Revisiting The Broken System:
And Showcasing What Real Democratic, Progressive Values Look Like In The Age of Oligarchy & Authoritarianism
Let me recommend my brother’s recent article on pro-Trump dictator Nayib Bukele, and how he is a fraud when it comes to taking on the MS-13 gangs in his home country of El Salvador. And keep watching Rachel Maddow! Wow!
I am going to do a slightly different format for this post:
Like my State Senator Sam Bell says, real democratic values matter-especially the emphasis on economic rights. Here’s what that entails:
Trickle-down economics does not trickle down to working people
It never has, and it probably never will. If it did, we would be having a very different conversation. Since 1980, we have been told that tax cuts for the wealthy would trickle down to the middle class and stimulate the economy.
Where is the stimulation? There is none. Rather, we have instead seen a massive transfer of wealth towards the elite and away from the middle & working classes, a more corporate socialism if you will with more stock dividends and buybacks. That is why every Democrat should campaign to raise the tax rates of the billionaire class and the largest corporations, so that the actual tax cuts (or investments) go into working class people. Every Democrat should run against the Trump Tax Scam and those that preceded it, whether on the federal level or the state level i.e RI’s 2006 Carcieri-Murphy Tax Cuts. They even should run to repeal the deficit-ballooning Reagan and Bush Tax Cuts.
Deregulation has not made the economy simpler and easier for working families
Deregulation, much like the “waste, fraud, and abuse” moniker for the GOP, are red herrings that distract from the true mission at hand. That is to gut consumer safety protections and workers’ rights on behalf of corporate special interests and the top 1%. Deregulation hurts competition. It does not help it. How do we know this? Look at the mergers that have taken place with the lax enforcement until recently from the Federal Trade Commission & the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. More economic monopolies have hurt farmers, manufacturers, small businesses, convenience stores, entrepreneurs, and workers who have few options to showcase true purchasing power and instead are vulnerable to monopolistic higher prices, as Secretary Robert Reich keeps documenting.
It has never been more clearer than now that having less rules on the table means more corporations and elites rip off the American people, including through price-gouging, making them think might makes right. Democrats should make it clear that trustbusting and monopoly breaking is the only path now to leveling the playing field, whether in agriculture (especially so), industry, technology, defense contracts, cryptocurrency, the media, or other sectors of the economy.
Free trade agreements have to be renegotiated and torn up in a responsible way
There is no question that leaders of the past failed to recognize the deficits of globalization, which has helped the wealthiest around us prosper, while leaving many other communities behind. Free trade can exist without a Race to the Bottom in wages, income, and environmental, health, and labor protections.
Tariffs are a tool in the toolbox for fair trade, but they are not the be all end all. Tariffs have to work in tandem with other allies against adversaries and trade violators, not be used in a way that leaves America on its own. And they are not the solution to the problem. The Trump Tariffs are reckless and unnecessary, only serving their purpose as tools for special deals and corruption. The solution Democrats have to push are to renegotiate, and perhaps even tear up, bad trade agreements written for corporate special interests like NAFTA, PNTR, CAFTA, TPP, and the USMCA.
Labor Rights Are Human Rights
We know what life was like when there were no child labor laws, no 40-hour work weeks, and no unions. Labor is the backbone of the United States of America in manufacturing, agriculture, or otherwise.
That is why a true Democrat and/or Progressive must stand on behalf of workers all the way, including on legislation that matters most, the PRO Act and the Workplace Democracy Act, and to defend the government agencies responsible for protecting workers’ rights, from the National Labor Relations Board, to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration. Not to mention paid leave and a higher minimum wage. Labor rights are indeed human rights.
Corporate welfare and budget austerity have only worsened the federal deficit
For too long, people have said we need to cut down our government spending (although many Republican politicians fail to say where to cut government spending beyond “entitlements”). What they don’t say is that top-down tax cuts, deregulation, and corporate welfare have only increased spending by trillions of dollars without providing a revenue stream of any kind to reign in the loss of money to the ultra wealthy oligarchy.
And if at no other point, we now see the price of budget austerity in the DOGE purging, in which we see that breaking every government agency imaginable has a substantive impact on a number of government programs and the working people they serve.
The free market is not solving the healthcare problem
Some people say government is overreaching on healthcare. It may be the opposite in truth. The Affordable Care Act was a small step in the right direction, but it did not “annihilate” private insurance or even offer a public option competitive rival to it.
If anything, private insurance and the pharmaceutical industry showcase the inefficiency, waste, and neglect that exists in our system today with the paperwork and premiums and co-pays and deductibles. We spend twice as much per capita on healthcare as in every major country, even ones where the government pays for healthcare like Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. If anything, it is more government action to make healthcare a universal right that is needed towards the goal of a simpler, single-payer system covering both physical and mental health care.
Education must be a human right
Some people say you must pull yourself up by the bootstraps. What happens if a kid who works hard can’t afford college because of the tuition bill? What do you do then?
There are students who are crushed today by massive amounts of student debt way beyond the time they graduate from college. Public schools have been underfunded for decades with conservative austerity and financial siphoning of money by for-profit charter school networks. Vocational training and student debt relief has been long neglected by the party establishments. For Democrats, a strong position to take is one that makes public colleges tuition free, holds predatory lenders accountable, fully funds K-12 public education, and expands vocational workforce training and development for the middle class.
The climate crisis is real, and bold action means a cleaner and better economy
As Daniel Patrick Moynihan reportedly said once, we are not entitled to our own facts. The climate crisis is real and it is here. And no amount of denial can change that. But current policies will be catastrophic for the planet.
There is no question we have to listen to frontline communities who need an economic transition from mining coal, drilling oil, and the rest of the decaying fossil fuel industry to a more vibrant renewable energy economy. Bold climate action is not just a moral necessity, it is an economic boon for the communities likely to be most affected by the crisis. It can be a harbinger of a clean energy revolution that revitalizes communities struggling for an unacceptably long time. And the government has to lead the way on a New Deal-scale.
The free market cannot solve economic or income inequalities
What we have seen in the past 45 years is the arrival of a Second Gilded Age accompanied by the establishment of the tech-based oligarchy.
The policies that facilitated this return are the same laissez-faire free market principles that were used in the late 1800s into the early 1900s, and benefitted the few.
It is not easy of course and often takes time, but it has been shown government action can help make a difference on issues ranging from affordable housing & food security, to infrastructure & transportation, starting up small businesses, and guaranteeing job placements in the age of artificial intelligence. The New Deal and Great Society shows the best of government action on behalf of the working class and the poor.
The government should expand rights & liberties, not take them away
The US government is not the solution to everything, but it shouldn’t add any layer of obstacles to the lives of the American people. It should not violate due process, nor freedom of the press, nor freedom to assemble.
Furthermore, when necessary, the government has to be on the side of the people, especially the will of the minority who often don’t have a say in every decade of redistricting, against discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, and other creed, against the elimination of 50 years of reproductive access, and for the protection of life from military-style, semiautomatic weapons of war-while protecting 2nd Amendment rights in general.
The real path to cutting government bloat and taking on corporate greed
Democrats should make it clear that there are ways to cut spending as was proposed in my DOGE post back in January or February, including in the Pentagon, in corporate welfare initiatives, in the deficit-ballooning, top-down tax cuts, and elsewhere that can end the budget austerity taking place on working people. We can instead for instance, support our damn veterans and soldiers. Democrats should embrace such a vision to take on corporate greed everywhere in government and society, including in the woefully dysfunctional campaign finance system.
Allies like Ukraine are a strength of the United States, not a weakness
The United States is stronger today because of our ties with North American, European, and Asian allies among others. It is how we defeated the Nazis & Fascists in World War II. It is how we took down the Soviet Union & Communism in the Cold War. It is how we supported Ukraine up to this point. Our allies are beneficial for our own national security and economic interests.
Our relationship with Israel needs to be revised
The United States has and will always remain an ally of Israel, as is our obligation. They do have a right to defend themselves after the barbaric attacks by Hamas on October 7 on Israeli kibbutz men, women, and children, which can never be forgotten.
We also cannot forget the Palestinian people in this process. Netanyahu’s government gained approval from the US to defend itself from Hamas, not to annihilate Gaza and wage war on the Palestinian people as a whole.
Plus, Democrats need to offer a voice for rural people forgotten in the party up to this point, and to everyone who wants to see a dysfunctional and broken system rebuilt from scratch.
That is the kind of vision being offered by the Fight Oligarchy leaders and the New Economic Patriots (as well as the Dignity of Work Institute) in the progressive movement.
Feel free to offer more feedback in comments below this post.
Great post per usual, Mike.