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Its time to state the obvious: The Republican Party has gone bull goose bonkers. Its leaders have turned the GOP brand into an unprincipled gaggle of corporate profiteers, hatemongers, and screwball conspiracy theorists. Theyre so far out that even the Hubble Space Telescope cant find them!

But where is the Democratic Party? Heres a prime opportunity to forge a solid political coalitiona multiracial, urban-rural, farm-labor alliance based on fundamental principles of fairness and opportunity for all. Isnt that what the party says it stands for? This is the time to prove it, to reach out and unite ordinary Americans behind a national agenda of lasting progressive change.

Its not like the party elders would have to start from scratch. An energized, feisty movement of grassroots battlers against corporate greed and government injustice is already organizing, winning, and growing in popular support all across the country. But the national partys old-line clique of big funders, paid consultants, and corporate politicos shun less traditionally established Democrats as unruly outsiders.

Rather than welcoming and building on the exciting advances of these popular movements, Democratic insiders keep hoping that the GOPs goofiness and nastiness will turn off enough voters that Democrats can win by default.

Meanwhile, they only push modest, incremental reforms so as not to offend corporate funders or spook moderate Republicans. Hellooooo, brilliant strategists: A primary function of the Democratic Party is to offend the corporate powers! Also, there are only about six moderate Republicans left in the United States, so appeasing them is not a big winespecially when it costs you the support of grassroots voters eager for a politics that is bold enough and big enough to end business-as-usual economics.

It takes intentional gutsiness to create a politics that actually advances Americas historic democratic promise. Republicans wont do that. Will Democrats?

The opposite of courage is not cowardiceits conformity. And right there lies the problem with the Big Money that now controls the Democratic Party.

This group certainly wants Democrats to be the majority party, but for what purpose? Based on the policies they actually push, they seek progress without real change. Go slow and go small, they urge, only offering policy tweaks that conform to the existing corporate structure. Their watered down idea of change is what near beer is to beer, only less satisfying.

Worse, when grassroots progressives put real, FDR-style, Big D Democratic ideas on the national agenda, the Dem hierarchy turns into a bunch of fraidy cat Democrats, mewling that a federal living wage, a tax on billionaires, health care for all, breaking up monopoly power, strengthening unions, a nationwide child care program, and other fundamental changes are too extreme. Such boldness, they cry, will frighten voters!

They are wrong, of course, and politically inept. Such direct-benefit, were-on-your-side changes in todays corporate-run system are the Democrats most popular proposals. Polls confirm that this is especially true among working-class voters in small and medium-sized manufacturing towns, where Democrats have been getting creamed.

In 2021, Jacobin magazine partnered with YouGov and the Center for Working-Class Politics to conduct a survey of 2,000 working-class voters in five swing states. The results showed a preference for candidates that focus on bread-and-butter economic issues and use populist, class-based progressive campaign messagingalbeit with language avoiding divisive or woke terms.

If anything, Democrats who are moderate in challenging corporate elitism and hesitant to invoke class are the partys greatest liabilities in winning over working people. After all, theyve seen CEOs move their decent-paying jobs out of the country, watched monopolies and Wall Street squeeze the lifeblood out of family farm opportunities, and witnessed Amazon and Walmart eating Main Street alive.

Where, they ask, is the Democratic Party that once stood up for us?

Contrary to the contrived wisdom of party elites, these people despise big corporations, love unions, and have minimal interest in the GOPs culture war issues. They yearn for a party thatll join the grassroots in battling the bastards and fighting for a no-bullshit agenda of economic fairness.

The question they have for Democrats is basic: Do you just intend to hold office . . . or use it?

Link:
Vox Populist: Democrats, Rise to This Occasion - Progressive.org