Contents of this Post
This is Senator Bernie Sanders’ statement
right after the election. I have added some emphasis marks.
It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic
Party which has abandoned working class people would
find that the working class has abandoned them. First, it
was the white working class, and now it is Latino and
Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership
defends the status quo, the American people are angry
and want change. And they’re right.Today, while the very rich are doing phenomenally well,
60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and we
have more income and wealth inequality than ever
before. Unbelievably, real, inflation-accounted-for weekly
wages for the average American worker are actually
lower now than they were 50 years ago.Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker
It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.productivity, many young people will have a worse
standard of living than their parents. And many of them
worry that Artificial Intelligence and robotics will make a
bad situation even worse.Today, despite spending far more per capita than other
countries, we remain the only wealthy nation not to
guarantee health care to all as a human right and we
pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for
prescription drugs. We, alone among major countries,
cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.Today, despite strong opposition from a majority of
Americans, we continue to spend billions funding the
extremist Netanyahu government‘s all out war against
the Palestinian people which has led to the horrific
humanitarian disaster of mass malnutrition and the
starvation of thousands of children.Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants
who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons
from this disastrous campaign? Will they understand theOnly now, 16 years later do Obama’s acolytes seem to sorta, kinda have an inkling that their decisions converting a populist election mandate into a bankers’ bailout might have shaken working class voters’ faith in Democrats — and democracy.pain and political alienation that tens of millions of
Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas
as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful
Oligarchy which has so much economic and political
power? Probably not.In the coming weeks and months those of us concerned
about grassroots democracy and economic justice need
to have some very serious political discussions.Stay tuned.
David Sirota over at The Lever,
in his “Handbook for the Politically Deceased,” deals with some crucial questions, including:
What is the Democratic Party’s theory of winning elections?
Why do Democrats seem unwilling to focus on persuading working-class voters?
Why have working-class voters been fleeing the Democratic Party for years?
For example:
Only now, 16 years later do Obama’s acolytes seem to sorta, kinda have an inkling that their decisions converting a populist election mandate into a bankers’ bailout might have shaken working class voters’ faith in Democrats — and democracy.
and
It is, in short, a world where Democrats never have to choose between enriching their donors and helping the voters who those donors are fleecing.
Americans know this world doesn’t exist, which is why candidates and parties that pretend it does so often lose, even to right-wing con men.It couldn’t have been because of virulent racism because we elected a Black man, twice. It couldn’t have been misogyny, since Hillary Clinton got 3 million more votes than Trump in 2016
See Also:
– Lying, Stealing, Killing. Capitalism is THE GREAT Conspiracy, or Conspiracies. (Naomi Klein)
– Economic Justice in the Bible. It’s a Major Issue. (Edith Rasell)
Robert Reich’s take on it is similar.
This is from his post on Nov 14:
There was no mandate for Trump. There was no red shift. There was only a blue abandonment.
The biggest takeaway is that … 9 million [of Biden’s] votes disappeared.
Why?
It couldn’t have been because of virulent racism because we elected a Black man, twice. It couldn’t have been misogyny, since Hillary Clinton got 3 million more votes than Trump in 2016, and Clinton’s actions and statements probably triggered more misogyny in 2016 than did Harris’s in 2024.
There’s no evidence of illegal vote tampering or of voter suppression nearly on this scale. In fact, it was easier to cast a ballot this year than in 2020.
So what happened to the 9 million?
We can’t know for sure but it seems most likely that those 9 million potential voters — mostly working“I won’t vote for Trump because he’s an asshole. But I won’t vote for the Democrats either, because they don’t give a damn about me.”class — said to themselves, “I won’t vote for Trump because he’s an asshole. But I won’t vote for the Democrats either, because they don’t give a damn about me.”
The task for the Democrats is what it should have been all along: remaking the party into the party of the bottom 90 percent — the party of people who don’t live off stocks and bonds, of people who are not CEOs or billionaires like Mark Cuban …
Instead, the Democratic Party must be the party of average working people whose wages have gone nowhere and whose jobs are less secure.
…
Americans across the board want a fairer economy. Trump Republicans won’t deliver one. Instead, Trump and his allies are readying more tax cuts for big corporations and the wealthy and regulatory rollbacks. They’re preparing to hand the country over to billionaires.
Democrats! This is your opportunity! Take it!
__________
Questions for us:
1. Has it bothered you that Democratic Party leadership shies away from appealing clearly and strongly to working class interest?
2. Why, do you suppose, do Democratic Party leaders keep listening to consultants and donors who don’t think it’s smart to worry about how things really are with the working classes?
__________
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