-equal doctrine; acceptance of the idea that government-led bureaucracies cannot be reformed democratically; attempts to squeeze profit from K-12 schools at taxpayers’ expense; and last but not least, undermining the influence of strong public-sector unions. The tagline du-jour for all of this is the right to parental choice, the core of which is the idea that education is a personal consumer good rather than a shared society necessity.
The bipartisan education policy of the last forty years has been a response to insecurity. American schools predictably fail to live up to the absurd disingenuous or naïve promise that education can provide equity in a systemically inequitable society. For Republicans, such insecurity is an opportunity to sew fear and division while promoting their everyone-out-for-yourself dogma. Unfortunately, Democrats rather than challenge that core ideology, have settled for, “You can’t save everyone, so let’s save a few.”
Keep reading.
This is a great post that traces the historical refusal of corporate Democrats to fully embrace policies that will help most Americans. I would add that adding to this limp ideological notion is the fact that politicians depend on so much money to run a campaign which often stands in the way of democratic policy. All of these neoliberal policies from the right and left have resulted in greater income inequality and the abandonment of the working class. Thanks to SCOTUS there is more money in politics than ever. It is difficult for the voice of the people to get through all the cash that is flowing to candidates from both parties.
It is refreshing to hear Bernie Sanders speak on the proposed microchip bill before Congress. Both parties see it as an essential to national security. The companies that already make billions are looking for financial incentives in order to manufacture in America. Bernie, who knows how to compromise, makes a case for an amendment to ensure loyalty to the needs of American workers. It is likely Bernie will not get all the concessions, but Bernie can speak honestly and frankly because he does not accept corporate cash. He actually works for the people. Too many Democrats talk about equity and workers rights, but few are actually willing and able to do much about change because they are beholden to corporations and the 1%. https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/prepared-remarks-sanders-files-amendment-on-microchip-legislation-to-restrict-blank-check-corporate-welfare
According to Pew Research these are the issues the majority of Americans care about. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/02/16/publics-top-priority-for-2022-strengthening-the-nations-economy/
#1 at 71% is Strengthening the Economy. That’s too broa an “issue”(!!) and covers too many areas of “special interest”. Of course it sounds good and many people are hurting financially, but we are back to BBB and squabbling over who gets what….and the banks and Wall Street get to make the rules and siphon off the top. How were those pew research questions asked/posed and to what group of people? Just more of the Dems trying to play like the Republicans to gain votes. Sorry, call me pessimistic, but I call it like I see it.
Retired teacher, re: your 2nd link, it looks to me like the public is misinformed [strengthening the US economy is a top policy priority]– at least if the public thinks that hasn’t happened/ is happening. Although it’s true that our inflation rate is about 1.8% higher than that of peer economic nations, our GDP recovery has been far swifter and more robust: we are about double GDP recovery compared to peer nations. Economists attribute our robust GDP recovery to putting considerably more $$ directly into the pocketbooks of citizens during pandemic, by comparison to other countries. By the same token, that gives us higher inflation. It remains to be seen whether fed can refine inflation-busting raises in interest so carefully that they avoid triggering a recession.
retired teacher– thank you for remembering and reinforcing that much of our difficulty in passing legislation that would help all people and the whole economy stems from the 2010 Cit-United SCOTUS decision. We were already well on that path, Cit-United decision just cast it in concrete and rapidly exacerbated the problem to no-holds-barred.
It reminds me of Clinton dumping the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999– it had already been chipped away at by various judicial decisions, and practice that ran ahead of the law without being caught– but repealing it meant halting the trend was out of reach, legally—so it increased like topsy. [And of course the 2 are connected – one led to the other.]
The economy does better when we all do better together. The middle class is the driver of the consumer economy. The ultra rich continue to do great. If the companies do better, the people that work in the economy should benefit as well. Corporations drive up their value by buying back stock and keeping wages low. This is how workers are left behind.
Well said, Arthur Camins and retired teacher.
Bernie Sanders is who we wish reflected the Democratic Party. His ideas threaten the plutocracy’s continued drain on American GDP.
Now is no time for half measures. Democrats must embrace progressivism.
But Dems need to get back to basics. They need to pick 3 or 4 big issues that affect ALL citizens and push those issues (M4A, education, climate). The reason BBB didn’t make it was because every little cause (activists/special interest groups) wanted $$$$ and the squabbling and groveling turned most everyone off. I know you hate Joe Manchin (I don’t care much for him either), but one of the reasons why he voted against BBB was because of the way that $$$ was going to be funneled into his state and how his poor constituency would not be able to benefit fully from those funds. BBB sounded great and some parts actually were great, but it was wasteful in many ways. Dems need to do better and they need to be more like Bernie Sanders in how they raise funds to get re-elected.
LisaM—“ The reason BBB didn’t make it was because every little cause (activists/special interest groups) wanted $$$$ and the squabbling and groveling turned most everyone off.” Really? From my observation, the only reason BBB didn’t pass is because Manchin and Sinema had problems– not multiple activist/ spec int groups. Correct me if I’m wrong… But if I’m right, what that tells me is, we’re short two [actual] Democrats in the Senate.
bethree5….how come not a single moderate Republican voted for BBB? It shouldn’t have rested all on Manchin and Sinema. BBB was a lot of ambitious talk (and $$$$ ) but it wouldn’t have delivered a good outcome on any one big issue. Sorry, but that’s how I see it.
LisaM– “how come not a single moderate Republican voted for BBB?”
There aren’t any moderate Republicans anymore. Some may hide-close to-vest such a position, but they’re all up for re-election, they’ve all got a history of indulging the furthest-rw element of their constituents in order to get that skosh of margin to put them over the top, they’re all afraid of being primaried from a further-rw candidate. They march to the beat of one drummer, and don’t ever dare show themselves as “moderate.”
It is sad the Democrats have lost credibility with lots of blue collar workers. Working families should be the “bread and butter” of the Democratic party. Unfortunately, many of the blue collar folks have been tricked into believing they will get a better deal with the Republican Party.
Seems like you are saying that Democrats SHOULD act just like Republicans because if they do, they can trick the blue collar folks into believing the Dems are on their side!
If you are saying that blue collar folks believe in what the Republicans are telling them, then no wonder some Dems believe they have to do that, too! After all, those blue collar folks are scared of commie, socialists who will take away their private property.
Those blue collar folks rejected progressive Russ Feingold and embraced Ron Johnson. Probably they loved what Ron Johnson promised them and hated what Russ Feingold stood for.
Or maybe voters couldn’t hear what Russ Feingold stood for because they just kept hearing the Republicans demonizing the Democratic party and progressive demonizing the Democratic party. When both the left and right tell voters how corrupt and corporate some monolith known as “the Democrats” are, Russ Feingold loses and Ron Johnson wins. What a victory for progressives.
NYC public school parent.
So let me see Obama running around till August of 16 promising the voters in the industrial Midwest he would ram TPP down the throats of these voters with the help of Republicans had nothing to do with a few percent of these voters telling the Democrats to take a hike. Even if staying home was all they did. . That was after NAFTA and Permanent Most Favored Nation Status for China signed by Bill the Swill Clinton, cost 3 million manufacturing Jobs. With a 5x economic multiplier effect for every dollar in wages lost.
When Democrats are seen as no better than Republicans . Republicans win on Mr Potato Head and CRT . And don’t tell about Democratic Policy that assists the lowest wage quintiles of the working class compensates for the losses. Those Jobs lost were higher paid Union Jobs with benefits. Those workers saw themselves as middle class. Even if I do not.
Working people have never been a priority for the present Republican Party. Why don’t they see who really benefits? The 1%.
Actually, I’m saying the opposite. Democrats should be uniting behind issues that will help build the middle class. That is not possible with so many members of the party working for their donors instead of their constituents.
dianeravitch
You don’t think I disagree. Perhaps you should pose that question to Thomas Franks, Kurt Anderson or Mike Lofgren . Lofgren nailed it in 2011.
“The reader may think that I am attributing Svengali-like powers to GOP operatives able to manipulate a zombie base to do their bidding. It is more complicated than that. Historical circumstances produced the raw material: the deindustrialization and financialization of America since about 1970 has spawned an increasingly downscale white middle class – without job security (or even without jobs), with pensions and health benefits evaporating and with their principal asset deflating in the collapse of the housing bubble. Their fears are not imaginary; their standard of living is shrinking.
What do the Democrats offer these people? Essentially nothing. Democratic Leadership Council-style “centrist” Democrats were among the biggest promoters of disastrous trade deals in the 1990s that outsourced jobs abroad: NAFTA, World Trade Organization, permanent most-favored-nation status for China. At the same time, the identity politics/lifestyle wing of the Democratic Party was seen as a too illegal immigrant-friendly by downscaled and outsourced whites.[3]
While Democrats temporized, or even dismissed the fears of the white working class as racist or nativist, Republicans went to work. To be sure, the business wing of the Republican Party consists of the most energetic outsourcers, wage cutters and hirers of sub-minimum wage immigrant labor to be found anywhere on the globe. But the faux-populist wing of the party, knowing the mental compartmentalization that occurs in most low-information voters, played on the fears of that same white working class to focus their anger on scapegoats that do no damage to corporations’ bottom lines: instead of raising the minimum wage, let’s build a wall on the Southern border (then hire a defense contractor to incompetently manage it). Instead of predatory bankers, it’s evil Muslims. Or evil gays. Or evil abortionists.”
So from personal experience and this from one of the more skilled building trades that even requires an associates in labor studies (albeit with low standards for completion ) and tries to run critical thinking seminars . Again Lofgren he saves me typing typos and corrections .
“There are tens of millions of low-information voters who hardly know which party controls which branch of government, let alone which party is pursuing a particular legislative tactic. These voters’ confusion over who did what allows them to form the conclusion that “they are all crooks,” and that “government is no good,” further leading them to think, “a plague on both your houses” and “the parties are like two kids in a school yard.” This ill-informed public cynicism, in its turn, further intensifies the long-term decline in public trust in government that has been taking place since the early 1960s – a distrust that has been stoked by Republican rhetoric at every turn (“Government is the problem,” declared Ronald Reagan in 1980).”
Now the devout Trumpanzee is a racist and fascist but there are millions of workers who can be easily swayed because they are clueless and believe me sadly they are clueless.
Thankfully although up to 70% of National building trades voted for Trump in 2016. And I assume the same in 2020 . I was told that only 30% of my Unions membership was registered to vote . That may have been a good thing.
But in their defense those workers ask how in NYC and State controlled by Democrats for decades can they have 16% unemployment in what was (pre-covid) a massive building boom . While Developers are building luxury towers in Midtown Manhattan and doing so with an awful lot of undocumented Labor and Public tax subsidies. Asking them why Trump a developer himself, in his for 4 years never ordered the Labor Dept or ICE. to conduct I-9 inspections of the employers payrolls and it falls on deaf ears. They will tell you NYC is a sanctuary City . Try telling them that has no affect on Federal enforcement. The imagery of that language is extremely effective.
You try explaining to them that Labor law is written in Washington. Try explaining to them why a Democratic President has failed twice to pass the legislation they need. Not that they would understand the implications of the Pro act or EFCA before that . The end result however they would get.
But Lofgren again .
“A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress’s generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.
A deeply cynical tactic, to be sure, but a psychologically insightful one that plays on the weaknesses both of the voting public and the news media. ”
So that Union Electrician who earns as much or more than a Long Island Teacher, even if employed sees the threat of unemployment at levels that match the Great Depression.
And it would not be me without a typo.
X out one ‘for’
retired teacher– Blue collars have been pounded down over the last 40+ yrs, from middle-class to lower-middle-class/ working class/ working poor. Small wonder they changed parties. They’re still malingering there, mesmerized by the Republican culture-war narrative, figuring if they haven’t got $ well at least they’ve got pride about something. Republicans tell them what they want to hear, do a bait&switch behind the scenes, blame continued low QOL for mid/ wkg/ poor classes on the Dems [culture-war narrative again]. Pretty normal populist approach, historically, used by countries with big rich-poor gap &/ or where QOL for ordinary folks has sharply declined over years. Doesn’t lead anyplace good.
Maybe Dems need to put more effort into ways to amp up the GDP—along with correcting our way-off-beam distribution of wealth… It’s possible that just bringing lots more mfg back stateside might do the trick. Yes, prices for goods would go up… but perhaps if regular folks had ample shots at decent-paying jobs, they’d be OK with putting off purchases for big stuff, realign their priorities. Hope for one’s future, and especially for the future economic possibilities for one’s children, goes a long way toward satisfaction with govt policy.
bethree5
Sadly the jobs that were lost were in the Union Mid West and North. The manufacturing Jobs that are coming back have mostly been to the Right To Work South and South West . So Manufacturing wages are now behind the National Average wage. The one caveat when benefits
are added in Manufacturing wages are minimally higher.
So what is needed is a re writing of Labor Law . As it stands now there is a better chance of a blizzard in Florida in August as there is for Smalls to reach a first contract with Amazon on Staten Island . And probably the same with most of those Starbucks wins .
And of course I have to give a big nod to Joel’s argument. Dems have a huge debt, huge issues to live down, if we ever want to recapture white wkg-class voters [or black wkg-class voters, who are starting to stray Rep].
It became obvious 30 yrs ago [already in the works for 20 yrs prior] that Dems had joined the ranks of Rep union-busters and off-shorers of national wealth, & trickle-uppers, contributing to banana-republic-worthy rich-poor gap. Along with Rep move to the extreme & libertarian right, we trailed along behind & helped disappear moderates & push the whole political spectrum to the right.
Just sending cash to lower classes is a kind of a start, but it doesn’t do it in the long run. That’s a kind of a ‘welfare’ mode that doesn’t speak to people who want and need to work. We need to bring good work back stateside– make living+-wage work available to all classes. And we need to normalize a really-out-of-whack distribution of wealth so that we once again support public goods.
Hmm, Joel, I wrote that post before I read your 9:07 post. It was ever so, eh? I can think all the way back to ‘70s when I worked in corp world: so many of the 20/30-somethings in my dept left metro-NYC area for South and Southwest, seeing writing on wall they’d be able to maintain middle-class QOL there, while all was slowly shutting down in NE. Of course that rug was ripped out from under them by offshoring withing the decade, but maybe they’d hopped up to manager by then & could continue to skate along. I am seeing the same thing with the millennial generation: they jump downsouth/ southwest just to be able to afford to marry & raise a kid… half of them change minds and move back NE because they can’t stand the culture, & the slog is not as easy as they thought it would be down there. At least back home they have some family support.
Thanks Joel, for the post about Lofgren.
bethree5
My point was that manufacturing moved down South actually starting in about 48 after Taft Hartley. They moved because these States had the option of going Right to Work and did so. The States did it with an Oligarchy that controlled the Political establishment in those states . Probably dating back to the Civil War. (but don’t quote me on that).
The “toxic masculinity” of the South and that culture moved West . As Heather Cox Richardson documents in “How the South Won The Civil War” . Lofgren would say that Culture moved up to Ohio starting in the 90s .In any event it is not just the anti Union Laws and the politicians who threaten to take back Corporate tax breaks away if an employer like Volkswagen is not hostile enough to an organizing drive . It is those Southern and Western Workers themselves who buy into the myth of that rugged individual and see failure almost always as the individual failure rather than the system. Therefore they “don’t need no stinking Union” they can make it on their own.
If for example a worker develops silicosis, it is not the employer who exposed him to toxins but the weak immune system of the worker. If that sounds a bit over the top just think about how the South the West and large stretches of rural America who share similar culture reacted to Covid restrictions , mask mandates and vaccines. And it did not start with Covid Vaccines.
Fast forward if you were going to take your sweat shop back from overseas (very few have ) or open a new plant here . Where would you locate to be able to come as close to the conditions you might find in Asia.
Manchin is just a lying twit whose primary interest is protecting his own family coal mining business and his campaign contributions from the fossil fuel lobby.
The idea that he cares one whit for “poor” people in his state is just absurd. He was an outspoken opponent of the very thing in Biden’s policy initiatives that would have had the biggest impact on poor families in his state,: continuation of the child tax credit. Manchin actually claimed that parents would simply squander the money on illegal drugs and other such stuff.
I don’t know how to say this in a non offensive way, but the guy is completely full of shit.
Exactly. Manchin is a POS. Period. Nothing there but the smell.
AOC and Sanders have basically pointed this out, but Biden, Pelosi and other Democratic leaders would do well to point this out at every opportunity.
You do realize the WVa has the biggest opioid problem in the US? Do you realize that there are many children living with relatives or friends because parents are absent or dead due to drug addiction? These people can’t figure out how to access benefits for these kids let alone have the knowledge or time to do it. I’m sure you also don’t realize that addicts can smell money a mile away and they will stomp over their own children/family to access that money to support their addiction? Coal is the ONLY thing that WVa has besides its mountain resorts (for the wealthy seasonal visitors).
You can dislike Manchin all you want. Yes, he is a coal baron. He is NOT a great person, but he has made some very valid points about the distribution of federal funds in his state and “how”/”why” it wouldn’t work. I have family who have residence in the state….they are gov’t workers and Dems, and even they realize the dire situation in the state of WVa ….and they aren’t crazy about Manchin either.
I know those things that you point out.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Manchin is out for himself.
It just flies in the face of the facts to claim otherwise.
And Manchin himself is the one who was claiming people would just use the child tax credit money on drugs.
And his claim was not based on any evidence.
Just something he pulled out of his ass.
The apple doesn’t fall from Manchin’s tree. His daughter is another self-serving person. Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch, was the president and chief executive officer of Mylan Inc., a pharmaceutical company that specialized in generic drugs. The company raised the price of a two-pack of EpiPen from around $124 dollars in 2009 to $609 in 2016
The vast majority of child tax credit money went to pay for basic necessities and education for children.
https://www.cbpp.org/blog/9-in-10-families-with-low-incomes-are-using-child-tax-credits-to-pay-for-necessities-education
And what makes Manchin’s torpedoing of the entire child tax credit extension mist galling is that he killed it for every parent in the entire US, not just for his own state.
If he wants to force children into poverty in his own state, that’s bad enough .
But when he unilaterally imposes his goddamned self serving policy on every family in America it’s just beyond the pale.
What is it that makes his constituents re-elect him? Is it that they imagine he can bring back the days of plentiful jobs in coal?
& the WVA form of voter suppression is embodied in the opioid crisis. Great #s of the voting population addicted & non-functional.
No naloxone for you!
I can’t imagine why any low income parents in W Virginia would still support Manchin after he just basically called them all a bunch of drug addicts who don’t deserve tax credit money for their kids.
And that was precisely Manchin’s rationale for opposing the extension of Biden s child tax credit program, which had lifted millions of children out if poverty for the brief time that it was allowed to operate.
Not incidentally, through his killing of the tax credit program,, Manchin has virtually assured that the opioid and meth problems in his state will get worse since they hit impoverished communities the hardest.
It’s a new day, and apparently Manchin is willing to do something on the climate bill with a lower price tag, of course.
we have seen this movie before. Manchin says hd agrees, only later to pull a Lucy on Charlie Brown (who, like an idiot, keeps falling for tge same trick)
To s
Nk
Not go mention the fact that what needs to be done for to mitigate climate change should be based on science NOT on what some know nothing, self serving clown like Manchin says in order to protect his family coal business and his fossil fuel campaign donors.
And climate change is a separate issue from the child tax credit which Manchin simply deep sixed because, as I noted above, he thinks all his constituents are drug addicts more interested in getting high then providing for their kids.
Biden’s original Build Back Better plan was over $1 trillion. Manchin agreed to spending $380 billion or so.
The economy is also now in recession.
My congratulations to Manchin.
He and his moronic pals at the Fed who don’t understand the first thing about economics just tanked the economy.
Unless maybe that was their intention.
Manchin’s very clear opposition to the child tax credit was NOT based on some supposed difficulties people in his state would have had in claiming the money. It was based on an Manchins evidence less claim that they would simply squander the money on stuff like drugs and alcohol instead of spending on food, clothing and other necessities for their children .
Not only was Manchin’s claim not based on evidence, it just makes no common sense because it just assumes the vast majority of parents in his state are druggies who are not worthy of getting a single time.
Had Manchin actually simply had an issue with how best to get the money to his vonstigudnts, He could easily have worked with Democrats in Congress and with Biden on a good way to ensure that people got the money.
But did he do that? No, be opposed the entire child tax credit extension.
Manchin is extraordinarily vile. Let’s see, let’s try to hurt the poorest children in my state full of poor people.
Manchin’s opposition to climate change mitigation (particularly efforts to move away from coal burning) will literally affect hundreds of millions (if not billions) of people in the future.
Why our leaders are letting him get away with what amounts to extortion (for his family coal business) is really hard to understand.
The actions of people like Manchin will kill more people in the long run than sone of the worst tyrants in history, but our system not only great them with contempt but actually bends over backwards to accommodate them.
Our system not only does NOT treat them with the contempt that they deserve…
As we saw in the story about the two evangelical billionaires in Texas, they run fringe-right candidates against incumbents, which forces them to go even farther right. That suggests that progressives should challenge every Democratic elected official.
yes!
When someone cranks the steering wheel far to the right and you are headed off the cliff, you don’t just turn the wheel to the left a little bit and expect that everything is going to be fine.
At a bare minimum, You have to turn it all the way back to where it started.
And you actually have to overcorrect just to get the damn car back on the road.
Very well stated but not very original and that is no knock on Author but a complement.
“I’ve seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the fair Deal, and says he really doesn’t believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don’t want a phony Democrat. If it’s a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don’t want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign.
But when a Democratic candidate goes out and explains what the New Deal and fair Deal really are–when he stands up like a man and puts the issues before the people–then Democrats can win, even in places where they have never won before. It has been proven time and again.
We are getting a lot of suggestions to the effect that we ought to water down our platform and abandon parts of our program. These, my friends, are Trojan horse suggestions. I have been in politics for over 30 years, and I know what I am talking about, and I believe I know something about the business. One thing I am sure of: never, never throw away a winning program. This is so elementary that I suspect the people handing out this advice are not really well-wishers of the Democratic Party.
More than that, I don’t believe they have the best interests of the American people at heart. There is something more important involved in our program than simply the success of a political party.
The rights and the welfare of millions of Americans are involved in the pledges made in the Democratic platform of 1948 and in the program of this administration. And those rights and interests must not be betrayed.”
Harry S Truman .
oops: Arthur not Author
Arthur Camins, you are genius, & I’ve always been proud you’re a frequent commenter here.
Let me just pick apart this wonderful paragraph a little, quoting Obama in 2013…
“Here in America, we’ve never guaranteed success — that’s not what we do. More than in some other countries, we expect people to be self-reliant. Nobody is going to do something for you. We’ve tolerated a little more inequality for the sake of a more dynamic, more adaptable economy. That’s all for the good. But that idea has always been combined with a commitment to equality of opportunity to upward mobility — the idea that no matter how poor you started, if you’re willing to work hard and discipline yourself and defer gratification, you can make it, too. That’s the American idea.”
1.“But that idea has always been combined with a commitment to equality of opportunity to upward mobility.”
Social mobility had already been dead in the US well before Obama’s 2013 speech.
From Wikipedia article “Socioeconomic Mobility in the US”: “US social mobility has either remained unchanged or decreased since the 1970s.” [many footnotes supporting] “A study published in 2008 showed that economic mobility in the U.S. increased from 1950 to 1980, but has declined sharply since 1980.” “A 2013 Brookings Institution study found income inequality was increasing and becoming more permanent, sharply reducing social mobility.”
Or, if you are a boomer like me [the many of us with late-born kids], just look at your own life vs that of your kids. The reqt for 2 FT jobs to foot mtg, combined with childcare cost that eats up 2/3 of the 2nd income—combined with student-loan debt. Never mind today’s inflation, or 2007-08 great recession. The trend for decades, starting in late ‘70s: upward-spiraling, way beyond COLA, of the key aspects of middle-class life: cost of housing, healthcare, childcare and college [–the new prereq for entry to middle class as of late ‘70s, due to disappearance of mfg sector– thanks to our govt’s policy response to the triple whammy of automation, rise of 3rd-world economies, & digital revolution– made with zero concern/ projection of how to support society/ public goods]—combined with decades-long wage stagnation.
2.”We expect people to be self-reliant. Nobody is going to do something for you.”
This is of course massively disingenuous, considering that union and corporate jobs from post-WWII until late-‘70s in fact did many things “for you” in exchange for your labor and increased productivity. Per Economic Policy Institute article 8/21, “Since the late 1970s, our policy choices have led directly to a pronounced divergence between productivity and typical workers’ pay.” Their chart shows, for 1979-2020: productivity + 62%, pay +17%.
And let’s take a look at Universal Basic Income [UBI] pilot programs– “something for nothing.” These are essentially studies. The one in Stockton CA, e.g., selected 125 people at random from nbhds whose median incomes were at or below Stockton’s average median income [$29k in 2019 for an individual]. For a period of two years, each participant was provided with a stipend of $500/mo. Already in the first year, changes were notable. Just one of many positive results: the proportion of full-time employed increased from 27% to 40%. Participants noted the stipend was not just about $, it was about time: they were able to get off the treadmill of multiple gigs and focus on looking for and training for a better job.
The irony about universal basic income is that in just a few short years, the ones who benefit most from it will be many white collar and even professional people like radiologists.
Computers are going to eliminate their jobs and without uBI, they will have nothing. And these are folks who have a lot off schooling and are now making a boatload of money.
Computers are already as good as if not better than radiologists at finding many types of cancerous and precancerous anomalies in X rays, cat scans and MRis.
And it is virtually certain that these people will find their jobs greatly curtailed if not eliminated entirely in the not too distant future.
“religiously based schools”- the schools are evangelical protestant and Catholic.
Matt Schlapp, Steve Bannon’s surviving and politically flourishing religious twin, says Orban will remain a featured speaker at a CPAC event in Texas next week. Orban went full fascist in his recent comment about racial mixing.
This fight for democracy which can be described more as a skirmish, when viewing the response from some scholars on the left, is doomed if the enemy is not named. Why is Hillsdale perceived as anything other than the religious school of Clarence Thomas and Leonard Leo? Why is Liberty University rebuked but, not the University of Dallas (Catholic) or St. Thomas University? If I recall correctly, the St. Thomas campus Republican club’s scandal brought down the state’s Republican Party chair.
The marginally-aware American doesn’t have to be newly taught nor re-oriented to changing liberal policy, to be prodded into a reminder that Catholics have long wanted to take away women’s rights. Roe, in 2022, is a very vivid reminder. But, what does the left do, it makes the water murky by generalizing the enemy so that it’s all inclusive of other religious groups. Make that a win for right wing men like Schlapp, who heads CPAC.
“religiously-based schools” give me a break.