Weekend Wrap Up
Neo-Liberal Democrats Send Wrong Message
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski went down to Mara-Lago to kiss the ring, sending absolutely the wrong message to both Trump and Democrats. They said the reason they went was that, “we were deeply dismayed by several of President Trump’s cabinet selections.” Only several? How about 99% or maybe all of his cabinet selections? They went on to say they wanted to “restart communications” after years of public criticism, and that Trump “seemed interested in finding common ground with the Democrats.”
Here are some facts for you that might help alleviate this indigestion that seems to have afflicted the Democratic Party:
1992 marks the demarcation of the old Democratic Party that was concerned with supporting the concerns of the middle class, unions, and the health and safety of both people and the environment - traditional progressive policy, and the neoliberal takeover of the party; “The original neoliberals included, among others, Michael Kinsley, Charles Peters, James Fallows, Nicholas Lemann, Bill Bradley, Bruce Babbitt, Gary Hart, and Paul Tsongas. Sometimes called "Atari Democrats", these were the men who helped to remake American liberalism into neoliberalism, culminating in the election of Bill Clinton in 1992. These new liberals disagreed with the policies and programs of mid-century figures like progressive labor organizer Walter Reuther, economist John Kenneth Galbraith or even noted historian Arthur Schlesinger.” (ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism#United_States )
The takeover of the Democratic Party by the neoliberals can be visualized as a ratchet, as in the picture above. As the Republicans move acceptable discourse and policy to the right, the neoliberal Democrats accept the move as a new normal and keep discourse and policy from moving back to the left. A related term is “shifting of the Overton Window.” This was seen most recently during Democratic primaries where Progressive candidates, including Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, were accused of being ‘socialists’ and ‘communists’ by fellow Democrats, and yet when you look at their policy stances they look no different than that of the Franklin Roosevelt administration. In fact, if you look at the electoral college map from his first election at the height of the Great Depression, it’s clear the public accepted the idea of progressive public policy widely. This is the generation known as the Greatest Generation, who fought WWII against Fascist NAZIs and won. Hardly flip-flopping, anti-patriotic communists, as characterized by the Right today.
Fast forward to today, and those same ‘communist’ policies are popular with everyone across the political divide when they are not told who originated them, or that they are ‘progressive’. At least, among people who are not rich billionaires and corporations or their political minions. Here are the policies established by the Congression Progressive Caucus today:
The Neo-liberal Democrats who currently control the party, and their corporate media mouthpieces have now settled on the ‘real’ reason that the Kamala Harris / Tim Walz campaign failed: all the progressive policies they embraced! Yes, that’s it! We should have moved even further to the RIGHT, and embraced Facism, both Christofacist and White Supremacist varieties together! That will be a WIN for America! Nevermind that these same corporate media companies failed in their duty as the 4th Estate, and watched without comment, as a facist authoritarian white supremacist theocratic dictatorship was waved before their noses in the form of Project 2025.
Okay, that happened, but there is hope for the Democratic Party. The Congressional Progressive Caucus which started in 1991 with 5 people including Senator Bernie Sanders, is now 100 members strong, and growing in every election. This is fully 46% of the Democratic Party Caucus, and 22% of the overall population of the House of Representatives. Only 9 members of congress separate the Progressive Caucus from controlling who holds the gavel as the minority leader today. It is clear to me, at the grass roots level, when the propaganda of the right wing is taken out of the equation, the middle class and poor people of this nation support progressive policies that will make their lives better at the expense of a few percentage points on the balance sheet of the rich who have more than anyone will ever need.
It is also clear to me that the neoliberals inside and controlling the Democratic Party have a choice: They can continue to drag the Democratic Party and the middle class down into a hole where corporate welfare and theocracy ‘Trumps’ human decency, or they can turn a corner and bring back a Democratic Party that favors human rights, the rule of law, and building up the middle class, instead of tearing it down. The clock is ticking, and the longer they wait, the worse history will judge them. Also, the Progressive Caucus is growing, no matter how they try to smear it. It will take over the party at some point, and the sooner they are able to, the less neoliberal damage they will need to clean up.
The real reason the Democrats lost the election is they tried to be everything to everyone, and in the end showed the clear danger of neoliberalism turning the Democratic Party into a mirror image of the Republican Party; hyper-corporate and anti-middle class. It was too much to overcome and the corporate ensnared Democrats were not different enough to present a compelling alternative. The Republicans were able to hide it better at the top by Trump’s rhetoric that pounded the same messages of “I will help you have a better life from all the horrors (wokism, immigrants, bad economy).” Yet, down ballot progressive Democrats did better in some districts even though Trump won at the top because people thought they were genuine about wanting to help them. I think this bodes well in the long run for Progressive Democrats, and the Democratic Party, if they lean into the real progressive policy we offer, vs. the lies that the MAGA Republicans put out to snag the poor and middle class. Also, there is only one Trump, and eventually he too, shall pass.
