"Politics isn't about big money or power games, its about the improvement of people's lives." -Sen. Paul Wellstone
Over the past two years, we’ve seen corporate failures of historic proportions. Reckless decisions made in the finance industry plunged the U.S. economy into its deepest recession since the 1930s. Reckless decisions by a coal company left 29 dead in the worst mining accident since the 1970s. And Reckless decisions made by an oil company led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history, which will devastate the Gulf economy and environment for years to come.
Despite these failures, some in the White House and the Democratic Party appear to be as deferential as ever to big business and the country’s economic elite. The results of this deference are hurting average Americans and creating a politically toxic environment for Democrats across the country at the very time that the Democratic Party should be setting the political narrative and building upon its traditional alliance with working and middle class Americans.
It is time for those in the White House and the rest of the Democratic Party to pick a side, stand firmly with workers, and once again champion the values the Party was built upon.
F.D.R's Democratic Party:
Upon announcing the Second New Deal in 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt said,
"For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away...Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent.
For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me--and I welcome their hatred.
...Of course we will continue to seek to improve working conditions for the workers of America--to reduce hours over-long, to increase wages that spell starvation, ...to end monopoly in business, to support collective bargaining, to stop unfair competition, to abolish dishonorable trade practices. For all these we have only just begun to fight.
...Here and now I want to make myself clear about those who disparage their fellow citizens on the relief rolls. They say that those on relief are not merely jobless--that they are worthless. Their solution for the relief problem is to end relief--to purge the rolls by starvation. To use the language of the stock broker, our needy unemployed would be cared for when, as, and if some fairy godmother should happen on the scene.
...Of course we will continue our efforts for young men and women so that they may obtain an education and an opportunity to put it to use. Of course we will continue our help for the crippled, for the blind, for the mothers, our insurance for the unemployed, our security for the aged. Of course we will continue to protect the consumer against unnecessary price spreads, against the costs that are added by monopoly and speculation. We will continue our successful efforts to increase his purchasing power and to keep it constant.
For these things, too, and for a multitude of others like them, we have only just begun to fight. "
These sentiments, and the subsequent efforts to make them reality, built the foundation of the modern Democratic Party. By standing for workers' rights, fair pay, and a social safety net, Democrats forged a bond with American workers. The fact that many of F.D.R.'s words are as appropriate today as the day they were first uttered demonstrates just how crucial it is for the Democratic Party to continue to honor that bond.
The Democratic Party's Standard-Bearers:
Indeed, some are doing just that. Whether its Senator Whitehouse delivering a fiery floor speech denouncing corporate influence over our government regulatory agencies, Senator Franken highlighting net neutrality as the first amendment issue of our time, or Representative Obey pushing for progressive policies until his last day in office, many of our elected leaders are standing up and fighting for us.
This has also translated to policy. There are real advances—compared to the status quo—in student loan reform, healthcare reform, and financial regulatory reform, which are the direct results of Democrats who time and again have pushed for policies that address the needs of the American people. These Democrats are working every day to improve the lives of average Americans and their accomplishments should not be ignored.
Unfortunately, these Democrats must contend with others within the Party who sabotage their efforts. While the former group certainly deserves many diaries of praise, it is the latter group that is the main focus here.
Corruption of the Party By Corporate Interests and Elite Opinion:
Despite the efforts of Democrats such as those described above, far too many members of our Party continue to put the needs of the country’s economic elite first.
Given that the financial industry crash pushed us into recession and required massive government bailouts in order to stabilize the economy, one would think that it would be commonsense to tighten regulations to discourage risky behavior, strengthen regulators’ abilities to intervene, and restructure the system so that no bank is so large and essential to the economy that the government has no choice but to bail it out. Yet, even as financial firms returned to record profits and record bonuses the White House and some Congressional Democrats opposed key financial reforms that many believe are necessary to prevent similar crises from occurring in the future. On issues from the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, which separated commercial banking from more risky financial activities, to breaking up the banks in order to limit their size and the potential for systemic risk should they fail, President Obama and a number of Democrats in Congress have stood with Wall Street over Main Street. As a result, they produced a financial reform bill that appears to be better than the status quo but is so filled with loopholes and weak provisions that its hard not to come to the conclusion that many Democrats were more worried about keeping friends in the finance industry than implementing the regulations necessary to prevent future crises. Democratic opposition to Elizabeth Warren being named the head of the new Consumer Protection Agency only adds to this perception.
This deference to the interests of the economic elite is not unique to financial reform. In his first State-of-the Union Address, with the economy only showing early signs of recovery and unemployment above 10%, President Obama bowed to the Beltway chattering class and called for a freeze in discretionary spending and a deficit commission to address longer term shortfalls. While he may not have endorsed any specific policy changes at that time, the President’s adoption of the budget hawk narrative paved the way for what Paul Krugman has appropriately labeled "the pain caucus"--"the view that now, less than a year into a weak recovery from the worst slump since World War II, is the time for policy makers to stop helping the jobless and start inflicting pain." So, rather than having a party willing to push back against painful economic austerity policies, we have a Democratic Congress that cuts food stamps in order to offset a relatively small amount of assistance to the States, and we have a deficit commission busy thinking up ways in which working and middle class Americans can further sacrifice in order to please the economic elite.
Turning on the Base, the Assault on Organized Labor:
With wages stagnant and the middle class crumbling even before the financial crisis, the economy in shambles, and average Americans being told they will need to make further sacrifices, some Democrats are working with the economic elite to shift anger away from the corporate greed that caused these problems and toward the slightly better economic situation of the unionized workforce.
"Spurred by state budget crunches and an angry public mood, Republican and some Democratic leaders are focusing with increasing intensity on public workers and the unions that represent them, casting them as overpaid obstacles to good government and demanding cuts in their often-generous benefits.
Unlike past battles over the high cost of labor, this time pitched battles over wages and pensions are being waged from Sacramento to Springfield to New York City and the conflict is marked by its bipartisan tone, with public employee unions emerging as an intransigent public enemy number one in cities and state capitals across the country.
They're the whipping boys for a new generation of governors who, thanks to a tanking economy and an assist from editorial boards, feel freer than ever to make political targets out of what was once a protected liberal class of teachers, cops, and other public servants"
As the Nation’s Amy Traub notes: "At its heart, the scapegoating of public employees is an insidious way to divide public and private sector workers who share many of the same interests...The desired result is clear: there will be less pressure to address the decades-long erosion of pay and benefits for most working people in the private sector if public anger can be focused on the bus mechanic who still has health coverage."
Sadly, it is not that surprising that some Democrats are more than happy to engage in union bashing. Over the past two years, members of the corporate-wing of the Democratic Party have joined the Republicans in filibustering Labor priorities, from the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier to organize, to the confirmation of labor lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has decided that fighting teachers unions to impose right-wing education policies is one of its top priorities. And when Labor had the audacity to challenge a Senator who routinely stands with corporate America, a White House official mocked the unions for having "just flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toilet on a pointless exercise," and a member of the Senate Democratic Leadership praised the incumbent for fighting off Labor.
This tendency by some in the Democratic Party to play both sides, speaking to the working and middle classes during election season while reassuring big business in governance, is not new. Back in 1998, the man who first inspired me to get involved in politics, Senator Paul Wellstone, called out these corporate Democrats in a speech to the United Auto Workers,
"Abraham Lincoln once said ‘If a man tells you he loves America yet hates labor, he's a liar.’ I am going to quote him again, ‘If a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he's a liar.’ I say to you today that if a man or a woman says he or she is a Democrat, yet votes against labor, than he or she is a fraud."
The Need for Unity on Core Democratic Issues:
Senator Wellstone also did a great job encapsulating why it is so important that every Democrat stand firm on those issues that have formed the foundation of the Party for decades: support for "a good education, good health care, and a good job."
"These are the issues people care about, these are the bread and butter issues, and these are the injustice issues! These are the economic justice issues, these are the kitchen table issues, these are the UAW issues, these are the union issues, these are the family issues, and this is what my party, the Democratic party, has to speak to, because a whole lot of people don't see a politics that speaks to them, and they don't see a politics that includes them. And a whole lot of people think that both parties are dominated by the same investors and are not really on their side."
People get cynical about politics when Democrats have no problem doling out hundreds of billions with no strings attached to those that crashed the economy but get stingy when it comes to extending unemployment benefits to those that lost their jobs as a result of the financial crisis. People get cynical about politics when the White House secretly meets and makes deals with the very industries it is working to reform. And people get cynical about politics when Democrats' only response to those that would point these things out is 'the Republicans are even worse.'
A Closing Call for Unity and Solidarity in the Party:
Its time for the Democratic Party to stop playing both sides. Organized money already has a Party. It may hedge its bets occasionally by throwing some cash at a few powerful Democrats, but it always feels more comfortable with Republicans in charge. Democrats have a long-standing relationship with workers, but that relationship has been strained as a result of the two-faced nature of some within the current Democratic Party.
At a time of economic uncertainty, when Democrats control the White House and Congress and Republicans stand in unified opposition to nearly every policy that would advance the common good, it has never been more important for the Democratic Party to be united and stand firmly with working and middle class Americans. Such a stand would mean no more corporate loopholes, no more backroom deals, no more scapegoating of Labor, and a clear agenda to ensure that every American has access to a good education, good health care, and a good job. Doing so would send a powerful message across the country that there is a party willing to fight for the interests of average Americans. On top of being good politics, its the right thing to do.