Who is this ambiguous “we” in the title of this post? Democrats? Liberals in general? Bloggers? New Yorkers/San Franciscans/urban dwellers on both coasts? How about all of the above?
Democrats, liberals, liberal progressives, social liberals, whoever votes or has voted or will vote for a progressive cause in their lifetime desperately need to rediscover the virtues of economic liberalism, a.k.a. “the money.” I say this because for far too long it appears the leftwing has all but given up on economic causes and almost completely alienated the FDR New Deal Democrats that made up the Southeast at one time.
It’s not that gay rights or women’s issues or any of the social liberal agendas that have all but overtaken the leftwing aren’t important. It’s just that they can’t be the only thing focused on and I would argue that they can’t even be the central issue either.
We face an increasingly scattered liberal party where there are a hundred different agendas (gay rights, women’s rights, illegal immigrant’s rights, civil rights, union rights, environmental rights, anti-gun rights, anti-war rights, teacher’s rights, etc.) with little to no overlap or commonality. As an unintentional side effect, the leftwing has spread itself too thin—-thus accomplishing nothing—-while the Democrat Party, ever afraid to step on a land mine with any of its 400 constituencies, has spread itself too narrow. While the liberal activist groups send me a dozen emails a day with information on some new thing I should be outraged about, the actual Democrat Party (you know, those with actual power to change things) haven’t focused on much of anything because they’re hearing so many voices within their base that it’s almost impossible to know what would reach a consensus among their donor groups.
Well, allow me to help them out: it’s economic liberalism. The fight for the American Dream (a decent public education at a school that the Republicans haven’t defunded, a decent job that won’t get outsourced, a 401k that won’t evaporate because of Wall Street screw-ups, knowing that there will be SOME type of exit strategy from your job via social security, medicare, any sort of retirement) is just basic—-and broad—enough to give everyone something to cheer about.
Now sure, it’s true that a large part of the reason the Democrats have been so skittish in voicing full-throated support for FDR’s America (look at the way they have absolutely shied away from taxing the rich, a policy they should be rattling the streets with) is because corporate money has completely saturated the scene. While Democrats are trying to hold together an unruly base of agendas, Republicans have successfully recruited a corporate agenda and small donor base that can contribute more than all liberal groups combined. Because their side only has to please a few hundred people with the same goal—-as opposed to the Democrat’s few hundred million with individual goals—-they can shame the Democrats in terms of fundraising, and then advertise their message of corporate prosperity so heavily that it actually convinces people that an elitist agenda is populist. [With a technique of advertiser carpet bombing or, more accurately, brain washing.]
So I can almost understand why Democrats are so afraid to face the economic bull head-on, but they just have to trust me that there are a lot more Americans craving a new New Deal instead of pecker woods, CEOs, and the “Libertarian” puppets that serve them in congress (looking at you Paul Ryan) wanting to dismantle the old one. Democrats shouldn’t let economic conservatism be the only voice in the room. They need to stand up and voice these ideas and truly rediscover how popular they are when someone is willing to fight for them. And “stand up,” “voice,” “rediscover,” and particularly “fight” are the key words in that last sentence. They may say you attract more flies with honey than vinegar but right now vinegar (Republicans) is the only option on the table.