There is a lot of organizing to do today away from the keyboard, so let’s hear from my friend, “Politics Guy” Mike Lux, as he reflects on what the Clinton campaign failed to address in 2016 that we need to now:
First, the Clinton campaign did not change its message to incorporate the Bernie view of the world. They mostly avoided populism on economics; they joined Obama in talking about how great the economy was; their ads were mainly targeted to upper income suburban moderates, not the young and working class Bernie people who were feeling hard pressed economically in their daily lives.
Second, and most profoundly is the cynicism by the upcoming generation of progressive young people about the Democratic Party in general. From their perspective, the Democrats have let them down on some of the most central issues in their lives.
What Mike hears from younger progressives is Democrats became more cautious and more “corporate” after their blowout in 1972. They helped deregulate industries and failed labor. Under Clinton and Obama, they promoted trade deals that hurt working people, deregulated Wall Street, and passed crime bills that produced mass incarceration and promoted charter school policies that undermined public education.
Younger progressives believe Democrats whiffed “on climate change, immigration reform, campaign finance reform, indexing the minimum wage, making bigger investments in infrastructure and rebuilding public schools in low income neighborhoods, reining in credit card interest payments, housing issues, helping people burdened with student debt.” Even with passage of the Affordable Care Act, people’s paychecks remained flat and for many life just became more of a struggle.
Not all of that criticism is fair, Mike writes. There are lots of Democrats struggling against a Republican tide and a flood of money to make things better in spite of all that. Politics is a lot harder in practice than in our imaginings.
But now we have a “put the oxygen mask on your democracy first” emergency. We face open right-wing authoritarianism. An old friend this morning quotes someone from “Democracy Now!” (maybe) riffing on the Washington Post’s “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” saying, “it’s not dying in darkness; it’s dying in broad daylight and the people killing it are making no bones about it.”* To beat that back, the left will need unity now more than ever (Mike’s a Warren supporter, so his advice leans that way):
But unity will take some give from Bernie world as well. To win the 2020 election, Bernie’s voters, volunteers, and contributors are also going to need to understand the need for reaching to the middle and finding some compromises. This is equally true whether Bernie wins the nomination or not; it is equally true if he becomes the president when we are trying to get big, complicated legislation passed. The great thing about Bernie’s people is the passion they bring to politics, and the fact that so many of them have never been involved before. But that passion and fresh perspective will need to be tempered by a willingness to work with Democrats who don’t think exactly the same way. You can’t take the politics out of politics, and it is destructive to try: the nature of democracy is building broad coalitions, and you need to compromise to succeed.
Elizabeth is the right person to unify our party precisely because she is a fighter from the progressive side of the party, at the same time she knows how to get things done on the inside. Elizabeth has the credibility on fighting for big, structural change because that is what she has been doing her whole career, and that is how she is running her campaign. At the same time, though, her inside skills are also formidable. Working with her as she stood up to Wall Street and many Democratic insiders on TARP supervision, on passing the CFPB, on getting the CFPB up and running so effectively, and then on the personnel and budget battles she fought as a Senator has been one of the great joys of my life, because she is a progressive who knows how to fight and how to win.
Playing the inside-outside game on the state level, I have more power, so I can relate. And persistence. Persistence, even after a loss, pays off in power. Someone remarked this week that the left has never understood power or how to wield it. It’s past time to learn.
If Americans 40 and under can find their Tony Stark-Gulmira moment, channel their resolve and suit up for November, they can be superheroes who save the freakin’ world.
(* h/t A.K.)
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