SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
economic bill of rights
Tariffs Won't Help US Workers. A Job Guarantee Would.
As we confront what some are expecting to be the third once-in-a-generation economic downturn in less than two decades, we need to be ready with real solutions.
Apr 30, 2025
President Trump has given many contradictory reasons for his recent tariff spree, including claiming tariffs will “create jobs like we have never seen before.”
Yet research shows that tariffs don’t increase employment and instead are likely to cost jobs due to increased input prices and retaliatory tariffs. Economist Michael Strain at the conservative American Enterprise Institute expects Trump’s tariffs will lead to "recessionary levels" of unemployment. Ironically, analysts expect the rural and Heartland communities that voted for Trump will be disproportionately negatively impacted by retaliatory tariffs. Given how this Administration has cavalierly forced tens of thousands of federal workers out of good jobs and destroyed just as many research and nonprofit jobs supported by federal grants, it’s clear that employing Americans has never been the true priority.
A federal job guarantee is a public option for a good job—with living wages, full benefits, and union protections—on projects that meet community needs for physical and human infrastructure that are often long-overlooked.
But it should be a national priority. And we have a much better solution than tariffs: a job guarantee.
A federal job guarantee is a public option for a good job—with living wages, full benefits, and union protections—on projects that meet community needs for physical and human infrastructure that are often long-overlooked. Repairing bridges, helping communities recover from disasters, providing quality care for children and the elderly, fixing potholes, and expanding tree canopy to mitigate extreme heat are just a few examples of the community-building work that would become possible with a job guarantee.
A job guarantee would address the failure of our economy to provide good jobs for all. Even during times of relatively low unemployment, millions of Americans—currently 7.9 million—want full-time work but cannot find it. This is a chronic crisis that disproportionately burdens rural communities and communities of color. Another 39 million American workers are stuck in jobs that pay below $17 per hour, often with precarious, unhealthy, and undignified working conditions. Guaranteed jobs would provide these workers with the option of stable employment and real economic security.
Tariffs may grab headlines, but they don’t build communities or deliver good jobs.
A job guarantee is not a new idea. The right to a “useful and remunerative” job was the number one item on the Economic Bill of Rights proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. Guaranteed jobs were a central demand of the civil rights movement, from the 1963 March on Washington to Coretta Scott King’s advocacy throughout the 1970s. And it nearly became law: the original Humphrey Hawkins Full Employment Act of 1978 included a legally enforceable right to a job with the federal government acting as employer of last resort, though that provision was stripped from the watered-down version that eventually passed. In recent years, congressional leaders including senators Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders have supported versions of a job guarantee, and representative Ayanna Pressley introduced a Congressional resolution outlining a modernized federal job guarantee that would pay $25 per hour.
While we’ve never had a true federal job guarantee, successful public employment efforts demonstrate its practicality and potential. In the 1930’s, the Works Progress Administration employed 8.5 million people building physical infrastructure and artistic works that strengthened our economy and culture for decades. Smaller-scale “subsidized employment” programs that provide the on-the-job training and wraparound supports for workers facing barriers to employment (similar to what would be provided by a job guarantee) also have a strong track record of success.
A job guarantee is not a new idea. The right to a “useful and remunerative” job was the number one item on the Economic Bill of Rights proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944.
By producing not only good jobs but also vital infrastructure and services, a job guarantee bolsters families and the neighborhoods where they live. Moreover, it would generate “trickle-up” economic effects. Money would begin circulating in persistently-disinvested communities, creating opportunities for grocery stores, small businesses, and local entrepreneurship. And a public option for good jobs would put healthy pressure on private employers to better compensate their workers—elevating wages and benefits across the board.
Funded by the federal government and implemented locally, a job guarantee would create new opportunities for civic engagement, with communities suggesting new public investments that meet their needs and manifest their aspirations. This partnership could strengthen democracy and rebuild trust that government can work for working people.
Ultimately, a job guarantee would create a more stable, resilient, and equitable economy. By immediately providing jobs and income at the first sign of an economic downturn, it would act as an automatic stabilizer—maintaining consumer spending and preventing prolonged recessions and jobless recoveries. This would benefit the economy as a whole and protect marginalized Black workers who are the “last hired and first fired” when the economy sours. It would enable a “just transition” away from unsustainable industries and address the threat of job displacement posed by AI, creating new jobs protecting the environment and mitigating climate change.
And for those who would dismiss this as socialism, it’s worth emphasizing: the job guarantee simply ensures there is an available job. If the more “productive” private sector can offer something better, all the better—workers will have the freedom to choose.
As we confront what some are expecting to be the third once-in-a-generation economic downturn in less than two decades, we need to be ready with real solutions. Tariffs may grab headlines, but they don’t build communities or deliver good jobs. Instead, this administration’s chaotic policies are creating widespread economic uncertainty and strain. A federal job guarantee, by contrast, is a bold economic policy rooted in American history and grounded in the needs of workers who’ve been sidelined by our economic policies. If we want to empower workers and build a more resilient economy, we should start investing in real solutions—starting with a job guarantee.
Keep ReadingShow Less
What Is To Be Done? Take Hold of Our History
We must lay claim to or, better, reclaim America’s past and—without discounting the terrible tragedies and ironies that have marked the lives of so many Americans—articulate the truly radical story of America.
Apr 24, 2025
“America needs something more right now than a “must-do” list from liberals and progressives. America needs a different story… the leaders, and thinkers, and activists who honestly tell that story and speak passionately of the moral and religious values it puts in play will be the first political generation since the New Deal to win power back for the people… The right story will set our course for a generation to come…”
“Tell it—for America’s sake.”—Bill Moyers, A New Story for America(2006)
The time has come. The crisis intensifies, and the struggle is being joined. Abraham Lincoln’s warning of 1862–“We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of Earth”—speaks ever more directly to us. But keep listening. Lincoln did not merely issue a warning to his fellow citizens. Believing they already essentially knew what he was to say, he reminded them of who they were and made it perfectly clear to them what they had to do to overcome the crisis and prevail against the enemy they confronted. He told them that winning the war and sustaining the Union required not simply defeating the Confederacy, but also making America’s revolutionary promise all the more real for all the more Americans. He told them that to truly secure the United States they had to end slavery. He called on them to make America radically freer, more equal, and more democratic.
The time has come for us to do the same. The time has come for us to remind ourselves of who we are and what that demands. The time has come for us to take hold of our history and make America radical again.
The resurgent democratic energies and agencies we are sensing and seeing reveal that Americans not only continue both to believe in America’s revolutionary promise and to feel the radical impulse imbued in American life by the Revolution and sustained by the struggles of generations, but also yearn to defend American democratic life. Thus, they challenge not only a treacherous and reactionary president and his party. They challenge us—the democratic left—as well.
Even as we draw inspiration and encouragement from America’s progressive and radical story, we should never forget what our forebears never forgot, that the America we seek lies not in the past, but in the future that we are struggling to make.
They challenge labor unionists, progressives, radicals, socialists, and true liberals to do what we have failed to do for the past 50 years. They challenge us to finally fulfill the fearful expectations that in the 1970s drove the corporate powers that be and their conservative and neoliberal champions to declare war on the progress of American democratic life and pursue to this day class-war and culture-war campaigns against the democratic achievements of generations; the hard-won rights of workers, women, and people of color; and the very memory of how those achievements were secured and those rights were won. They challenge us to unite in a coalition—call it a “popular front” if you wish—to liberate the Democratic party, the historic Party of the People, from the Money Power and to take up the fight to truly assure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all Americans. A coalition determined to not only win elections, but also harness the powers of democratic government, subject capital to ever greater public regulation and control, and push the nation all the more in a social-democratic direction.
We cannot delay. We must start doing what we have not been doing. We must embrace our history and recognize that we are radicals at heart. And we must build a coalition of democratic forces which is committed not merely to restoring the democratic legacy of generations and the rights of workers, women, and people of color, but also, if we are to truly secure them, to radically or, if you prefer, progressively extending and deepening them. We must address the needs of the commonwealth and its citizens by re-appropriating through taxation the wealth transferred from working people to capital and the rich. We must empower labor both private and public to organize and bargain collectively and to elect union brothers and sisters to corporate boards. We must make ourselves more secure by demilitarizing and de-weaponizing everyday American life and by establishing a system of universal national healthcare. We must enact the Equal Rights Amendment and guarantee a woman’s right to control her own body. We must not simply abolish the Electoral College, but actually enact a constitutional amendment guaranteeing citizens the right to vote. Moreover, we should redeem FDR’s vision of an Economic Bill of Rights for all Americans.
We must, however, do more than come up with a “must-do list” that will appeal to and draw together diverse interests. We must do what America’s finest radical and progressive voices have always done in the face of crises and forces determined to stymie, or bring an end altogether to, the progress of American democratic life. We must recover and proclaim anew the revolutionary promise projected in Common Sense, the Declaration, the Preamble, and the Bill of Rights so as to call out the powers that be and call forth our fellow citizens.
We must do what our greatest democratic poet Walt Whitman did on the eve of the Civil War when he wrote in his continuing epic, Leaves of Grass:
YOU just maturing youth! You male or female!
Remember the organic compact of These States,
Remember the pledge of the Old Thirteen thenceforward to the rights, life, liberty, equality of man,
Remember what was promulged by the founders, ratified by The States, signed in black and white by the Commissioners, and read by Washington at the head of the army,
Remember the purposes of the founders,––Remember Washington;
Remember the copious humanity streaming from every direction toward America;
Remember the hospitality that belongs to nations and men; (Cursed be nation, woman, man, without hospitality!)
Remember, government is to subserve individuals,
Not any, not the President, is to have one jot more than you or me,
Not any habitan of America is to have one jot less than you or me.
We must do what Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her colleagues did at Seneca Falls in 1848 when they stated in the Declaration of Sentiments that “all men and women are created equal”; what Frederick Douglass did in 1852 when he asked his fellow Americans “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?”; what Lincoln did most eloquently at Gettysburg in 1863 when he projected a “new birth of freedom” to assure that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth”; what Eugene Debs did when he called forth Paine and other radicals and progressives to champion the causes of labor and socialism; what Franklin Roosevelt did in proclaiming the Four Freedoms and envisioning the creation of an Economic Bill of Rights for all Americans; and what Martin Luther King, Jr. did when demanding a fulfillment of America’s revolutionary promise on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.
Moreover, we must lay claim to or, better, reclaim America’s past and—without discounting the terrible tragedies and ironies that have marked the lives of so many Americans—articulate the truly radical story of America, the truly radical story that is America. The story of how, in the face of fierce opposition, and despite all of our terrible faults and failings, generations of Americans native-born and newly-arrived, men and women in all their extraordinary diversity, have struggled both to realize the nation’s fundamental promise of equality and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and to enlarge not only the We in We the People, but also the powers of the people. Indeed, the story of how our greatest generations confronted and transcended mortal threats to American democratic life in the 1770s, 1860s, and 1930s-40s (not to mention the 1960s) by making the United States radically freer, more equal, and more democratic. And we must tell that story in a way that enables us to not only appreciate why we feel the democratic impulses and yearnings we do, but also to recognize and embrace our many and diverse struggles to make real the nation’s promise past and present as ours not respectively “theirs” alone.
Finally, even as we draw inspiration and encouragement from America’s progressive and radical story, we should never forget what our forebears never forgot, that the America we seek lies not in the past, but in the future that we are struggling to make. And in that spirit, we should recall, if not publicly recite, lines such as these from Langston Hughes’ 1936 poem “Let America Be America Again”:
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
The time has come to take hold of our history and make America radical again. The time has come not merely to take back America, but all the more to make America America.
Note: This article is based on the Afterword to my 2020 book Take Hold of Our History: Make America Radical Again.
Keep ReadingShow Less
How Progressives Can Transform the Dems to Save Our Democracy and Renew Prosperity
Either we act now to position progressive politics as the viable alternative to Trump or we’re complicit in the end of our democratic society.
Apr 08, 2025
There are two central facts about the Democratic Party that everyone must understand if our democratic republic is going to survive President Donald Trump’s authoritarian counterrevolution:
- The Democratic Party is the only institution in our society with the breadth and scale to defeat and vanquish Trumpism
- The Democratic Party, as currently configured, has proven incapable of doing this.
That sounds pretty hopeless.
However, there is a path forward. We can change the “configuration” of the party, i.e. transform the Democratic Party.
Can that be done in time to rebuff Trump and save our democracy? The answer has to be “yes” because it’s our only hope.
Fortunately, right on cue, events over the past few weeks reminded the public why centrist Democratic leaders have failed to protect America from Trump; and that progressives, in sharp contrast, are more than capable of rejuvenating the opposition and inspiring mass participation.
This is the final installment in a four-part series that argues that a progressive transformation of the Democratic Party is required to defeat Trump, Musk, the lockstep GOP, and 21st-century fascism in general.
Indeed, by early-March, public approval of the Democratic Party was already at an all-time low. The central complaint was that the Democrats were too weak to stand up to Trump. And that was before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) capitulation.
On March 14, a Stopgap Budget Bill needed to pass the Senate to avoid a government shutdown; and, to overcome a filibuster, it needed support from a handful of Democratic Senators. Finally, here was the opportunity to block the Trump agenda, to “gum up the works” as Democrats had promised. Petitions arrived on Capitol Hill; phone calls flooded the switchboard, pleading with Democrats to take a stand. Nope. Schumer delivered the votes the Republicans needed. Disgust with the Democrats reached a new crescendo.
Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I.-Vt.) was barnstorming through middle America, speaking to overflow crowds. Then he was joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for a swing through the Mountain West and the crowds grew even larger and more exuberant. Here was the vital opposition. The vast audience hung on every word, recognizing that the progressive proposals presented were the antidote to Trump’s destructive agenda. They spoke to the needs, not just the anger, of the population.
Most importantly, there was a tangible sense of solidarity present. Both Bernie and AOC called upon the people gathered to join with them, to organize in their communities and build a movement to defend democracy, protect the environment, and advocate for policies that prioritize the interests of the working class—and, significantly, remain engaged with electoral politics.
This was exactly the message people came to hear. They understand that a popular movement that presents a positive progressive vision for society and organizes to win elections is necessary to turn the tide against Trump. They are ready to act, along with millions more across the country.
Progressives have to seize the moment.
The Constitution’s system of checks and balances, designed to protect America from tyranny, are teetering. The courts have limited some damage, but one would have to be willfully naive to believe that a Federalist Society-dominated Supreme Court, the ultimate arbiter in the judicial branch, will rule against right-wing authoritarianism. We already see that congressional Republicans, even with razor-thin majorities, will not break with Trump to defend the Constitution.
Therefore, our best hope for preserving our constitutional democracy is the election of a Democratic House majority in 2026. As a prerequisite, we will need a party that fights before election day to ensure that we have free and fair elections. The Democratic Party is the only institution in contemporary American society that can take on this task—and the more people it mobilizes, the more likely it will succeed.
This moment is crying out for progressive leadership.
This article outlines a workable strategy for progressives to transform the Democratic Party through mass entryism. The plan’s centerpiece is an updated “outside-inside strategy” designed to overcome the barriers that protect entrenched interests inside the party. Through this strategy, we can unseat the neoliberal status quo, which condemns the party to failure, and facilitate the mass entry of the party’s progressive base, which will lift the party to victory over fascism.
History is demanding that the Democratic Party change—and change fast. That is not going to happen by simply wishing it will come true.
This is the final installment in a four-part series that argues that a progressive transformation of the Democratic Party is required to defeat Trump, Musk, the lockstep GOP, and 21st-century fascism in general.
The first two articles explained that of the three major political tendencies in the country (the Trumpian reactionaries on the right, the neoliberal “moderates” in the center, and the progressives on the left), only the progressives adequately address the two major complaints that the public has about the direction of the country: 1. The performance of the economy for the vast majority of Americans; and 2. Mistrust of politicians and the political system.
As such, the only effective antidote to the current crisis of our democracy will be the rise of the progressives.
The third article, the most polemical in the series, challenged Americans to recognize some difficult truths. Our constitutional system of government is under attack from within. We are at a perilous moment in our history. For all its flaws, both historical and contemporary, our democratic republic and open society must be defended against the unfolding fascist coup. However, our last bastion of defense is a seemingly listless Democratic Party. As one of the two parties in a nationwide two-party system, it alone has the capacity to take on and defeat a threat of this magnitude. Therefore, it is incumbent upon all people of conscience to get inside the Democratic Party and get to work.
This article, the final installment in the series, presents a viable plan for progressives to transform the Democratic Party into the party that we need; and which, through an alliance with independent left progressive elected officials (like Bernie Sanders), will be poised to win majorities across the country, undo the damage wrought by Trump, and build an America as great as its promise. A country at peace with the world, in harmony with the planet, with an economy organized to ensure that the working class is a prosperous middle class.
Thus, before introducing the “outside-inside” plan to transform the Democratic Party, it’s important to reiterate that this is more than a strategy to win elections in the short run, it’s an outline to dramatically improve American society through mass political participation. As such, it is a strategy to win elections now and for the foreseeable future.
It’s not enough to express anger at Trump—as centrist Democrats are finally starting to do, even as they intend otherwise to proceed as before. Such an opposition party cannot defeat Trumpism. Sure, it’s plausible that this sorry crew could pull off a victory in the midterms—but only because of the horrors of Trump.
While any victory over Trump is welcome, no one should believe that a party that represents the previous status quo can vanquish Trumpism in the long run.
The public recognizes that by complacently calling for a return to “norm,” establishment Democrats are advocating for a society with little to offer them. America in the 21st century has been defined by massive wealth inequality; where the average person has to have two, three, or four jobs, working 60, 70, 80 hours a week, just to keep their head above water; with a broken and inhumane healthcare system designed primarily to steal people's money and give it to the idle investor class; where there is an epidemic of despair among our youth; with legions of fellow citizens homeless; where the jobs are not coming back; where a lot is said but nothing is ever done about persistent structural racism, or mass incarceration, or rampant drug addiction (both “legal” and illegal); and humanity is burning itself off the planet.
Such an opposition party in a two-party political system, even if it achieves a narrow 51-49 victory in 2026 or 2028, can only forestall the rise of savage fascism—because only one of the two options promises change.
We need another option. Only an opposition party that sincerely addresses the crises that afflict American society and proposes workable solutions—and then implements those plans upon being elected, like FDR—can revive faith in the country. We must transform the Democratic Party.
What follows is a simple blueprint for transforming the Democratic Party into the party that America, and all those who believe in democracy around the world, needs in the 21st century.
The Outside-Inside-Outside Strategy
The following proposal is based on Progressive Democrats of America’s (PDA) two decades of experience working to increase progressive influence within the Party.
Throughout its history PDA has deployed an “inside-outside” strategy. Its members establish themselves inside their local party while maintaining coordination with social movements and the labor movement on the outside of the party. This not only builds support for these movements in the political and legislative realms, but also grounds PDA members in the issues important to communities and the grassroots.
Then, in 2013, PDA launched the Run Bernie Run campaign, calling upon Sen. Sanders to run for president as a Democrat. The campaign was successful, and Sanders’ spectacular performance in the primaries changed American politics for the better—reestablishing progressive politics nationwide.
What better time to build a party through which people will meet fellow community members and share their ideas about how society should be organized?
In the aftermath of the 2016 Sanders campaign, tens of thousands of activists entered the Democratic Party in the hope of moving it in a progressive direction.
While some met with success, most encountered considerable resistance. Democratic Party rules differ from state to state, so they were made to feel unwelcome in a wide variety of ways.
Fast-forward to 2025, and the general sentiment among progressive activists is that the party establishment will do whatever necessary to keep them away.
However, staying away is not an option. History is demanding that the Democratic Party change—and change fast. That is not going to happen by simply wishing it will come true.
What’s needed is a new strategy to transform the Party.
Here’s our proposal, based on two decades of experience:
Progressives must establish an organization—or, at least, a well-defined network of organizations—on the outside of the Democratic Party that is dedicated to transforming the Democratic Party into an exemplary progressive Party committed to the needs and aspirations of the general public.
This organization or network would convene progressives in each state since party rules differ significantly from state to state, and also coordinate nationally, with the clear goal of overcoming the barriers to progressive influence that the party establishment has erected.
As for a unifying political agenda, which is very important, it should be kept simple so that it’s not a source of dissension and distraction. PDA supports adopting the 2020 Sanders for President platform, with some minor tweaks and updates. Also, given the current crisis, a short negative agenda, opposing Trump’s policies, could be added.
Just as importantly, a set of basic demands to reform the Democratic Party should be adopted nationally, including the elimination of dark money from all party primaries, mandatory reporting of all revenue and expenditures, and requirements for a high level of direct engagement with party members and the general public.
In every state, our organization should operate on two fronts: 1. It should organize members to move into the party, determining and then implementing strategies for transforming the party in a progressive direction; and 2. It should hold public-facing events, showing the public what a truly inclusive and welcoming 21st century political party can look like.
On the first front, here are seven strategies that the statewide organizations could deploy:
- Decide upon one progressive candidate to endorse in each primary election for a local, state, or federal office. It’s essential to unify progressive support behind the endorsed candidates and avoid splitting the progressive vote.
- Encourage all members to sign up with the Progressive Caucus of their state’s Democratic Party. Progressive Caucuses exist in about 30 states (members in the other states should petition the party to create one). Joining the Progressive Caucus will keep members abreast of progressive initiatives within the party; and the increased membership in the caucus will be a significant show of strength. However, the caucus is not a substitute for the organization itself, as most caucuses have a limited purview within the party. Still, the caucus can operate as our anchor inside the party.
- Encourage members with the time and fortitude to run to be a party officer or a member of an official party committee, at either the county or state level, or as a precinct captain. The officer and committee candidates should campaign on changing the platform and rules of the party in a progressive direction, and advocate for greater public engagement; party finances should be transparent; and big money should be banned from primaries, with severe consequences, such as de-endorsement, for candidates who do not comply.
- Run a candidate for party chair on a progressive policy and party reform platform (see No. 3).
- Campaign for the adoption of a truly progressive party platform. Once this is achieved, insist that candidates endorse the platform and then hold elected Democrats accountable.
- Encourage members to join their local Democratic Clubs, or form a club themselves, and share the progressive agenda with members of the club.
- Every person who joins the outside-inside organization should be encouraged to attend Democratic Party events, its state conventions, follow news about the internal operation of the party, and vote in party elections—but also (and this is important), because most working people in America have so little time, it is essential the organization respect this fact, and find ways to engage with such busy people, who support the organization’s work, to keep them updated and feeling they are valued members of the organization even if they can’t attend many events or meetings.
Then, most importantly, after pursuing these initiatives, members should reconvene in the outside organization and share notes about their success or failure. Like a football team re-huddling after every play, they can adjust their approach and go for it again. In all likelihood, they will devise strategies beyond the seven outlined above.
Over time, and possibly very quickly, this approach will produce breakthroughs. In some states, the party infrastructure is not well populated. Even in states where more people are participating, there’s often a lack of enthusiasm, let alone inspiration. Still, in most cases, progressive activists will encounter barriers to entry and influence.
This is why the establishment of an organization, operating independently on the outside of the party, but dedicated to gaining power in each state party, will make a huge difference compared to recent efforts. Getting to reconvene with fellow progressives, hear about their experiences, and use that knowledge to devise better strategies will mitigate any sense of defeat, and build perseverance.
Lastly, at the national level, the organization should push for a similar ban on dark money in the presidential primaries, and fight to make sure that all the candidates share a level playing field.
On the second front, that of inviting the public to join the effort, the organization should more-or-less operate as a de facto political party—as a party-inside-a-party, so to speak, that happens to be on the outside of the party. And, by adopting exemplary practices, it can prove to the world that democracy, far from dying, remains the best system of political organization for the 21st century.
In this regard, each statewide branch of this new organization must allow for broad participation. This means holding public forums, inviting everyone regardless of political affiliation, engaging with and learning from the people. (Each state branch of the organization should have its own fundraising capacity and balance sheet. Even as some funding will come from the national organization.) Through such events, we can rapidly grow the ranks of our “progressive party outside the party.” In turn, we will invite the new members to join our efforts to “take over” the official Democratic Party. Soon, we will be able to flood the party with progressive activists.
We should aspire to build a party that accommodates people according to their needs. In particular, we must find ways to hear from people who work long hours, and don’t have time to attend meetings, let alone volunteer. Just as we must respect people who don’t want a barrage of text messages. We should engage people at their own pace; always keeping an open line of communication and making sure to check in with everyone a few times per year, placing a priority on listening.
The great Italian political philosopher Antonio Gramsci posited the idea of a political party creating a counter-hegemonic space, where the people could discover their own culture. Certainly, this concept should be applied to our era when countless hours of our lives are lost staring into handheld devices, our minds channeled down rabbit holes by algorithms designed by and for the benefit of our class enemies. What better time to build a party through which people will meet fellow community members and share their ideas about how society should be organized? Study after study suggests that contemporary Americans have a ravenous appetite for exactly this kind of social space.
The organization will also facilitate a full flowering of the classic “inside-outside strategy.” Representatives from social movements and labor organizers will always be provided a platform—as will the broad array of Resistance activists, in particular those from communities and groups of workers under direct attack from the Trump administration. Members of the organization will convey their messages inside the party and call upon elected Democrats to support them.
Also, the organization’s public events will invariably attract people supporting the wide array of radical and visionary projects long marginalized by the moderate Democratic Party. A progressive party, true to its principles, would want to learn about the innumerable mutual aid projects across the country, and consider public policies to support such efforts. Indeed, ours should be a party open to all projects that serve the general welfare.
As such, we should not be shy about reclaiming words like liberty and freedom, long held hostage by the right wing, for all the people—and we should absolutely pull no punches in embracing free speech, rejecting censorship, and exposing right-wing hypocrisy on that front. Such initiatives will help negate the constant misrepresentation of progressives in right-wing media (and by moderate Democrats as well).
Of course, the organization should always be advocating for, and educating the public about, signature progressive policies like Medicare for All, a 21st-Century Economic Bill of Rights, free public higher education and childcare, affordable housing, support for the labor movement, a reduction in Pentagon spending, the Green New Deal, and the Rural New Deal. Almost all of these have majority support among the general public, and their adoption would reestablish an American social contract defined by prosperity for all.
Now for the big question: Can this work?
Two answers.
1. It’s a moot question. It simply has to be tried. Progressives are far too aware of the failings of mainstream Democrats to have faith that they can save us from fascism. But it goes deeper than that. Their zombie ideology is not going to revive itself. History has turned the page on neoliberalism.
So, either we act now to position progressive politics as the viable alternative to Trump or we’re complicit in the end of our democratic society. In our two-party system, there’s only one option: We have to transform the Democratic Party. So, let’s get to it.
2. Yes, it will work.
But only if two important conditions are met.
The first is that the balance of the progressive movement must get behind the effort. You may have noticed that I haven’t been describing this as a PDA initiative, though PDA most certainly will pursue the strategy outlined above. (Indeed, please join PDA, as we will be launching this initiative in the next week—including the recruitment of partner organizations.)
PDA is only one of a number of sizable national progressive organizations, and, for a campaign like this to be successful, it’s important that most of the others join the effort too.
In the coming days, PDA will be reaching out to our regular partners, Our Revolution and Roots Action, as well as a long list of frequent partners and allies, including labor unions, and ask them to be partners.
Fortunately, there is good news, very good news, on this front. Bernie Sanders has been calling for a similar approach to electoral politics in recent days.
On the one hand, he has been calling for the Democratic Party to make many of the changes outlined above (with special emphasis on getting dark money out of the primaries). In general, his critique of the contemporary party matches up with PDA’s.
On the other hand, Bernie has been emphasizing something that, at first glance, may appear to conflict with PDA’s strategy, but the opposite is true—we love the idea. Sen. Sanders has been calling on progressives to consider endorsing independent candidates, especially in parts of the country where the Democratic brand is in shambles. Why does this not contradict our strategy? Because it’s something PDA has practiced throughout our history. You may recall that we ruffled some feathers in the party when we drafted an independent senator to run for president as a Democrat in 2016. The same independent senator that we’ve endorsed every six years.
The Democratic Party can be the party of the working class—and no one will think we’re gaslighting anyone, and we’ll win national elections—when we adopt the Sanders-AOC policy program, which will dramatically improve the lives of the majority of the population.
Not only does Sen. Sanders’ proposal about independent progressive candidates suit our strategy perfectly, but it will be aided by our organization. The success of such an independent candidate requires that the Democratic Party not throw its support behind a Democrat in the general election—this was the case last year in Nebraska when the Democratic Party “stood down” for independent candidate Dan Osbourn. Our “outside-inside” organization is perfectly suited to help facilitate, and, with the right independent candidate, support this strategy.
In the coming days, I will be reaching out to Sen. Sanders to talk about coordinating our efforts.
The second important condition is that, even in states where we might endorse independent candidates, the Democratic Party itself must be a central focus of the campaign. This can’t simply be a matter of supporting progressive candidates.
Why? Because Trumpism will not be vanquished until the opposition can implement transformative policies that will noticeably improve the lives of Americans. This will not be possible until progressives win control of the party and can diminish the power of big money, which effectively buys primaries for moderate neoliberal Democrats. This is especially pronounced in the U.S. Senate where Democrats, on balance, are more conservative than in the House—and where primary elections are much, much more expensive.
Thus, even though a strong majority of Democratic voters support progressive policies, congressional Democrats invariably champion a milquetoast set of technocratic adjustments that will improve very few people’s lives. This plays right into the hands of a demagogue like Trump. Yet moderate Democratic incumbents will be safe in their seats until progressives gain control of the party and can level the primary playing field (and also call out incumbents for not supporting the party platform). Only then will the public feel that Democratic Party candidates are serious about making changes to improve their lives.
It follows that building progressive power inside the party is a necessary precursor to the passage of transformative progressive legislation. This is an opportune time to pursue this strategy, as incoming Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin has said that he welcomes an influx of progressives into the party.
Of course, Martin extends this invitation in a spirit of party unity, which progressives should also embrace while never bending on principle. After all, it still remains essential that we join together to defeat the fascists and preserve our democratic republic.
Having said that, we will be calling for, and organizing to achieve, a progressive transformation of the party. We just need to proceed with grace and decorum. We’re confident that we’ll win the debate. The facts are with us 100%.
Neoliberal and moderate Democrats keep losing national elections to an anti-constitutional authoritarian Republican Party that itself has very low public support. Why? Because moderate Democrats are a status-quo political formation, and the public is profoundly dissatisfied with the state of the country.
Furthermore—and this really drives the point home—when it became apparent after the election that the mainstream Democrats had “lost the working class” to Trump, mainstream Democrats across the nation started talking about the working class. But there was no discernable change in the policies they support. This is gaslighting, and the public will see right through it.
Progressives, as part of the same political party as the moderates, need to explain this politely to the moderates and to the party activists, rank-and-file members, and the general public.
The Democratic Party can be the party of the working class—and no one will think we’re gaslighting anyone, and we’ll win national elections—when we adopt the Sanders-AOC policy program, which will dramatically improve the lives of the majority of the population.
I’m confident that progressives can win the debate over the direction of the party while maintaining a spirit of comity and anti-fascist unity.
So, there you have it. Public dissatisfaction with the party is so profound, the moment is ripe for a progressive takeover—and this can be achieved through some basic organizing and old-fashioned stick-to-itiveness.
Many historians have noted that periods of significant social progress often follow great crises. Well, with Trump, we have a great crisis unfolding.
If we take appropriate action now, not only can we limit the damage, but we can set the table for a new progressive era and the redemption of democracy.
Join PDA’s efforts to create a truly progressive Democratic Party, which we desperately need at this crucial hour of our history.
NB: In the previous article in this series, I promised to respond to the myriad objections (i.e. excuses) people have to becoming active in the Democratic Party. Because of the great length of this article, I will publish those retorts at the end of an addendum to this series that I will publish in a few weeks, which will also update the progress of the project outlined in this article.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular