So the Democrats are no longer the party of the working class. That seems to be the worrisome consensus of the political mavens and pundits. If they want to win elections they have to learn how to speak to working class voters again. It was always thought that wealthy and upwardly mobile people who have an interest in maintaining the status quo would vote Republican, and the working classes who are more interested in progressive policies that contribute to economic redistribution would vote Democratic. We're being told that has now reversed. Let's look at the evidence from recent elections:
#1: Until this election, Democrats won the popular vote in every election since 2004.
#2: Democrats won the working class vote in 2020 against trump.
#3: Democrats received the endorsement of most major unions in 2024.
You can slice and dice the results in any number of ways, but these data points suggest that it's not a 'working class problem' per se. Maybe we need to take a step back to get proper perspective.
Traditionally, the Republican Party stood for promoting government restraint ie. less involvement in the lives of citizens, less taxes and less government regulation. They want more free-market enterprise, barrier-free international trade, and culturally more traditional (family, religious) values. The Democratic Party stood for the principle that government could be a force for good in society. They support government programs that make society more equitable and just, programs that help the economically disadvantaged and promote the rights of minorities. In the last 100 years it was the Democrats who were responsible for the two greatest efforts to re-shape American society; the 'New Deal' under FDR in the 1930s, and the raft of legislations under the banner of the so-called 'Great Society' of the 1960s enacted by LBJ (civil-rights etc.) In sum, the Republicans were deemed conservatives, the party associated with a go-slow, cautious approach to governance, and the Democrats were pegged as progressives, pursuing social and economic transformation. But is that actually the political dynamic? I think there may be another way to understand it.
FDR's elections in the 1930s was a response to the excesses, scandal and economic mismanagement of the 'roaring' 1920s, a decade of Republican administration (Harding, Coolidge and Hoover) which led to the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression (1929). Similarly, Obama's improbable election as the first African-American President in 2007 was preceded by the Great Recession financial crisis of 2007 after 8 years of the Republican George W. Bush administration. Even Reagan ran up huge budget deficits in the 1980s, and Clinton balanced the budget and ran surpluses. Historically-speaking, Republicans almost always make the economic messes that the Democrats find themselves having to clean up. In the process of political and economic housecleaning that follows the drunken Republican frat-party of spending and tax cuts, Democrats used their opportunity, not just to sweep the floor and throw out the trash, but also to re-arrange the furniture and put the house properly back in order. Democratic policies and programs have never been the political, economic and social engineering they are made out to be. They ensure greater systemic stability.
Take Biden's victory in 2020 for example. I've argued that trump would have romped to victory in 2020 if not for the unforeseen economic disaster created by the Covid pandemic. Biden certainly didn't win the election because he ran a stellar campaign from his basement. It was a case of the American voter turning out in record numbers to mandate the Democrats, led by the supremely competent and experienced Joe Biden, to clean up the mess left by a Republican. Same old story. And he did a magnificent job. What was the Democrat's reward for putting the house back in order? The re-election of trump and the Republicans sweeping back into power. This is the ebb and flow of American politics.
Time and again, the Republicans have won elections by branding the Democrats as 'radicals'. It's classic projection. In truth, the Democrats have always been and remain the party of the working-class, the party of stability, the party of fiscal responsibility, and it's been the Republicans who have been the radicals. Trump isn't a break from that, he's a continuation, an updated version. The radicals are the ones who want to impose 200% tariffs on all imports. The radicals are the ones who want to deport 12 million 'illegals'. The radicals are the gun-toting cowboys who want to take away the bodily autonomy of women. The radicals are the ones who will pardon the mob that violently attacked the US Capitol and called for the hanging of the Vice-President. The radicals are the ones who want to put an anti-vaxxer in charge of national health policy, and do away with the Department of Education. The radicals are the jurists who confer an unconstitutional 'presumed immunity' on the President. The radicals are the ones who would elect a convicted felon to hold the highest office in the land, in charge of preserving and protecting the Constitution. The radicals want to implement Project 2025.
And when the dust settles the Democrats will once again have to clean up the mess. If they are given the opportunity, that is.
1 comment:
The last paragraph of your very reasoned, researched, and thought-out piece is frightening. Frightening because we can’t imagine the possibility. Frightening because now it will hit the U.S. of A with a force it did not reckon with. Frightening because in the Democratic U.S. of A the president-elect has been handed almost dictatorial powers which by his own words he intends to use. And that Americans, as noted in your piece, have reversed their notions of what is “radical” in their cult-like support of a man over whom the founding fathers are all writhing in pain in their graves. Pray for America, and pray for the world.
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