Time For The Progressive Tea Party:
The Status Quo Hasn’t Done It. Progressives Need To Take Over the Democratic Party and Completely Upend the Clinton Consensus Behind Trump's Wins in 2016 and 2024
Feel free to check the past Biden Era archives and follow the editions to come in the Trump Era on Substack, Medium, and LinkedIn (First Come, First Serve!).
The logistical disaster in the Senate CR vote shows the need for change. That’s very clear, especially in who should head the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (hint, hint: a person not named Kirsten Gillibrand).
Here’s one recommendation of such from The New Republic: “Bernie Sanders is Showing Democrats How It’s Done.”
Some of you might have heard the stories already. Democrats retreating to their donors in Silicon Valley. Courting Wall Street private equity and venture capital. Praising Ronald Reagan. The Lina Khan dumping. Bending the knee to Big Crypto and the Netanyahu lobby (which is important to differentiate from general pro-Israel advocacy). Congress members like Josh Gottheimer buying stakes in Microsoft—as they think of buying TikTok—after Gottheimer initially authored a national ban on the app. Former Democratic Senators becoming government lobbyists e.g Joe Manchin. Turning to government privatization, deregulation, and budget cuts for government solutions.
That is the old Democratic Party of the last 30 years. The one that powered Bill Clinton’s presidency which placated and pacified Wall Street and Silicon Valley donors. The one that opened up the party to special interests and dark money which otherwise would have been associated primarily and only with the Republican Party. The one that turned the working class party (historically speaking) into the affluent, elite class party in the eyes of the pundits and of ordinary Americans. The result of it was a GOP trifecta with Donald Trump at the helm once again.
The Democratic Party needs to abandon its pivot “to the center.” Since 1968, this pivot has been the excuse of those who claim the party has gone too extreme “to the left.” Well, the move has resulted in more conservative Republican and Democratic Presidents alike, the loss of large congressional majorities, and the erosion of power at the state level in governorships, state legislatures, and other key offices. We saw nothing like this, especially before 1994.
Many people feel the Democratic Party is not listening to them. And you know what? They are right.
The Clinton Democrats long advocated for an opportunity economy where you can pull yourself by your bootstraps and move up the social ladder yourself. Get the government out of the way, as they would say. Let the free markets cure all our social ills.
That didn’t work out so well, did it?
Make no mistake. The United States is and can be a great country. We have shown that in our history. Think of it this way: Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson (as well as Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy) were not pinko Communists or Marxists. They were capitalist-minded leaders who thought the government should lift people up in signs of distress and provide a basic minimum of support when structural challenges limited the ability for Americans to move up and get ahead in this country.
They thought the government could be part of the equation to build an economy and society that worked for everyone. Some projects, programs, and services would work. Some might not. It was give and take, trial and effort. But in large part, a lot of their experimentation worked out extremely well.
They were investments in the working class, which returned huge dividends for the national economy and society long term.
The Clinton Democrats and the pro-corporate Democratic Leadership Council abandoned that route. Instead, they focused on numbers over people. Profits of work over the dignity and humanity of that work.
That was why unfair trade deals were ratified, like NAFTA, that outsourced manufacturing jobs and engineered a global Race to the Bottom for workers, consumers, public health, the environment, and other basic standards of living.
That was why instead of trust busting, Democrats resorted to antitrust deregulation on the consumer safety side, and took the support of labor for granted in not acting on issues around the rights of workers during Clinton (or Obama).
That was why the party was silent for unacceptably too long on agricultural consolidation and subsidy reform, even missing out on an early opportunity to address the issue under the Obama Administration.
That was why welfare reform was pursued in the name of eliminating the era of Big Government, instead of helping the poor and the needy. Yes, some Democrats in the 80s and 90s voted for Reagan’s tax cuts and then overhauled the welfare state. That was obviously a mistake in hindsight.
That was why we oversaw the disastrous 1994 Crime Bill that incarcerated millions of Black and brown folks, some of whom cite that effort for moving away from the Democratic Party recently.
That was why instead of expanding government benefits Americans are entitled to from their hard work, we instead contracted them with budget austerity, privatization, and corporate welfare, which is exactly what Democrats like Gina Raimondo did in Rhode Island and Andrew Cuomo did in New York.
That was why Democrats increasingly relied on corporate PAC donations for some time from places like the fossil fuel industry, for-profit charter school chains, the pharmaceutical industry, Big Insurance, Big Agriculture, Corporate America, Big Tech, and now the cryptocurrency industry.
As Sherrod Brown said so bluntly, people expect Republicans to stick for Big Business and the political elites. They also expect to not be sold out by the Democratic Party.
Progressives should unleash their thunder. Build their bench. Showcase their policy prescriptions, which are plenty and abundant in substance and depth. Promote the reforms that have been publicized, but receive little attention from the corporate media and the other elites.
Run for office. Voting records are important, but they are not everything. It doesn’t matter to merely vote the right way. They also need to sponsor new legislation, propose new ideas, hold town halls, fight on procedural grounds, deny quorum, boycott Trump Administration events completely, and meet voters where they are in the community.
If there are Democrats not fighting hard enough for real party values and leading in other ways, new leaders should take their place. If older lawmakers aren’t up for the job to take on Trump’s fast-moving antics, younger voices should grab the helm. If Democrats are abandoning party values, then they should get the Manchin-Sinema treatment: get thrown out and let the real voices take over.
The progressive insurgency has to challenge the Democratic Party establishment’s way of doing things. No more prioritization of consultant checks and vendor contracts that don’t do their job. No more neglecting working class electorates like rural voters, farmer groups, labor unions, young males, small business owners, people of faith, or blue-collar high school graduates. No more Republican-Lite policy posturing. No more playing by the rules as if everything is hunky-dory. Look at the results since Clinton’s presidency.
The Republican establishment got the hint in 2010 that their own voters felt the party abandoned them and their values. Democrats need that same hint and backlash from its voters in 2026. It’s time to give Democrats a stronger spine, not just to merely oppose Trump, but to offer a real, differing vision for fair shots, justice & equality, a level playing field, and an abundance of chances.
And maybe that pendulum shift away from Clinton will improve the still dismal turnout in the last presidential election (which was 63% of the entire electorate from 2024).
Yet NOTHING in the Media acknowledging his passing! I think of him in the same vein as Rhode Island's own John H Chafee, i.e. a "Happy Warrior" working for ALL Americans!
I don't necessarily agree with you but I think it's important to listen to differing voices/opinions. Thank you for your eloquent post.