How Democrats Can Become the National Majority Party

[pecksniff]

Michael Lind dismisses blaming the Democrats' problems on racism or the Electoral College. Rather, he says, the Democrats are "too left wing" -- but only in certain respects.

By left wing I don’t mean economically center left. New Deal and Great Society entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid remain as popular as ever, among many Republicans as well as most Americans. So does raising the minimum wage (another legacy of the New Deal). If the Democratic Party did nothing but campaign on raising Social Security benefits, allowing the federal government to negotiate discounts in drug prices for senior citizens, and turning the minimum wage into a living wage or even a one-earner family wage, then Democrats might well be enjoying an era of national political hegemony, instead of looking at an electoral wipeout next year.
Nor by left wing do I refer to civil rights issues in areas where there is a consensus among left, center left, and center right (if not far right). Support for laws against racial discrimination, unlike racial quotas, is bipartisan, and opposition to interracial marriage is at an all-time low. Majorities of Republicans now support not only gay rights but also gay marriage. The public remains divided on abortion, but even here there is a majority in favor of legal abortion in the first trimester, which would be reflected in most state laws if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade. On these topics, what were liberal positions a decade or a generation ago are now mainstream. Moreover, legitimately or not, the Supreme Court has removed most issues involving sex and reproduction from legislative debate and control, so it makes no sense to define a national party of elected federal, state, and local officials on the basis of issues like abortion which will be decided by the judiciary, however important judicial appointments may be.
Given bipartisan acceptance of New Deal entitlement programs and laws forbidding discrimination against individuals on the basis of race, gender, and sexual orientation, Democrats could claim to be the party of the American center. Unfortunately, the “woke” left wing of the Democratic Party, based in the universities, the NGO world, media, tech platforms, and corporate HR departments, insists on dragging the Democratic Party ever leftward into new and doomed crusades, including defunding the police, open borders, the warmed-over 1960s Black Power rhetoric of “critical race theory,” the replacement of standard English with the weird totalitarian newspeak of intersectional terminology (like “birthing parents” for “mothers”). While it might be defended in a campus seminar, this kind of cultural progressivism is politically toxic.

He concludes:

My argument is not that the Democrats should be a culturally progressive party that tolerates economically liberal cultural conservatives. Rather, my argument is that the party should be neutral on many cultural issues. To achieve a big majority rather than a bare majority, the Democrats should be an inclusive party that is center left on economic issues and supports race-neutral or colorblind civil rights for individuals (as opposed to groups), while not taking official stands on most or all hot-button cultural issues. Support for Social Security and anti-discrimination laws should be litmus tests for inclusion in the Democratic Party; support for defunding the police, lax immigration law enforcement, and race and gender quotas should not.
Individual Democratic politicians should be as free to be as progressive, moderate, or conservative on cultural and social issues as they need to be to win in urban California or rural Texas. But the national party should stand only for race-neutral economic policies like a higher minimum wage, increased Social Security benefits, and lower drug prices, along with disciplined and adequately resourced policing, border control, and national defense.
The Democratic Party, in short, should be a big-tent national political party that welcomes cultural progressives as one of several constituencies, but is not controlled by them. This would not be a surrender to free market neoliberals: It would be a return to the New Deal tradition at the expense of both the New Left and the neoliberals. If the Democratic Party is unwilling or unable to prevent the progressive minority of the population from hijacking and defining the party agenda, then have fun, my Democratic friends, grumbling on the political sidelines about the evils of structural racism and the injustice of the Electoral College.

I've been saying for a long time now: To win, the Democrats need to soft-pedal social liberalism and play up economic populism. Social liberalism is bound to win out in the long run anyway, and already has won in most respects, despite desperate rear-guard retrenchment from the right. American society's real problems are such as only economic populism can fix -- blue-collar unemployment and underemployment, maldistribution of wealth.

 

[PaxNurgle]

Good analysis here. I agree with a lot of cultural libertarian/liberal issues (to an extent) but the real key to success is focusing on economic issues- true of both parties but especially the Democrats.
And they need to do a much better job making inroads with rural areas, helping farmers and agrobuisness, and connecting with rural voters.

 

[Gorgoroth]

Economic populism.... you mean like mandatory full employment and 5 year plans??

LOL cuz those work so well.

The government fucking with everyone and taking their shit is the economic problem.

 

[pecksniff]

Economic populism.... you mean like mandatory full employment and 5 year plans??

LOL cuz those work so well.

The government fucking with everyone and taking their shit is the economic problem.

Euro-style social democracy does work very well.

 

[pecksniff]

In both this and the analogous letter to the Republicans, Lind is giving the parties the same advice: Stop letting the neoliberal elite lead you, and do something for the working class.

Because neither party does that, lately.

 

[pecksniff]

Good analysis here. I agree with a lot of cultural libertarian/liberal issues (to an extent) but the real key to success is focusing on economic issues- true of both parties but especially the Democrats.
And they need to do a much better job making inroads with rural areas, helping farmers and agrobuisness, and connecting with rural voters.

Well, hardly anybody works in agriculture any more, and agribiz is really just biz. The Dems do need to push to raise the minimum wage for farmworkers, certainly, and to improve rural infrastructure. But it's not top priority.

 

[Rightguide]

They have to kick out their racists, communists, enemy propagandists, economically illiterate, and start loving their country and Constitution again. They have to stop representing our enemies, criminals, and the world's human traffickers. They have to start loving our people instead.

 

[pecksniff]

They have to kick out their racists, communists, enemy propagandists, economically illiterate, and start loving their country and Constitution again. They have to stop representing our enemies, criminals, and the world's human traffickers. They have to start loving our people instead.

The racists migrated over to the GOP in the 1970s, the Communists were never a presence in the party, and the rest of that is just nonsense.

 

[Rightguide]

The racists migrated over to the GOP in the 1970s, the Communists were never a presence in the party, and the rest of that is just nonsense.

Another phony debunked lie and propaganda point aimed at the historically challenged and under-educated.

 

[pecksniff]

Another phony debunked lie and propaganda point aimed at the historically challenged and under-educated.

The partisan migration of the racist Dixiecrats to the GOP is well historically documented and not in the least controversial. If you want to find racists in the Democratic Party in its present formation, you have to dishonestly redefine "racism" to encompass things like CRT.

 

[Rightguide]

The partisan migration of the racist Dixiecrats to the GOP is well historically documented and not in the least controversial. If you want to find racists in the Democratic Party in its present formation, you have to dishonestly redefine "racism" to encompass things like CRT.

Only in the steamy tomes of leftist folklore. Which as we all know has little to do with reality.

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

If they nominate Joe Manchin as their presidential candidate in 2024 they might have a shot at hanging on to the White House. I don’t see that happening though.

 

[pecksniff]

If they nominate Joe Manchin as their presidential candidate in 2024 they might have a shot at hanging on to the White House. I don’t see that happening though.

This is about a lot more than hanging on to the WH -- and we all know by know that Joe Manchin won't do anything for the working class, which is what the Dems need to do to win.

 

[PaxNurgle]

They have to kick out their racists, communists, enemy propagandists, economically illiterate, and start loving their country and Constitution again. They have to stop representing our enemies, criminals, and the world's human traffickers. They have to start loving our people instead.

Oddly, take out the "Communist" part and this same description applies to yourself.

For example, you have little understanding of the Constitution as written and you openly spread Russian/anti American propaganda. Are you a Democrat?

 

[pecksniff]

Only in the steamy tomes of leftist folklore. Which as we all know has little to do with reality.

This is reality.

 

[The_Trouvere]

In both this and the analogous letter to the Republicans, Lind is giving the parties the same advice: Stop letting the neoliberal elite lead you, and do something for the working class.

Because neither party does that, lately.

Republicans appeal to the social concerns of the white working class, without doing a lot about those concerns. Republicans love to lose on social issues. I suspect that a lot of Democrats simply do not like white blue collar workers. They can sympathize with a poor black man with several felony convictions and several illegitimate children he does not support, but not with a poorly paid white man who works hard at a job he does not like to support his wife and legitimate children.

 

[The_Trouvere]

The partisan migration of the racist Dixiecrats to the GOP is well historically documented and not in the least controversial. If you want to find racists in the Democratic Party in its present formation, you have to dishonestly redefine "racism" to encompass things like CRT.

If it had not been for the five years of black ghetto riots from 1964 to 1968, and the more enduring increases in black crime and illegitimacy the GOP southern strategy would not have succeeded.

Dismissing white backlash as irrational prejudice against an un offending and victimized minority contributes to Democrat problems.

 

[ll74]

Yep....those fucking jerks are the problem
.. obviously ¯\(°_o)/¯

 

[Rightguide]

This is reality.

November will illustrate reality.

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

November will illustrate reality.

November 8th is going to be a rough day for the Blue team.

 

[Rightguide]

This is reality.

Ahahaha, who the hell are those two assholes? Two prominent members of somebody's Communist Party? Only two Dixiecrats left the Democrat Party as I've already said in half a dozen previous debunkings of your left-wing bullshit.

 

[pecksniff]

Ahahaha, who the hell are those two assholes?

Princeton professors who researched the subject.

 

[The_Trouvere]

Yep....those fucking jerks are the problem
.. obviously ¯\(°_o)/¯

White racial moderates had the right to believe that by supporting the civil rights legislation they were buying racial peace. When black behavior got worse after 1964, they had the right to feel betrayed. That is why many of them began to vote Republican. Race is the Republican's strongest issue.

When I ask a white blue collar Republican why he votes Republican, he does not tell me that strong labor unions force employers to move production to low wage countries. He does not tell me that the graduated income tax punishes success. He tells me about crime, especially black crime. He, his relatives, and/or his friends have probably been victims of black criminals. He tells me what it was like attending a black majority public high school. He tells me about losing job opportunities to affirmative action.

Those are legitimate issues. Shouting "Racist!" does not change that.

 

[ll74]

White racial moderates had the right to believe that by supporting the civil rights legislation they were buying racial peace. When black behavior got worse after 1964, they had the right to feel betrayed. That is why many of them began to vote Republican. Race is the Republican's strongest issue.

When I ask a white blue collar Republican why he votes Republican, he does not tell me that strong labor unions force employers to move production to low wage countries. He does not tell me that the graduated income tax punishes success. He tells me about crime, especially black crime. He, his relatives, and/or his friends have probably been victims of black criminals. He tells me what it was like attending a black majority public high school. He tells me about losing job opportunities to affirmative action.

Those are legitimate issues. Shouting "Racist!" does not change that.

Those jerks. Preach it. ¯\(°_o)/¯

 

[Rightguide]

Princeton professors who researched the subject.

Are they Americans?