Over the past few days, I’ve been wondering whether Democrats truly want to be a party of the working class.
Don’t get me wrong. I think they should be. I think class-based politics is successful politics and essential if we are to keep our country from turning into a hereditary economic aristocracy.
But perhaps others do not share that view. Perhaps many Democrats want this to be a party of social liberals, minorities and professionals. Perhaps they feel there is no value in expending effort on class-based politics or economic issues.
I’m even willing to consider that they may be right. Perhaps the decline of the industrial working class and the ever increasing service/information economy invalidates the old class paradigms which arose during the industrial revolution (though the patterns themselves are older).
Then I wonder who will represent the people left behind. Many of the new service sector jobs are not particularly well paid. Not everyone is going to become a software engineer in a hot field making 500k. In fact, millions of people will not. They will continue to farm, clean, cook, construct, care, make widgets, work in retail, etc.
Where will they go, who will speak for their material concerns if we do not? Who will protect their unions, fight for their minimum wage, advocate for health care and child care? Perhaps the Republican party is indeed chock-full of responsible employers who will value, reward and care for workers if only us pesky over-regulating Democrats got out of the way.
Any political platform has to include economic policies focused on the economic circumstances those it represents. Historically, for Democrats their coalition has been unionized labor, working classes and the poor. If we are still going to have these policies, why should we decline to appeal to people they benefit?
Perhaps Democrats will represent only those working classes who are members of a minority, or those who are sufficiently socially liberal in their views, or those who are sufficiently “woke”. But why insist on such purity? And can you build a coalition that wins enough house and senate seats and electoral votes? Would it require appealing to people who are socially liberal and fiscal conservatives, the suburban voters of the GOP? Lee Drutman, writing in Foreign Policy believes the sixth American party system is at an end and that Donald Trump Will Dramatically Realign America’s Political Parties foreignpolicy.com/...
The GOP has become the party of populism. Now the Democrats have to build a new party of multicultural cosmopolitanism. [...]
If Democrats define themselves as the party that is opposed to Republicans (as they must), they will soon find themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility (as opposed to the Republicans, who will again run huge deficits), as the party of international responsibility (as opposed to the more isolationist and nationalist Republicans), and as the party of global business (as opposed to the protectionist Republicans). They will continue to be the party of environmentalism (the stakes of this will get even greater soon) and the party of diversity and tolerance.
My real concern is that in the discussions this week, it’s not clear to me we know who we are. At least on this site. And perhaps at the top of the party too.
We definitely know we are the party that represents minorities, women and equal rights. That’s a big reason I’m part of it, because equal rights are paramount to me. There’s a bit of self-interest too, I’m a minority in this country.
Any political platform has to include economic policies focused on the economic circumstances those it represents. Historically, for Democrats their coalition has been unionized labor, working classes and the poor.
But I get the feeling that a lot of people here don’t believe we should represent the working class. They especially do not want “white” working class people in our coalition. Part of that seems to be driven by a view of how they may have voted in the last election. Some of it seems motivated by specific experience with working class white people extrapolated to cover all. Others believe all lower-income or working-class “white” people are racist or socially conservative and therefore not welcome. Personally, I recoil at this. If women voted against Democrats as a group one cycle, will we say we don’t welcome women anymore? What if an immigrant group is socially conservative? Are they then unworthy of being Democrats? As Democrats, is our regard for people and care for their well-being based on our common humanity, or is it contingent on “shared values”? And if we are no longer the party of the working class, how do we plan to fully represent people of color, the majority of whom are working class?
From discussions around here recently, I am not sure.
I always thought we were the party of the underprivileged segments of our society. That we were welcoming of all, across class, race, origin, age and every other divide humans have created between one another. That we were left-leaning on economic issues because we knew that was in the interest of the working class and that was the group which needed us to work for their economic well-being. That we had a broad coalition because that was what we believed and it delivered the votes for a social, economic and racial justice platform.
What do you think Democrats should be?