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Dear John,
Twenty-nine years ago, when I was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, I spoke to the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) about trends we could see already in motion that are coming to fruition today. I said we were becoming a two-tiered society composed of a few winners and a larger group of Americans left behind, whose anger and whose disillusionment could be easily manipulated.
Once unbottled, mass resentment can poison the very fabric of society, replacing ambition with envy, replacing tolerance with hate.
Going back to view this speech today is a bittersweet experience. To see those words coming all too true nearly three decades later, I only wish I had not been such an accurate prognosticator!
If you’re looking for something to chew on with your family over Thanksgiving dinner, you can check out my speech here. Share it with friends and relatives, and let us know what you think in the comments!
Then as today, the targets of those that rage were immigrants, welfare recipients, and the LGBTQ+ community. I wondered, as the middle class continues to erode, who would be the next targets? And why was it no longer the case that working hard and playing by the rules reaped a just reward?
At the center of the issue here was, and is, a moral question we still need to answer: What do we owe as a society to the people who work hard and play by the rules? I think we need to honor an explicit moral compact that work pays.
This week, I hope you have the opportunity to be with friends and family as we give thanks and celebrate Indigenous peoples.
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
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