Good analysis but here is the problem. Democrats may think they are the heirs to the 20th century liberals but it is actually MAGA that is in possession. From Social Security to industrial policy, MAGA owns the issues. More thoughtful Democrats, like here, don't spend their days raging about the Bad Orange Man and inciting murder but you are still running against Romney and Bush. Republicans have moved on and captured the economic issues that once defined Democrats.
There are certainly policies that can help both workers and small business owners. Cutting the payroll tax comes to mind (hopefully as part of a combination of fiscally responsible measures).
Other times, though, labor and small business will find themselves on opposite sides: higher minimum wage, union power, worker safety rules, mandatory PTO, mandatory employer pension and health insurance contributions (it is bad to exempt small businesses from any of these).
When the two conflict, I hope Democrats will side with labor (which has too little political power) over small business (which Americans valorize too much, thinking that smaller means inherently more virtuous).
It's impossible to write an essay about the estrangement of the working class from the Democratic Party and not mention illegal and low wage immigration.
This past month I completed what will probably be my last contract for the year, after all I'm retired. I buy from the biggest supplier in the metro region, mostly steel in this instance. Almost every other company loading materials either entirely of illegal immigrants or the workers were and the owner was of unknown status. Thirty years ago that work was done almost entirely by small American contractors.
I speak Spanish, or something resembling Spanish, and I like the guys who have come up here to make a decent living. My beef isn't with the immigrants, it's with the government policies that have cut the legs out from under the independent contractors of America.
The Democratic Party has no plan on immigration other than give everyone papers so they are legal. Any talk of attracting working class votes to our party rings hollow when you give our jobs to someone else.
Regulation of corporate power is not responsible for rural poverty. Our constitution through the Senate and gerrymandering makes rural America more powerful than it should be. Republicans blame the metropolitan Democrats for rural ills. Thus they capture the rural vote which in Wyoming, population1 million, has two Senators like California, population 40 million. It’s not the policies that re-elect
Republicans it’s our undemocratic constitution. Prohibit gerrymandering, abolish the Senate and reform SCOTUS.
Good analysis but here is the problem. Democrats may think they are the heirs to the 20th century liberals but it is actually MAGA that is in possession. From Social Security to industrial policy, MAGA owns the issues. More thoughtful Democrats, like here, don't spend their days raging about the Bad Orange Man and inciting murder but you are still running against Romney and Bush. Republicans have moved on and captured the economic issues that once defined Democrats.
There are certainly policies that can help both workers and small business owners. Cutting the payroll tax comes to mind (hopefully as part of a combination of fiscally responsible measures).
Other times, though, labor and small business will find themselves on opposite sides: higher minimum wage, union power, worker safety rules, mandatory PTO, mandatory employer pension and health insurance contributions (it is bad to exempt small businesses from any of these).
When the two conflict, I hope Democrats will side with labor (which has too little political power) over small business (which Americans valorize too much, thinking that smaller means inherently more virtuous).
It's impossible to write an essay about the estrangement of the working class from the Democratic Party and not mention illegal and low wage immigration.
This past month I completed what will probably be my last contract for the year, after all I'm retired. I buy from the biggest supplier in the metro region, mostly steel in this instance. Almost every other company loading materials either entirely of illegal immigrants or the workers were and the owner was of unknown status. Thirty years ago that work was done almost entirely by small American contractors.
I speak Spanish, or something resembling Spanish, and I like the guys who have come up here to make a decent living. My beef isn't with the immigrants, it's with the government policies that have cut the legs out from under the independent contractors of America.
The Democratic Party has no plan on immigration other than give everyone papers so they are legal. Any talk of attracting working class votes to our party rings hollow when you give our jobs to someone else.
Regulation of corporate power is not responsible for rural poverty. Our constitution through the Senate and gerrymandering makes rural America more powerful than it should be. Republicans blame the metropolitan Democrats for rural ills. Thus they capture the rural vote which in Wyoming, population1 million, has two Senators like California, population 40 million. It’s not the policies that re-elect
Republicans it’s our undemocratic constitution. Prohibit gerrymandering, abolish the Senate and reform SCOTUS.