Democrats completely abandoned the working class in 1992, when Clinton engineered China's admission to the WTO, assuring that the Rust Belt would become a permanent blight on the USA's economic landscape. Then along came Obama with his epic hope-and-change bait-and-switch, snubbing a public healthcare option in favor the porous Romney-esque ACA, creating a deliberately confusing and ineffectual homeowners assitance program, and bailing out, to the tune of nearly half a trillion, the very financial institutions that should have been prosecuted for the blatant financial fraud that resulted in 9 million foreclosures. And just when you thought the Democratic Party could not get any more tone-deaf, Biden proudly labeled the post-pandemic economy that was failing the working class in all the ways so comprehensively itemized in Stephen's column "Bidenomics" as he frittered away billions on genocidal proxy wars. Gertrude Stein's description of Oakland is now the perfect description of the Democratic Party: "There is no there there."
For me, if there is ever any hope for the social democratic Left, or the anti-war Left in this country it only comes with the destruction of the Democratic Party. Because it is the Democratic Party, not the Republicans, that sabotaged Bernie Sanders (twice), that sabotaged Keith Ellison from becoming DNC Chairman, and that fights tooth and nail to keep Leftists like Jill Stein off the ballot. The Democratic Party is where progressives go to die, witness Bernie Sanders’ and AOC’s complete capitulation to Biden’s pro-war and pro-genocide policies. Even the big unions have been emasculated by the Democrats. The Democrats are now fully addicted to the donor class money that fuels their campaigns. They simply can no longer give any concrete material benefits to the working class, hence Schumer’s prescription for more lip service.
Today the Democratic Party serves as the guardians of the Republican Party’s left flank. It serves only as the (false) alternative to the Republican Party whose DNA is always opposed to working class policies, but it is funded by the same donors as the Republicans: Wall Street, the Military-Industrial-Complex, Big Pharma, Big Tech, and the Zionist Lobby.
Sadly there is little hope that things will change any time soon. “When peacefully revolution is made impossible, violent revolution becomes inevitable.”
The Israeli genocide of the Palestinians is the crime of the century and has been viewed live on TV by the entire world. Biden, Harris, Blinken, Sullivan, and Austin have all been full participants in this genocide. Anything less than Bernie Sanders filing articles of impeachment for Biden and his cabinet officers is complicity and capitulation. The 118th Congress, the Genocide Congress, who stood and cheered Netanyahu is also complicit in this crime by any reasonable standard. Rashida Tailib excepted.
While I agree that Biden's foreign policy with Israel was bad and likely had some effect in depressing turnout. Turnout didn't drop in most swing states, the states where it really matters https://www.semafor.com/article/11/15/2024/democratic-turnout-plummeted-in-2024-but-only-in-safe-states or it changed negatively such that it corresponded to an equivalent positive increase in voting for Trump. Additionally, while I am not discounting that the end of Covid programs hurt people, they didn't existing in 2019 when people thought the economy was good and wages were lower. I think it's much more easily explained by real wages falling in the first 2 years due to inflation and then interest rates rising due to inflation which act as a sort of hidden tax.
Also you seem to be conflating the temporary covid aid programs with the Build Back Better welfare programs like Paid Family Leave, Child Tax Credit, Universal Pre K, making community College free for all, making child care more affordable. I don't think any of those things were included in the original Covid aid except the Child Tax Credit. You fail to account for how real wages have gone up for most americans, especially the bottom 10% https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/.
The issue, as mentioned in the article, wasn't turnout per se but share of the eligible vote.
Real wages did in fact grow since 2019, but real median post-tax income has fallen since 2019. What's more, income is more than wages -- it's about the social programs, too. And while Covid programs didn't exist in 2019, neither did Covid or the current cost-of-living crisis that Covid programs helped households survive.
I mentioned that the Build Back Better Act added new programs in addition to extend existing ones. That includes an expanded child tax credit, earned income tax credit, child care stabilization grants, free school meals, and housing assistance -- all these were part of the Covid welfare state that BBB sought to make permanent.
Democrats completely abandoned the working class in 1992, when Clinton engineered China's admission to the WTO, assuring that the Rust Belt would become a permanent blight on the USA's economic landscape. Then along came Obama with his epic hope-and-change bait-and-switch, snubbing a public healthcare option in favor the porous Romney-esque ACA, creating a deliberately confusing and ineffectual homeowners assitance program, and bailing out, to the tune of nearly half a trillion, the very financial institutions that should have been prosecuted for the blatant financial fraud that resulted in 9 million foreclosures. And just when you thought the Democratic Party could not get any more tone-deaf, Biden proudly labeled the post-pandemic economy that was failing the working class in all the ways so comprehensively itemized in Stephen's column "Bidenomics" as he frittered away billions on genocidal proxy wars. Gertrude Stein's description of Oakland is now the perfect description of the Democratic Party: "There is no there there."
Excellent analysis. Thanks.
For me, if there is ever any hope for the social democratic Left, or the anti-war Left in this country it only comes with the destruction of the Democratic Party. Because it is the Democratic Party, not the Republicans, that sabotaged Bernie Sanders (twice), that sabotaged Keith Ellison from becoming DNC Chairman, and that fights tooth and nail to keep Leftists like Jill Stein off the ballot. The Democratic Party is where progressives go to die, witness Bernie Sanders’ and AOC’s complete capitulation to Biden’s pro-war and pro-genocide policies. Even the big unions have been emasculated by the Democrats. The Democrats are now fully addicted to the donor class money that fuels their campaigns. They simply can no longer give any concrete material benefits to the working class, hence Schumer’s prescription for more lip service.
Today the Democratic Party serves as the guardians of the Republican Party’s left flank. It serves only as the (false) alternative to the Republican Party whose DNA is always opposed to working class policies, but it is funded by the same donors as the Republicans: Wall Street, the Military-Industrial-Complex, Big Pharma, Big Tech, and the Zionist Lobby.
Sadly there is little hope that things will change any time soon. “When peacefully revolution is made impossible, violent revolution becomes inevitable.”
While I agree with you about how much the Dems suck, Jill Stein is a grifter, a colonizer, and just says things progressives and leftists want to hear: https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/ignored-no-more-indigenous-voters/comment/73023370
The Israeli genocide of the Palestinians is the crime of the century and has been viewed live on TV by the entire world. Biden, Harris, Blinken, Sullivan, and Austin have all been full participants in this genocide. Anything less than Bernie Sanders filing articles of impeachment for Biden and his cabinet officers is complicity and capitulation. The 118th Congress, the Genocide Congress, who stood and cheered Netanyahu is also complicit in this crime by any reasonable standard. Rashida Tailib excepted.
While I agree that Biden's foreign policy with Israel was bad and likely had some effect in depressing turnout. Turnout didn't drop in most swing states, the states where it really matters https://www.semafor.com/article/11/15/2024/democratic-turnout-plummeted-in-2024-but-only-in-safe-states or it changed negatively such that it corresponded to an equivalent positive increase in voting for Trump. Additionally, while I am not discounting that the end of Covid programs hurt people, they didn't existing in 2019 when people thought the economy was good and wages were lower. I think it's much more easily explained by real wages falling in the first 2 years due to inflation and then interest rates rising due to inflation which act as a sort of hidden tax.
Also you seem to be conflating the temporary covid aid programs with the Build Back Better welfare programs like Paid Family Leave, Child Tax Credit, Universal Pre K, making community College free for all, making child care more affordable. I don't think any of those things were included in the original Covid aid except the Child Tax Credit. You fail to account for how real wages have gone up for most americans, especially the bottom 10% https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/.
The issue, as mentioned in the article, wasn't turnout per se but share of the eligible vote.
Real wages did in fact grow since 2019, but real median post-tax income has fallen since 2019. What's more, income is more than wages -- it's about the social programs, too. And while Covid programs didn't exist in 2019, neither did Covid or the current cost-of-living crisis that Covid programs helped households survive.
I mentioned that the Build Back Better Act added new programs in addition to extend existing ones. That includes an expanded child tax credit, earned income tax credit, child care stabilization grants, free school meals, and housing assistance -- all these were part of the Covid welfare state that BBB sought to make permanent.
Thanks for reading.