In case you are not familiar with Hanaeur he is a venture capitalist and a self-described “zillionaire”. But he promotes a very progressive economic message, and was a major force behind Seattle (his home) adopting the $15/hour minimum wage. And as a zillionaire, he is able to skewer much of the garbage coming from folks in his income bracket.
Today, he has an article in Politico talking about where the real economic center is and where the centrist Democrats think it is.
Over the past several decades, Democrats have allowed a mistaken and self-destructive definition of centrism to become party orthodoxy. It continues to undermine party unity at a time when a unified Democratic Party is more essential than ever.
In fact, there are two kinds of political centers: There’s the ideological center—the one that Democrats are waging a civil war over. And there’s the majoritarian center—the one where most of the people are. If Democrats hope to be a majority party, it’s the majoritarian center they need to embrace. And to understand the difference between these two strains of centrism, it’s important to understand exactly what the center is measuring.
So, what policies are in the center? How about the $15/hour minimum wage? Maybe even $20/hour, which is where it should be correcting for inflation. Medicare for all would among other things be a great boon for business, relieving them of that cost and burden and providing happier healthier workers.
Dems look poised for major success come November. But if they want to build on that electoral success and hold it for a good amount of time, more of the failed same ole same ole ain’t gonna cut it. Hanauer again:
You self-described “pragmatic” Democrats who publicly fret that such policies would be far too costly to taxpayers or to employers should remember that there is nothing pragmatic about losing elections. You can’t be the grownup in the room if you’re not in the room. That’s why you never hear Republicans worrying about how to pay for their $1.5 trillion tax cut for the rich: it’s a losing argument. And besides, your trickle-down instincts are wrong! The U.S. economy was never as strong, nor its middle class as secure, as during the three decades when the real minimum wage and the overtime threshold and public subsidies for higher education were at their peak. Medicare for All wouldn’t burden employers; it would relieve them of their costliest employee benefit. And if we do need to raise taxes on the wealthy in order to rebuild the middle class, so what? There is simply no correlation between top tax rates and growth. Stand up for the middle class for a change and you might be rewarded. But there is absolutely nothing to gain—economically or electorally—by aping a trickle-down narrative that just isn’t true. On economic issues, the Democratic Party has long embraced an ideological definition of centrism that simply has nothing to do with the center. And both the party and the nation have suffered as a result.
Read the whole thing here: Democrats Must Reclaim the Center … by Moving Hard Left