Democratic
Party elites are increasingly concerned the midterm elections will be
a “base election” and make their centrist politics even more
irrelevant, as insurgent candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
garner widespread support.
The
think tank, Third Way, recently held a conference in Ohio with
Democrats, who primarily adhere to the politics of President Bill
Clinton, and new recruits, who they hope will counter “Bernie
Sanders-style socialism.” They also intend to defend corporate
executives and wealthy people from condemnation for their attacks on
poor and working class Americans.
“Right
now, in the Democratic Party, there is only one option on the table:
Sanders-style socialism. That’s the main option on the table. We’re
doing this now because the party’s got to have a choice,” Jon
Cowan, one of the presidents of Third Way, declared. “It’s
going to matter a hell of a lot in 2020, and so while 2020 may feel a
ways off, in our mind it isn’t. And the ideas primary starts now.”
“So
we’re actually doing this for a very straightforward reason: to
stand up and launch a serious, compelling economic alternative to
Sanderism,” Cowan added.
Similarly,
former Delaware Governor Jack Markell whined, “The only
narrative that has been articulated in the Democratic Party over the
past two years is the one from the left.”
“I
think we need a debate within the party. Frankly, it would have been
better to start the conversation earlier,” Markell said.
Democratic
Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio earned laughs when he quipped,
“You’re not going to make me hate somebody just because
they’re rich. I want to be rich!” The line went over well
because Third Way and the 250 insiders that attended the conference
have deep ties to hedge funds and various financial institutions on
Wall Street.
As of
2014, “Two-thirds of its 31 trustees [had] held senior
leadership positions in investment funds or big banks or served in
some other capacity on Wall Street.” However, corporate
Democrats bristle at the notion that their money ethically
compromises them. Hillary Clinton even went so far as to defend her
speeches to Goldman Sachs by accusing critics of misogyny.
Mitch
Landrieu, a pragmatic liberal and former mayor of New Orleans, warned
during the conference, “Republicans have chosen their [path].
They’re going to run a base election, which means they have ceded
the middle of the road. In my opinion, Democrats would be making a
big mistake if they run a base election. We have to find common
ground.”
The
strategy of finding “common ground” is one the establishment of
the Democratic Party has touted for the past few decades,
particularly to ward off left-wing populist challenges. It was
adhered to by Hillary Clinton in 2016, President Barack Obama
embraced it as a core philosophy in 2008 and 2012, and Bill Clinton,
along with Al Gore, perfected the art of making common cause with
corporate interests to maintain power and influence in the United
States government.
As Lance
Selfa detailed in his book, “The Democrats: A Critical History, ”
Clinton and Gore broke with labor, civil rights, and other liberal
causes to push for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
They backed welfare repeal, bills which fueled the rise of mass
incarceration, and signed a 1997 budget that slashed millions for
social programs, like Medicare and Medicaid. They put corporations
ahead of protecting the environment. They encouraged the deregulation
of industry, which greatly boosted Wall Street.
This
tradition continues with former Labor Secretary, Tom Perez, as the
head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Perez was a major
proponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. He granted
waivers for UBS, Barclays, J.P. Morgan, the Royal Bank of Scotland
Group, and Citigroup while he was Labor Secretary, which allowed the
banks to go back to managing pension money even though they were
guilty of crimes. He also refused to support a revival of Obama’s
ban on donations from corporate lobbyists.
The
Democratic Party managed to defeat a strong challenge from
Representative Keith Ellison, who represented Sanders on the DNC’s
Platform Committee in 2016. So, Cowan’s suggestion that Democrats
have veered from his preferred course is far-fetched. But it does
indicate the leadership of the party still views a coalition of
progressives and democratic socialists within the party as a threat.
Landrieu’s
fear of a “base election” is striking, given the fact that such
an election is what Democrats need to bolster voter enthusiasm for
candidates in November so they can potentially take control of the
Senate and/or the House of Representatives.
Also,
the leadership of the Democratic Party did everything it could to
prevent a “base election” from taking place in 2016, when Sanders
gained momentum against Clinton. It took steps to aid Clinton so she
would remain the inevitable nominee. Clinton ran a poor campaign that
promoted centrist politics as a counter to President Donald Trump’s
right-wing populist message and lost the election.
Corporate
Democrats, like House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, point to candidate
Conor Lamb’s victory in Pennsylvania as evidence their “moderate
economic” message can work.
“Conor
Lamb won with a message that I think is a Democratic message: The tax
bill was not for you. They’re trying to take your health care
away,” Hoyer said. “Clearly, what we found in the polls
was, [voters] will listen, they’re not happy.”
Indeed,
the tax bill was not for most Americans. It was for corporations and
wealthy elites. They plan to take Americans’ health care away to
pay for their tax cuts. But that message is not one that meshes well
with the center-right politics of corporate Democrats. It is truly a
message to be bolstered by the socialist politics of insurgent
candidates.
The
Democratic Party has floundered throughout Trump’s presidency
because it refuses to articulate an alternative vision to Trumpism
that addresses the material conditions which many Americans endure.
Among Sanders Democrats, there is an alternative vision with
grassroots energy that could be seized. However, Clinton Democrats
cling to the role of sensible steward for corporate elites so tightly
that they will not embrace critiques of capitalism and offer policy
solutions that address root causes of systemic problems.
As a
result, what Third Way proposes is a set of bland focus-grouped
policies, such as “a massive apprenticeship program to train
workers, a privatized employer-funded universal pension that would
supplement Social Security, and an overhaul of unemployment insurance
to include skills training.”
The
emphasis on training workers is indicative of centrist Democrats
compulsion to triage the impacts of capitalism on poor, working
class, and middle class Americans rather than support measures that
could lift up the 99 percent.
In fact,
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested in an op-ed for the
New York Times in 2017 that employers, “particularly small
businesses, a large tax credit to train workers for unfilled jobs.”
He contended this “Better Deal” would help Americans in “smaller
cities and rural areas, which have experienced an exodus of young
people who aren’t trained for the jobs in those areas.”
It was
like a proposal Hillary Clinton put forward during her presidential
campaign in June 2015. She called for tax credits for businesses for
“every apprentice hired as a way to boost employment among young
adults.”
Schumer’s
announcement ultimately flopped. The Democrats scrapped the “Better
Deal” message last week. They now believe, based on their most
politically connected public relations consultants, that “For the
People” is better. But what that means for policy is anyone’s
guess.
Other
ideas touted by Third Way include a “small business bill of rights”
and “BoomerCorps,” a national service program where seniors can
earn money to supplement their dwindling Social Security payments.
The idea
of “BoomerCorps” is rather offensive. It basically says to
Americans, who have labored for decades to fuel the U.S. economy,
“Hey, why not break your back some more for America if you
really want to retire?”
Nevertheless,
the narrative pushed by Clinton Democrats into the media should not
fool anyone into believing they cannot get their message out, that
voices in the party have drowned them out, or that Sanders Democrats
had a “head start” and now they must battle their way back to
challenge them before they cost Democrats seats in the midterm
election.
These
Democrats are the very individuals who collectively shepherded
Hillary Clinton to a presidential nomination. They have fended off an
insurgency for the past two years and stunted efforts to develop the
Democratic Party into an actual opposition party that will
meaningfully challenge Trump. They have responded to dissent against
Trump by complaining that “incivility” is not the answer. They
even will go so far as to accuse Sanders Democrats of dividing
Democrats by running challengers against incumbents.
Clinton
Democrats or followers of the Third Way still have the power, and
that is part of what is holding back an agenda for working people.
They stand in the way of a movement that believes the country should
move away from destructive corporate politics, and until their
obstruction is overcome, progress on economic, environmental, racial,
and social justice will be exceptionally difficult to achieve.
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