Generally, when “progressives” think of corporatists, they usually think of Republican politicians. When they think of people who will cater to their donors’ every whim and not give a thought to the voters’ will, they think of Republican politicians. They think of the wealthy elite tricking the poor into voting against their interests with phrases like “trickle-down economics,” the idea that somehow cutting taxes for the rich and raising or maintaining them for people who can’t afford to survive with a full-time job will somehow help the economy. Unfortunately, the problem extends far beyond the reaches of the GOP and into nearly every Democrat elected into federal office.
The Democratic Party is not the progressive party. They are no longer, and perhaps never were, the party of the true liberal. The party is made up almost entirely of “establishment” or “corporate” Democrats, who choose their donors over their constituency except in the rare occasion that a journalist sniffs it out. Perhaps the most nationally visible result of this is Bernie Sanders’ loss to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary in 2016, an affair surrounded in controversy and orchestrated by the DNC leadership.
The clearest example of the Democratic Party’s hypocrisy is all the talk they spew about being for the people and for social programs, but as soon as your back is turned they vote for a $100 billion increase in military spending. Did you know the overwhelming majority of the U.S. population wants to end the wars? And yet somehow our military budget for 2019 has ballooned to the point where it will exceed the current spending of the next top 10 countries combined. This increase alone is larger than the total military spending of Russia, and it was voted for 89 to 9 in the Senate, despite the Senate containing 47 Democrats. There is no universe where that should be an acceptable move by the people meant to represent us.
As a result of this establishment dominance of the Democratic Party, groups such as Justice Democrats and The Party of Reason and Progress have risen up to fight for true progressivism and populist left ideas. The most visible victory of this movement recently has been Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s win over the five-year incumbent Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th district, though five other Justice Democrats have won their primaries this season as well. Populist ideas like Medicare for all, free college, a living wage, criminal justice reform, and clean energy are all immensely popular among voters of all stripes, to such an extent that even Donald Trump used populist left rhetoric when he ran for office — and it worked. Representing the people and the people’s interests without catering to corporations is, I think it’s reasonable to say, what the vast majority of voters want. The mainstream media, the outlets you see everywhere, tend to cover those ideas as “far-left” fringe ideas that have no support, when in fact they are all supported by the majority of the population, according to polling.
My point is this: There is a blue wave rolling in. Thanks to the visibility of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, people are starting to see what it means to care about policies over rhetoric, and they like what they see. Expect a new generation of Democrats that will fight back against corporatist policies, and fight for the welfare of the people.
Be First to Comment