I believe I know a lot about most of the people reading this, and, even if I’m just mostly right, I think Democrats are in big trouble.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but….
1. Unlike more than 80 million adult Americans, you go to the polls. Regularly.
2. Unlike the majority of adult Americans, you read for information and pleasure.
3. Unlike the roughly 25% of Americans who either ignore the news or get their information from a single source, you get your news from multiple sources, including at least one newspaper.
4. Unlike about 80% of US households, you own stocks, bonds, and other investments.
5. Unlike more than 25 million Americans, you have health insurance.
6. Unlike an estimated 42 million Americans (many of them children), you do not go to bed hungry.
7. Unlike more than 25% of US households, you are not living “paycheck to paycheck.” That is, you are not just an accident or a serious illness away from financial disaster.
8. No one in your immediate family is living paycheck to paycheck.
9. Nor are any of your close friends living paycheck to paycheck.
10. While perhaps many of the people you interact with on a casual basis are living on the edge of a fiscal cliff, you are not aware of their painful reality. Like too many of us, you do not feel their pain.
Which also means that, like many too many of us, you don’t understand why they don’t care about voting or why, if they did go to the polls, they voted for Trump.
11. Unlike about 90% of US households, you either own a second home or have close friends who do. Or both.
If even half of these assertions are accurate, you are in the top 10% of US households.
Simply put, you’re part of the ruling class.
Now, if you’re an old-fashioned Republican, you’re embarrassed about the state of your political party.
If you’re a Democrat, you’re appalled, but you’re also hopeful that, because President Trump seems to be self-destructing, Democrats are likely to regain control of the House and Senate this November.
All Democrats have to do, you’re thinking, is run against Trump. Just promise to take his name off the Kennedy Center, remove all the tacky gold from the Oval Office, and scale back the East Wing monstrosity.
Stick with “identity politics,” reassemble the old coalition of labor, minorities, and progressive whites, work hard to prevent Trump’s minions from suppressing the vote, and then we can “get back to normal.”
But that’s where all of us— you and everyone like you (including me)—are flat out WRONG, because “normal” is what got us into this mess in the first place.
Think about what we accept as “normal” in the richest country in the history of civilization: 25% of households living paycheck to paycheck, 80 million adults not voting, 25 million Americans without medical insurance, and 42 million of us going to bed hungry.
Et cetera, et cetera.
Do you really want that? And if you don’t, why would you support candidates who do?
Democrats desperately need a vision of what America can become, and a road map of how we might achieve it.
Here’s one suggestion, offered for debate: Democrats must stand for the public good and for personal freedom. The former means supporting public libraries, public schools, public parks, public transportation, and more. “Personal freedom” means codifying a woman’s right to choose and banning assault weapons, for openers.
A stronger social safety net is more important than ever in an economy about to be upended by Artificial Intelligence. Meantime, the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 per hour since 2009. Raise it!
Higher taxes on wealth are absolutely necessary in an economy in which the top 1% control more than 30% of America’s total wealth.
Reversing Trump’s disastrous cuts in science, medicine, education, and renewable energy and regaining the world’s trust have to be high priorities, but, above all, Democrats must be loud and proud FOR a fair America.
The Merrow Report 