Congressional Democrats And An Alternative Vision For America's Working Class:

From the Get-Go, Democrats Want to Address the Issues That Matter to Working Families. Especially If Republicans Fail to Keep Their Empty Promises.

Feel free to check the entire blog archives from “Political Pulse” & “Salzillo Report” on the 2024 primary cycle, rural outreach, redistricting litigation, base dynamics, campaign organization, the current media landscape, the issues at stake, Project 2025, Build Back Better, the progressive movement, the 2024 Election autopsy, the true story about former 2024 VP contender Gina Raimondo, and much more.

Via nativist.org. Note: NAFTA was also supported by Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell, Newt Gingrich, and Chuck Grassley.

Before I begin, I should make a correction to my last post here. In case it was not clear enough, the comments from President Clinton about not “keeping score” of the deaths in Gaza is a reference to Arab and Muslim Americans being taken for granted.

Needless to say, they made their voices heard at the ballot box by either protest voting for Jill Stein or voting for Donald Trump outright. Trump actually won Dearborn, MI, believe it or not, and came within striking distance in Hamtramck. These are the dangers of writing off whole groups of voters with careless rhetoric.

Ryan Cooper from The American Prospect raises a great question for the Democratic Party: Should the party abandon the mainstream media? I don’t exactly disagree with him. As has been mentioned numerous times before, CNN’s executives like David Zaslav wanted Trump for M&As (mergers & acquisitions)—as well as higher TV ratings based on the last go-around. That latter strategy has funnily enough backfired on them, as the post-Trump victory has created much lower ratings across the board.

Even MSNBC is owned by a company (Comcast) which has a direct stake in defense contracts, all while Twitter & Threads are run by right-wing ideologues and sympathizers. Yes, even Mark Zuckerberg is now a libertarian who has cozied up to Donald Trump and has been hiring conservatives as outside advisors for his social media pages.

Corporate media is not going to rescue our nation from autocracy, and it certainly will not rescue us from an elite oligarchy. They fail to have the moral courage to stand up to a wannabe strongman when their stock profits and bond markets are on the line. They are truly “coastline” people—or, more accurately, their only true concern is the small sliver of coast where their gated communities are. Let the hardworking reporters and staffers do their jobs for once.

The good news is progressives and progressive populists can override the barriers of the corporate media through platforms like Bluesky, Twitch, BarStool, and YikYak, and take advantage of smaller online news outlets already in circulation. They can also make use of growing audiences for podcasts, such as that of Joe Rogan. Zaslav and other greedy media executives will see their hedging of bets strategy will not work this time around for their bottom lines.

Also, the 2024 election cycle has now officially surpassed 1896 as the most expensive election cycle ever when measured as a share of the economy (in GDP). The record was not just broken, it was shattered and it is not even close, which can be credited to a record amount of campaign spending from Big Business interests, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Washington DC lobbyists, Big Pharma, Fossil Fuels Inc., Big Agriculture, and especially the cryptocurrency industry. As we get closer to the start of the 119th Congress, we’ll be sure, as other investigative watchdogs are, to spotlight the special interests and dark money groups that stand to benefit from this election cycle, as was done earlier this past summer.

And finally, excellent takes from OH Senator Sherrod Brown, CT Senator Chris Murphy, and NY Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado, all hitting on the same points being made even by former RNC Chair Michael Steele: corporate-centric neoliberalism is dead. It is a failure, and it is time to turn the page from it.

I will return to more of the 2024 autopsy later on, but let’s do a little reprieve on what the future holds this time around.

Republicans will have a governing trifecta in Washington DC, and an edge in state governments all across the country. They also have stacked the judiciary with conservative justices and judges. They effectively will run the show for the next 2-4 years, and will get credit for whatever happens on their watch, good or bad.

This assumes the Democrats are powerless. The truth is they are not. There are more Congressional Democrats in both the House & Senate this upcoming session than there were in the aftermath of the 2004 election cycle. Furthermore, there has never been a more dysfunctional conference of Congressional Republicans than in these recent years in the Trump era. We know this from both the ousting of Kevin McCarthy and from the rabble rousers in both the House and Senate that make basic things—like raising the debt ceiling and keeping the government open—almost impossible to do at times (never mind dangerous priorities such as repealing Obamacare).

The campaign season is over, and it is now the test of Trump Republicans to govern on their own campaign promises, just like right after 2016.

First, Democrats will not become the Party of No, to Mitch McConnell’s and Kevin McCarthy’s sadness. We are better than that. There are things Trump seems to agree on with Democrats, at least that is what he said on paper. If Trump is serious, let’s see him do it. Let’s see him cap credit card rates as Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed. Let’s see him keep trustbusting FTC Chair Lina Khan in place, which Senator Elizabeth Warren and Vice President-elect JD Vance both have supported. Let’s see him cut the budget deficit, which can be done in no small part from streamlining and cutting the waste in the Pentagon budget with defense contractors. Let’s see him, RFK Jr. craziness or not, take on the corporate greed that exists in Big Food and in our diet. Let’s see him keep the No Tax on Tips pledge, keep Obamacare, and reform trade policy, if he is truly genuine on those campaign promises. Maybe some real bipartisanship is possible if he commits to these promises.

First of all, I am very doubtful. Trump is a pathological liar, with not a sincere bone in his body. However, no matter what Trump does, Democrats will fight to protect the hard-earned progress in place, like the American Rescue Plan funds that stabilized finances for state governments, local municipalities, school districts, and police & fire departments. They will fight for the funds that boosted COVID-19 unemployment insurance, and got shots in arms.

Democrats will protect the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law appropriations for infrastructure & transportation projects all across the country for roads, bridges, highways, train stations, ports, airports, water systems, and broadband layout that some Republicans have pledged to claw back. Democrats will defend the Inflation Reduction Act that caps insulin costs and prescription drug prices, expands the renewable energy economy, and makes the wealthy—and corporations—pay their fair share in taxes.

The same can be said about protecting the progress in securing care for veterans through the PACT Act & Camp Lejeune Act, funding for science & engineering in the CHIPS & Science Act, supporting workers with the Butch Lewis Act & the Postal Service Reform Act, enshrining rights in the Respect for Marriage Act, and much more, that are in the crosshairs of either Agenda 47 or the Project 2025 framework endorsed by Steve Bannon and incoming administration officials like Russell Vought.

If Trump & Congressional Republicans try to repeal these life changing accomplishments, or try to entirely subvert our institutions, like our civil servants and federal government employees, Democrats should be ready and willing to fight back.

Already one example present today in a nonprofit crackdown bill House Republican leadership will introduce in the next session, which also earned 15 votes from House Democrats this past week. It is incumbent upon American citizens (preferably through phone calls and emails) to press Congressional Democratic leadership and the rank-and-file to block this bill from ever becoming law, which would effectively criminalize left-leaning organizations like the NAACP, the ACLU, Public Citizen, and The Intercept. The American people must also resist Trump’s attempts to weaken the legislative branch with recess appointments. And power grabs in places like North Carolina to strip the authority of statewide officials, all of whom are coincidentally Democrats.

But there’s more. The Democratic Party needs to showcase their recommitment to the American working class with a bold posture beyond simply nibbling around the edges. While out of power, Democrats need a concrete agenda much like the Progressive Promise proposed in the Gingrich Revolution aftermath, and the 2006 100-Hour Agenda.

Democrats should offer an alternative fair trade policy that prevents the “Race to the Bottom” which has gutted wages, labor conditions, health safety, environmental regulations, and has exploited cheaper labor globally. Unlike Trump, we can do so without igniting tariff trade wars that have proven to be ineffective for almost a century, and have taken an especially heavy toll on farmers.

If Trump hasn’t got the nerve to do it himself, Democrats alone should push to reverse the “Race to the Bottom” we have seen since the 1980s and 1990s.

Democrats should outline an agricultural legislative program that does not bail out the largest agribusinesses and factory farms first and foremost, but assists the hardworking family farmers and small farms that are entitled to financial assistance from the federal government. They deserve a spot in line before Big Agriculture giants. Level the damn playing field, as one might say.

Democrats should offer a program for a universal jobs guarantee that includes vocational training and trade school education options, paid leave, workforce development training, and puts people to work fixing our infrastructure and transportation systems (including childcare and eldercare) with the work that has already started.

Democrats should campaign hard on raising the minimum wage to a living wage of at least $15 an hour (adjusted to inflation), and protecting the right to organize (e.g repealing right-to-work provisions in Taft-Hartley, or repealing Taft-Hartley entirely), to strike, and to join a union nationwide. Unions are the backbone of the middle class, and the declining membership over the decades helps explain the record income and racial inequities we see today. Just as small businesses and entrepreneurs are being squeezed by industry monopolies.

Democrats should offer a universal pathway to education that includes a restoration of funding towards public school districts. Democrats should work tirelessly to set guardrails on charter school networks (like Achievement First). They should work for major enhancements to Head Start. They should give another boost to Historically Black Colleges & Universies (plus other Minority-Serving Institutions), community colleges & universities (especially those tuition-free), and student debt relief and accountability for those taken advantage of by predatory lenders. Education can’t just be a privilege for the well-to-do.

Democrats should offer large-scale, New Deal-esque climate action & renewable energy economic development plan to save our planet and power the nation towards a better and bright future, instead of forfeiting the new industrial revolution of the 21st century over to China. It’s a future that can and will fuel a boom in manufacturing, agriculture, electricity, heating, and transportation, leading the way towards true energy independence with green and blue.

And on the climate crisis, renewable energy development, and even national security, Democrats should push to finally ratify the UN Law of the Sea for access to critical minerals in the oceans.

Democrats should offer a vision to universal healthcare building on the foundations set in recent years, starting with dental, hearing aid, and eyeglass coverage, mental health & substance abuse parity, lowering the Medicare eligibility age, creating and expanding a public option, reviving the Child Tax Credit, and eventually guiding us to a single-payer healthcare system absent of private insurance co-pays, deductibles, paperwork, and wasteful private sector bureaucracy. For a healthcare system we spend twice as much on for still lackluster and poor outcomes, we deserve better, and the last thing needed are cuts or privatized services to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Democrats should not be ashamed to say the wealthiest individuals and largest corporations should pay their fair share of taxes, as they did at astronomically higher levels during the years of President Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. These burdens should not be placed on the poor, just as Big Business and the Big Banks shouldn’t be allowed to rip off consumers, like that which took place during the housing bubble post repeal of Glass-Steagall.

Democrats can make a proud stand to expand the housing market, after government housing programs and assistance has been cut off over a period of almost 50 years, leaving hundreds of thousands of Americans, including veterans, on the streets. The private sector voucher programs of the 80s and 90s don’t work, and we can do better, just like Minnesota shows the rest of us how to feed hungry school children breakfast and lunch.

How about Democrats also consider an agenda consisting of voluntary programs like AmeriCorps & City Year alongside nonprofit community development corporations to revitalize distressed urban and rural areas all across the country and help address issues in those areas like the opioid crisis, food deserts, crime, and homelessness (especially in the American Heartland in between the coastlines)?

And there is more that can be offered to the American people, like confronting the prison-industrial complex that makes its profits off of incarcerating as many people as possible, or cutting the waste, abuse, and neglect that occurs in the Pentagon budget, or protecting and expanding voting rights, marriage rights, enacting campaign finance reform, championing fair maps, taking on rampant, out-of-control gun violence, and access to reproductive healthcare.

The point is the Democratic Party can and should offer a vision focused on the problems facing the working and middle classes which have bubbled up over the last 4 and a half decades, such as increasing costs and decreasing wages, where industries are hallowed out and more jobs are becoming automated. The rich only get richer, and the poor only get poorer. Because the truth is as much as Democrats stand for human rights and civil rights, the Democratic Party also stands for workers’ rights, the right to an education, the right to healthcare, the right to a good-paying job, and the right to fair competition in the markets.

And if Congressional Republicans are more focused on bathrooms than on the kitchen tables, maybe Congressional Democrats can take advantage of the moment in what will be one of the most climatic moments in the American Experiment so far.

Stay tuned for more…