[[link removed]]

THE DEMOCRATS MUST BECOME AN ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT PARTY  
[[link removed]]


 

Robert Reich
November 14, 2024
The Guardian
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ The lesson of this election is that Democrats must attack
inequality – and not cede working-class voters to Trump _

"IMG_4023", by cornstalker (CC BY 2.0)

 

A political disaster such as what occurred last Tuesday gains
significance not simply by virtue of who won or lost, but through how
the election is interpreted.

This is known as the Lesson of the election.

The Lesson explains what happened and why. It deciphers the public’s
mood, values, and thoughts. It attributes credit and blame.

And therein lies its power. When the Lesson of the election becomes
accepted wisdom – when most of the politicians, pundits and
journalists come to believe it – it shapes the future. It determines
how parties, candidates, political operatives and journalists approach
coming elections.

What’s the Lesson of the 2024 election?

According to exit polls, Americans voted mainly on the _economy
–_ and their votes reflected their class and level of education.

While the US economy has improved over the last two years according to
standard economic measures, most Americans without college degrees –
that’s the majority – have not felt it.

In fact, most Americans without college degrees have not felt much
economic improvement for four decades, and their jobs have grown less
secure.

The real median wage of the bottom 90% is stuck nearly where it was in
the early 1990s, even though the economy is more than twice as large
now as it was then.

Most of the economy’s gains have gone to the top.

This has caused many Americans to feel frustrated and angry. Trump
gave voice to that anger. Harris did not.

The real lesson of the 2024 election is that Democrats
[[link removed]] must not just give
voice to the anger, but also explain how record inequality has
corrupted our system, and pledge to limit the political power of big
corporations and the super-rich.

The basic bargain in America used to be that if you worked hard and
played by the rules, you’d do better, and your children would do
even better than you.

But since 1980, that bargain has become a sham. The middle class has
shrunk.

Why? While Republicans
[[link removed]] steadily cut taxes
on the wealthy, Democrats abandoned the working class.

Democrats embraced Nafta and lowered tariffs on Chinese goods. They
deregulated finance and allowed Wall Street to become a high-stakes
gambling casino. They let big corporations gain enough market power to
keep prices (and profit margins) high.

They let corporations bust unions (with negligible penalties) and
slash payrolls. They bailed out Wall Street when its gambling
addiction threatened to blow up the entire economy but never bailed
out homeowners who lost everything.

They welcomed big money into their campaigns, and delivered quid pro
quos_ _that rigged the market in favor of big corporations and the
wealthy.

Joe Biden redirected the Democratic party back toward its
working-class roots, but many of the changes he catalyzed – more
vigorous actions against monopolies, stronger enforcement of labor
laws and major investments in manufacturing, infrastructure,
semiconductors and non-fossil fuels – wouldn’t be evident for
years. In any event, he could not communicate effectively about them.

The Republican party _says _it’s on the side of working people,
but its policies will hurt ordinary workers even more. Trump’s
tariffs will drive up prices. His expected retreat from vigorous
anti-monopoly enforcement will allow giant corporations to drive up
prices further.

If Republicans gain control over the House as well as the Senate, as
looks likely, they will extend Trump’s 2017 tax law and add
additional tax cuts.

As in 2017, these lower taxes will benefit mainly the wealthy and
enlarge the national debt, which will give Republicans an excuse to
cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – their objective for
decades.

Democrats must no longer do the bidding of big corporations and the
wealthy. They must instead focus on winning back the working class.

They should demand paid family leave, Medicare for all, free public
higher education, stronger unions, higher taxes on great wealth, and
housing credits that will generate the biggest boom in residential
home construction since the second world war.

They should also demand that corporations share their profits with
their workers. They should call for limits on CEO pay, eliminate all
stock buybacks (as was the SEC rule before 1982) and reject corporate
welfare (subsidies and tax credit to companies and industries
unrelated to the common good).

Democrats need to tell Americans why their pay has been lousy for
decades and their jobs less secure: not because of immigrants,
liberals, people of color, the “deep state”, or any other Trump
Republican bogeyman, but because of the power of large corporations
and the rich to rig the market and siphon off most of the economy’s
gains.

In doing this, Democrats should not retreat from their concerns about
democracy. Democracy goes together with a fair economy.

Only by reducing the power of big money in our politics can America
grow the middle class, reward hard work and reaffirm the basic bargain
at the heart of our system.

If the Trump Republicans gain control of the House, they will have
complete control of the federal government. That means they will own
whatever happens to the economy and will be responsible for whatever
happens to America.

Notwithstanding all their anti-establishment populist rhetoric, they
will become the establishment.

The Democratic party should use this inflection point to shift ground
– from being the party of well-off college graduates, big
corporations, “never-Tumpers” like Dick Cheney and vacuous
“centrism” – to an anti-establishment party ready to shake up
the system on behalf of the vast majority of Americans.

This is and should be the Lesson of the 2024 election.

_Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of
public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the
author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common
Good. His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is
out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is
at robertreich.substack.com [[link removed]]._

_The Guardian [[link removed]] is globally renowned
for its coverage of politics, the environment, science, social
justice, sport and culture. Scroll less and understand more about the
subjects you care about with the Guardian's brilliant email
newsletters
[[link removed]],
free to your inbox._

* Democratic Party
[[link removed]]
* elections
[[link removed]]
* Republican Party
[[link removed]]
* economic inequality
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]