{"id":8210,"date":"2018-10-04T23:48:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T23:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lavozlit.com\/?p=8210"},"modified":"2018-10-04T23:48:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T23:48:30","slug":"the-pitfalls-of-liberals-focus-on-taking-back-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2018\/10\/04\/the-pitfalls-of-liberals-focus-on-taking-back-the-house\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pitfalls of Liberals\u2019 Focus on \u201cTaking Back\u201d the House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Florence Oppen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

The Democratic Party (DP) is\nstill trying to recover from the deep crisis that erupted after the stinging\ndefeat in the 2016 elections. The elections showed that the past decades of\nneoliberal policies under the Clinton and Obama administrations had led them to\nlose most of their traditional working class base, and become increasingly\nunattractive to radicalizing youth and poor people. The DP\u2019s defeat was in part the result of\nthe handling of the economic crisis (bailout of the banks, housing and\nforeclosure crisis, continued depreciation of wages) and the Obama era\u2019s broken\npromises (comprehensive immigration reform, minimum wage regulation and\npro-unionization reform).<\/a>[1]<\/a>\u00a0\nThe result of that crisis was an increased division and disarray inside the\nparty, which is still \u201csearching for its soul.\u201d Liberals are looking in vain\nfor a DP that fights for the working class within the contradictory class wings\n– its left-leaning mass base and its neoliberal donor base.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In\nthe meantime, however, the DP has completely failed to put up a real\n\u201cresistance\u201d to Trump\u2019s policies, and has focused instead on cheap arguments\nregarding \u201cRussian meddling\u201d in the past election, and now the multiple\ncorruption cases of Trump led by Robert Mueller III. DP leaders are flirting\nwith the idea of winning the House to begin the impeachment process of Trump,\nwhich would still leave the ultra-reactionary Pence and his cabinet in power. There is no light\nbetween both parties\u2019 resource-plundering, ecologically-devastating,\nimperialist foreign policy (war on terror, nuclear arms race, and unconditional\nsupport for Israel). In the balance, the DP has offered nothing\nsubstantial and concrete to working people in the many states and cities in\nwhich the party is still dominant.<\/p>\n\n\n

Warren\u2019s Plan to Make Capitalism More \u201cAccountable\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The\nmain focus of the DP currently is on an electoral strategy of \u201cTaking Back the\nHouse\u201d in the midterm. Yet the truth is that the DP has never been a party of\ngrassroots organizing to improve working class living conditions. In order to\nwin back its lost electorate, the establishment of the DP, who still controls\nthe party, has decided to focus on \u201cbread and butter\u201d issues of everyday\nAmericans, meaning economic issues, staying away from what they perceive as\n\u201ccontroversial\u201d issues, or so called \u201cidentity politics\u201d – which have to do\nmainly with confronting racism, police brutality, mass incarceration, ICE raids\nand deportations, immigration reform beyond DACA, and demands by Native\nAmerican demands for autonomy and control of their lands and resources. Among\nthese are also the demands of LGBTQIA rights and of women, who are facing a\nhistoric retreat in access to reproductive rights. By refusing to take a stand\nor even center anti-oppression politics, the DP is in fact addressing an\nimaginary working class, that is to say the minority of working people who\nidentify as White males.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some\nDP cadre believe that since the 1970\u2019s, the party broke with the \u201cliberal\nconsensus\u201d it had established in the 1930\u2019s when it championed social reform\nthrough the New Deal and advocated a \u201cfair\u201d distribution of a share of profits.\nThe DP\u2019s concessions to anti-war mass protest and resistance against the\nVietnam war and to the Civil Rights movement made the party the target of\nreactionary attacks from the GOP. Michael A. Cohen, a professional political\nanalyst, argues that since 1972, \u201cthe\nDemocrats continued to move away from their traditional defence of labour\ntowards social issues, and they hemorrhaged voters,<\/em>\u201d and moved away from \u201cworking class Americans<\/em>\u201d.[1]<\/sup><\/a> In\norder to win the ordinary folk back, the DP should, according to Cohen, refocus\non \u201creal issues that mean a lot to young\npeople: education debt relief; steady employment; healthcare that makes it\npossible for them to afford to start families.<\/em>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

According to\nthis view, in order to find its \u201csoul\u201d (and the recapture millions of votes\nlost) , the DP should go back to being the party of FDR. And this is precisely\nwhat Elizabeth Warren strives to do as she positions herself for the 2020 election\nby appealing both to the progressive base that supports Sanders, and also\ncourting and the centrist faction of the party. Warren is proposing two major\nreforms, the Accountable Capitalism Act and an anti-corruption bill. She\u2019s\nproposing that corporations which make more than $1 billion in profits (around\n3,500 publicly traded US companies) be held more \u201caccountable\u201d to employees,\nand not only to shareholders. As she herself noted, in a Wall Street Journal <\/em>op-ed in April of this year, \u201cbetween 2007 and 2016, large American\ncompanies dedicated 93% of their earnings to shareholders,<\/em>\u201d ignoring the\nwelfare of workers.[2]<\/sup><\/a>\nWarren\u2019s proposal coincides with the release of an Economic Policy Institute\nreport, which showed that in 2017 the \u201cCEO-to-worker\ncompensation ratio of 312-to-1 was far greater than the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965\nand more than five times greater than the 58-to-1 ratio in 1989\u201d<\/em>.[3]<\/sup><\/a> The\nAccountable Capitalism Act reform calls for the following: <\/p>\n\n\n

1. Transfer of\nongoing regulation mechanisms from the state to the federal level, <\/p>\n\n\n

2. Employees of\nthese corporations elect 40% of the Board of Directors, and <\/p>\n\n\n

3. Their\ncompanies will become \u201cbenefit companies\u201d, with fiduciary responsibilities to\ntheir shareholders and potentially beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n

However,\nWarren\u2019s timid reform does not question the right of corporations to make\nbillions on the back of workers or to evade paying taxes. All that she is\nproposing is to reverse\u00a0 \u201cchange(s) in business practices dating back\nto the 1980s<\/em>.\u201d As she puts it, she wants to \u201cgo back\u201d to the time when\nAmerican capitalism \u201cworked\u201d for the working class: \u201cFor much of U.S. history, the answers were clear. Corporations sought\nto succeed in the marketplace, but they also recognized their obligations to\nemployees, customers and the community\u2026This approach worked. American companies\nand workers thrived<\/em>\u201d.[4]<\/sup><\/a>\nObviously we would contend that \u201cthis approach,\u201d a supposedly fair and\npro-worker capitalism, has never existed, because capitalism itself has never\nreally worked for us but only because of us and against us.<\/p>\n\n\n

There are,\nhowever, minority voices in the party that disagree with Warren\u2019s view.\u00a0 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, agrees\nwith going back to a \u201cNew Deal,\u201d which contrary to Warren includes improved\naccess to healthcare and higher education, and also supports reforms regarding\nICE (to replace ICE by a more \u201chumane\u201d agency) and mass incarceration. Another\nprogressive Democrat, Stacey Abrams, who recently won the DP nomination for the\nGeorgia gubernatorial race, is proposing to reconnect with those who do not\nshow up to vote rather than appealing to potential Trump or GOP voters. In\nGeorgia, a state where 30% of the population is Black, there are 1.1 million\nregistered Black voters and 700,000 unregistered.[5]<\/sup><\/a>\nThose \u201cprogressive\u201d candidates, however, are trapped in the conservative logic\nof the money-rigged electoral system and the top-down functioning of the DP,\nand this is why, as we argue in this article, they will either have to\nincreasingly water down their platform (and become closer to centrist liberals)\nor split to form a social-democratic party.<\/p>\n\n\n

What Liberals Get Wrong About the Economy\nand Working People<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n

Not only is\nWarren\u2019s flagship reform insufficient, it won\u2019t work. Michael Roberts, a\nleading Marxist economist, criticized Warren\u2019s proposals[6]<\/sup><\/a>,\nas well as all of the attempts to \u201cfix\u201d capitalism by only looking at income\nredistribution and timid regulation, as \u201chardly radical\u201d. Economic inequality\nis not the cause but the effect of capitalist functioning, which always sought\n\u201cto raise profitability during the 1980s\nand 1990s by raising the rate of surplus value through unemployment,\ndemolishing labour rights, shackling the trade unions, privatising state\nassets, \u2018freeing\u2019 up product markets, deregulating industry, reducing corporate\ntax etc \u2013 in other words, the neo-liberal agenda<\/em>.\u201d[7]<\/sup><\/a>\nContrary to Warren\u2019s argument, the neoliberal offensive against workers is not\nan \u201cexception\u201d of American capitalism, but the unveiling of its true character.\nThe capitalist system of production is based on the increased exploitation and\noppression of workers all over the world and the destruction of the planet; it\nis anarchistic in its functioning and instability, for it is marked by a low\nand\/or falling rate of return on capital over time. It\u2019s nature is to generate\nperiodic destructive crises and wars. The question for us is to know whether we\nwill use the devastating effects of the last crisis to reflect on its root\ncauses and propose durable solutions, or will we continue toiling and believing\nin delusional sugar-coated promises of economic reform.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

Warren\u2019s ideas\nare indeed old ideas that never worked, marketed in a new way.\u00a0 The attempts to regulate major trusts and\ncorporations through \u201ccharters\u201d already failed in the early 1900s, and there is\nno indication that they will succeed today, given that these corporations are\neven more powerful now. For example, the idea of giving to workers some\nrepresentation in large companies\u2019 boards, such as the historical workers\ncouncils in Germany, has resulted in little to no reduction of inequality.[8]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

This leaves,\nhowever, big unanswered questions to the Liberals and Progressives like Sanders\nand Warren, and their followers, who are proposing an easy fix: how do they\npropose to expropriate significant wealth from the 1% in order to redistribute\namong the people most in need without open class struggle? And further, we ask:\neven if they succeed in creating a viable social safety net for the 99% (and\nprotect the environment from ruin), how will they manage capitalism\u2019s\ninevitable, periodic market crashes, let alone curb the moral atrocity that is\nthe exploitation and oppression of the Global South?[9]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n

Working People\u2019s Needs Go Beyond \u201cBread and Butter\u201d Issues<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The\noverall problems of the DP strategy to win back the house is that their\nproposed reforms in no way address the growing needs of the working class.\nLet\u2019s take their economic package, for they are deciding to focus on that at\nthe expense of other vital needs of the class: while they are supporting a bill\nto lower the cost of drugs, they are not united around a campaign for Medicare\nfor All, though the majority of Americans and 74% of Democrats support a\nnational health plan. In California, where there is a strong campaign by the\nnurses union (CNA) and other labor and community groups to support single payer\nhealth care (SB562), it was a Democratic assemblyman, Anthony Rendon, who\nkilled the bill in committee in 2017, preventing it from going up for a vote in\n2018. <\/p>\n\n\n

It is true that\nthe DP is lending timid support to Prop. 10 in California, a bill that would\nrepeal the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Housing Act, which places limits on municipal\nrent control legislation, and at this time bipartisan support. The DP, which\ncould have simply enacted repeal of Costa-Hawkins through legislation, for it\ncontrols both of the state houses, only started expressing this support after a\nmassive grassroots campaign of community organizations who gathered the\nnecessary signatures to get it on the 2018 ballot. Further, there is no sign of\ninterest from the DP leadership at the state and national levels to enact a\nreal plan of affordable public housing and end or even slow the rise of\nhouselessness. Even more astonishing is that the DNC has given up on supporting\nthe enforcement of a real living wage at the federal level and has broken its\npromise to the unions to enact labor legislation that would protect the right\nto join or form a union without fear of retaliation. The two latter small\nreforms would drastically improve the living and working conditions of our\nclass.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Another\nbig problem is liberals\u2019 approach to racial justice and women\u2019s rights policy\nissues. The lesson drawn by the DNC in 2016 is that they lost the election\nbecause they were \u201ctoo focused\u201d on \u201cidentity politics\u201d issues. This is a very\ndangerous mistake. It is a capitulation to the GOP and Trump\u2019s racist and\nsexist offensive and the reactionary idea that so-called identity issues are\nnot \u201cworking class issues\u201d. Thus, regarding immigration, DP midterm election\ncandidates (even those like Ocasio-Cortez who support \u201cabolishing ICE\u201d) are not\narguing for an immediate end to deportations and detention centers and a real\npath for citizenship for all immigrants living, working and paying taxes in\nthis country, let alone for the only goal worthy of socialists: the abolition\nof all national borders. Nor is there any proposal coming from the likely top\ncandidates regarding the now well-known issue of police brutality against communities\nof color and more generally regarding mass incarceration. This is not to\nmention the fact that since Obama, the DP has embraced the pro-Charter and\npro-Voucher agenda to deal with the increasingly defunded K-12 system, while\nembracing standardized testing and the neoliberal logic to assess and manage\npublic education institutions. Leading Democrats – liberal or otherwise – are\neither silent or, at best, timid, on all of these issues. <\/p>\n\n\n

We Need More Than a \u201cResistance\u201d, We Need\na Real Alternative<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While\nliberals and the DP have been talking about launching a \u201cResistance\u201d in the\naftermath of the Women\u2019s March, the historic demonstrations of 2017, they\npulled the plug right after that and refused to continue the mobilizations in\nthe streets. After encouraging action in the streets, the DP-led organizations\nare proposing to replace substitute mass action for voting in November. This\nwas very clear at the 2018 Women\u2019s March this year when the slogan liberal\norganizing platforms tried to impose from above was \u201ctoday we march, tomorrow\nwe vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The\nDemocratic Party has always had an opportunist relation with working people\u2019s\nstruggles: it has only supported them and mobilized for them if it could\ncontrol their politics and leadership and channel them into the electoral\nprocess. This empty performance of \u201cResistance\u201d will not stop and reverse\nTrump\u2019s atrocities. <\/p>\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The\nMuslim ban was temporarily reversed, and the policy of family separations\nrevoked, only because thousands of people took to the streets in a united,\nmassive, and independent actions to oppose Trump\u2019s executive orders. The same\ngoes for the teachers\u2019 impressive strikes in West Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma\nand Kentucky, actions that won important wage and funding concessions from\nRepublican governors. This is the kind of resistance we need, a grassroots\nresistance that keeps the eyes on the prize, on meeting working class needs,\nand on continuing and growing our mobilization until we win our demands,\nuniting our struggles to build a power force for change. There, in the daily\nstruggles and organizing of our class, is where you will find us and many other\nsocialists, as we bring about real hope and change for the 99%, that is working\npeople.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a>\nhttps:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2017\/jun\/25\/civil-war-raging-inside-democratic-party<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

[2]<\/sup><\/a>\nhttps:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/companies-shouldnt-be-accountable-only-to-shareholders-1534287687<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

[3]<\/sup><\/a>\nhttps:\/\/www.epi.org\/publication\/ceo-compensation-surged-in-2017\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

[4]<\/sup><\/a>\nhttps:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/companies-shouldnt-be-accountable-only-to-shareholders-1534287687<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

[5]<\/sup><\/a> https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2018\/05\/who-does-the-democratic-party-stand-for\/560417\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

[6]<\/sup><\/a> https:\/\/thenextrecession.wordpress.com\/2018\/08\/21\/accountable-inclusive-or-responsible-capitalism\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

[7]<\/sup><\/a> https:\/\/thenextrecession.wordpress.com\/2014\/03\/11\/is-inequality-the-cause-of-capitalist-crises\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

[8]<\/sup><\/a> https:\/\/thenextrecession.wordpress.com\/2018\/08\/21\/accountable-inclusive-or-responsible-capitalism\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

[9]<\/sup><\/a> https:\/\/thenextrecession.wordpress.com\/2014\/03\/11\/is-inequality-the-cause-of-capitalist-crises\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Florence Oppen The Democratic Party (DP) is still trying to recover from the deep crisis that erupted after the stinging defeat in the 2016 elections. The elections showed that the past decades of neoliberal policies under the Clinton and Obama administrations had led them to lose most of their traditional working class base, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13882120,"featured_media":8211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27671],"tags":[28061,29786,29787],"class_list":["post-8210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en","tag-democratic-party","tag-elections","tag-warren"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdQxqk-28q","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13882120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}