Americans are backing progressives because they want candidates who will fight for the working class
Most discussions about the Democratic party in this election cycle focus on the remarkable rise of progressive Democrats, such as the Florida state representative Angie Nixon, a democratic socialist who scored an upset win in the Democratic US Senate primary on Tuesday.
But an equally big story is the remarkable decline of corporate Democrats.
Some Democrats worry about this. My old friend James Carville compares the current wave of progressive primary wins to progressive campaigns in 2016 – especially that of Bernie Sanders – that he believes fractured the Democratic coalition.
“Bernie Sanders is the reason that Donald Trump is president,” the Democratic strategist said recently, claiming that Bernie’s primary challenge to Hillary Clinton convinced voters in battleground states that establishment Democrats were no different from establishment Republicans, thereby weakening her prospects in the general election.
Even if James is right about 2016 (and I don’t believe he is), his assessment is irrelevant now because we’re at a radically different point in US politics than we were 10 years ago.
The silver lining in the dark storm cloud of Trump and his detestable regime is that it has exposed the greed, venality, cupidity and corruption of the US’s corporate elite.
Trump has allowed the CEOs of giant corporations and the titans of Wall Street to do whatever they want as long as they suck up to him. And he’s providing all sorts of corporate welfare to those who generously woo him – no-bid government contracts, exclusive licenses, tax loopholes, tariff exemptions, use of public lands, and permission to become even bigger monopolies.
Trump has thereby unveiled a truth about corporate America that for many years has been hidden behind a soothing blanket of corporate PR bullshit about social responsibility, corporate charity, and “trickle-down” economics.
That truth is the captains of corporate America are so rapacious that they’re willing to throw average working Americans under the bus to make billions more.
Corporate avarice under Trump has become so blatant and corporate America’s contempt for the needs of average Americans so flagrant that most Americans are now catching on. [Continue reading…]