{"id":2101,"date":"2020-12-13T17:50:16","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T17:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=138832"},"modified":"2020-12-13T17:50:16","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T17:50:16","slug":"if-democrats-want-to-succeed-they-will-have-to-implement-policies-that-primarily-benefit-the-working-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/13\/if-democrats-want-to-succeed-they-will-have-to-implement-policies-that-primarily-benefit-the-working-class\/","title":{"rendered":"If Democrats Want to Succeed, They Will Have to Implement Policies That Primarily Benefit the Working Class"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Democrats\u2014and many others\u2014are justifiably exultant because their presidential candidate obtained the largest popular vote total ever and toppled an incumbent. However, the 2020 election results also revealed that the Democratic Party’s victory was quite fragile and might not be sustainable in the future. The most glaring problem is that the Democratic Party has failed to address adequately the economic condition of millions of workers. This article will examine the roots of that weakness and what progressives can do to pressure both President-elect Joe Biden and the Democratic Party to adopt policies that directly address the needs of working people. Such a program would enable the Democratic Party to build a sustainable majority by serving the interests of the many millions of workers and small businesses that inhabit Main Street as opposed to the thousands of corporate executives and billionaire donors that inhabit Wall Street.<\/p>\n

The 2020 Election Revealed Significant Democratic Party Weaknesses.<\/strong> The most terrifying result was that 74.2 million people were receptive to and voted for a party and a presidential candidate with strong authoritarian tendencies, an increase of 11.2 million over President Donald Trump’s showing in 2016. While Biden won 81.3 million votes, exit polls revealed a significant portion of his vote was anti-Trump<\/a> as opposed to pro-Biden. The importance of the anti-Trump vote also is supported by the fact that Biden had no coattails<\/a>\u2014Democrats lost ground in the House and many state legislatures<\/a>. Second, Biden and the Democratic congressional candidates failed to overwhelm Republicans in swing states and districts during a perfect storm of crises: pandemic, economic, climate, and racial and gender inequities. A party that cannot parlay this historically unique set of crises into solid swing state majorities is a party in trouble. Racial and cultural issues help explain the weak showing by Democrats in the swing states. However, this article will focus on another problem that also helps explain what happened: Democrats failed to address adequately the everyday economic concerns of millions of people and basically ceded these issues to Republicans. Indeed, half the voters<\/a> felt that Trump would handle the economy better than Biden. The economy<\/a> remains by far, the number one issue among all Americans\u2014even outstripping the pandemic. The Democratic Party will not be able to obtain sustainable majorities in the future until it actually advocates and delivers policies that improve the economic circumstances of working people.<\/p>\n

The Lack of Trust on Economic Issues Is Based on 45 years of Corporatist Domination of the Democratic Party.<\/strong> Corporatists have dominated the Democrat Party since President Jimmy Carter. Big Business<\/a> was a critical source of funding for Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Upon election, each of these presidents appointed corporate-allied officials to key positions and enacted pro-corporate policies. The financial sector illustrates this dynamic. President Carter (not Ronald Reagan) initiated the deregulation of the financial sector. President Clinton not only raked in record contributions from the financial sector, but also appointed Wall Street-allied individuals to key positions in the administration. Clinton became the biggest financial sector deregulator of all<\/a>, enabling an orgy of financial speculation and instability not seen since the 1920s. And while Wall Street chafed at the mild reforms of Dodd-Frank, the financial sector welcomed the Obama administration’s delivery of multi-trillion-dollar bailouts, the refusal to indict any Wall Street officials for fraud, and his appointment of Wall Street connected individuals to key administrative positions.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, each of these Democratic presidents failed to prioritize and pass significant labor reforms which would have benefited millions of workers. To make matters even worse, Clinton literally pushed through the devastating NAFTA<\/a> and China<\/a> trade deals that led to the elimination or displacement of 4.4 million jobs while Obama advocated even bigger free trade deals.<\/p>\n

Such corporatist policies have been devastating for millions of workers and small businesses but very beneficial to big business and the billionaire donor elite. Consequently, economic inequality has reached historically high levels in terms of income<\/a>, wealth<\/a>, gender<\/a>, and race<\/a>. The economic situation of most working families is appalling. For example, almost 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck<\/a>, 70% will have difficulty raising a few hundred dollars for an emergency<\/a>, and the average American now dies with $62,000 of debt<\/a>. The median net worth<\/a> (assets minus liabilities) of American families is just $52,700 while the minimum net worth of the top 1%<\/a> is $10.4 million.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Party’s adoption of corporatist policies blew apart its fa\u00e7ade as a representative of working-class interests; instead, it became a more compassionate champion of corporations and the wealthy. The sense of outrage felt by workers against the Democratic Party for trade deals and a worsening economic situation was palpable and helped to undermine the party’s hold over working-class voters, especially in swing states. Unfortunately, the general skepticism about Democrats and the economy was not helped by Biden’s ties to Wall Street<\/a> and support for policies aiding corporations to the detriment of workers including the bankruptcy bill<\/a> and free trade deals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Democrats Must Advocate Economic Policies that will Primarily Benefit Working People.<\/strong> Democrats must directly address their weakness on working class economic issues if they want to develop sustainable majorities in future elections. During the campaign, Biden promised to create millions of green jobs, increase wages, and improve working conditions for all working people\u2014as well as address equity issues. The policies contained in the Biden platform would benefit all portions of the working class\u2014regardless of racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual identity divisions\u2014and create some movement toward unity where Republicans have sown hate and fragmentation. This was the most progressive, worker-centered platform for a Democratic presidential candidate over the last 45 years. Unfortunately, Biden and the Democrats did not focus on these issues for much of the campaign; instead, they chose to attack Trump and focused on the pandemic. In this way, the Democrats ceded basic economic issues to the Republicans and allowed them to falsely pit pandemic concerns against economic concerns.<\/p>\n

Yet, the Democrats should not abandon this progressive platform. The current crisis is profound, and Democrats will not necessarily get another chance. There will be many roadblocks to such a change in policy priorities\u2014the narrow Democratic advantage in the House and a tied or Republican majority in the Senate. But progressives should push Biden to be a bold, strong, and public proponent of pro-worker policies\u2014and at least to follow through on his campaign promises.<\/p>\n