Democrats and the Distraction of Woke Politics
Democrats and the Distraction of Woke Politics
Has the social justice left really derailed the party’s electoral fortunes?
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I don't understand where this position that dems embraced neo-liberalism and abandoned unions comes from.
Who passed "right to work" laws in state houses all over the country? Who supported money as a form of speech in Citizens United? Who has tried to suppress the raising of the minimum wage at every opportunity?
Not dems, afaik. Dems have consistently fought these things.
Dems have definitely been consistently more pro-union than Republicans, but not nearly as pro-union as they used to be or could be. Biden has actually been a serious move in that direction in terms of his NLRB appointments and rhetoric, but there's a lot farther to go.
That I can agree with. I've been very pleased with the inroads unions have been making in just the past few years.
They don't have to start actively attacking the unions to have abandoned them. Clinton was the main break point.
I can definitely see an argument for Clinton, the champion of NAFTA, moving in a neo-liberal direction, but calling it some broader break-point where the whole democratic party abandoned labor is a much, much broader claim. Wouldn't you say?
The problem is that Clinton's neoliberalism and rejection of the unions both wasn't just Clinton (he didn't get a revolt from other Democrats over NAFTA) and the results weakened the unions so they were less valuable to Democrats. Neoliberal economic policy has been the dominant philosophy of the party establishment for 30 years now, to the detriment of the unions. Hell, many of those establishment politicians were already in power during Clinton's term.
Now, this doesn't mean "all Democrats never listen to unions", but they're just often not a priority. And hopefully it's changing. Biden's done some meaningfully pro-union things (albeit with one very high-profile anti-union thing), and the resurgence of the labor movement in general means they're more powerful.
There was a fair bit of pushback against NAFTA. Additionally, I would point towards things like blocking petroleum exploration and generally pursuing greater business regulation as not very neo-liberal positions.
there are factions within any party that can be ascendant in any given cycle (measured in decades). I am guessing this may be obvious to you, but reagan and the dirty tricks full court press by the republicans terrified the "left" in the US and made it easier for neo-liberal mindshare to metastasize in the democratic party.
clinton style neo-lib ideology didnt get much resistance because it seems that the dems have been the place where anyone to the left of attila the hun moved and set up shop for quite a while.
so the arc of the democratic party continues to ebb and flow. hopefully the "new left" will make a permanent mark on it and course correct the neo-lib terror of the last 30 years.
Ed Burmila holds a Ph.D. in political science and is the author of Chaotic Neutral: How the Democrats Lost Their Soul in the Center.
Obviously this guy has a grudge.
Right? In my state, Right to Work was repealed as soon as Democrats had full control of the legislative and executive branches. Republicans passed it while completely disregarding Dems practically screaming that is was union busting and a horrible idea.