By themselves, strong growth and low unemployment cannot wash away social divisions, any more than they can empower labor enough to substantively increase wages, to say nothing of raising the labor share of national income. The left must not be cowed into a narrow politics of income inequality and redistribution; it must look further, toward democratic control of capital itself.
This is a good examination of what happens when Dems pander to the millionaires while the GOP aims for billionaires. The big spenders will naturally overtake the ability to spend for their message.
The Dems are ignoring the giant bloc of voters for the much smaller but well financed upper-middle class suburbanites. Liberals are causing the left to fail. Progressive politics will win elections.
It seems to me that rather than explicitly trying to listen to the elite and ignore the cries of the common class, the article instead explains that the indicators that Dems were using to get a measure on the economy sort of betrayed them. See for example,
For those focused on short-term macroeconomic indicators like growth and unemployment, that immiseration has been hard to see—and voters’ cries of misery beggared belief.
And also,
rates of homelessness and child poverty predictably resurged. Yet since this was in effect simply a return to the pre-Covid norm, it seems to have barely registered
They saw the traditional indicators said things looked great and rolled with that, instead of digging deeper after a pandemic unprecedented in modern times to see if maybe those traditions had become outdated (as the article hints at).
Overall this is a more positive take, because it means that if Dems just looked at the wrong place and got the wrong idea as a result, they’d be more open making whatever necessary adjustments are needed to avoid a repeat mistake.
This is a good examination of what happens when Dems pander to the millionaires while the GOP aims for billionaires. The big spenders will naturally overtake the ability to spend for their message.
The Dems are ignoring the giant bloc of voters for the much smaller but well financed upper-middle class suburbanites. Liberals are causing the left to fail. Progressive politics will win elections.
Owner class will not permit DNC to go this route.
It seems to me that rather than explicitly trying to listen to the elite and ignore the cries of the common class, the article instead explains that the indicators that Dems were using to get a measure on the economy sort of betrayed them. See for example,
And also,
They saw the traditional indicators said things looked great and rolled with that, instead of digging deeper after a pandemic unprecedented in modern times to see if maybe those traditions had become outdated (as the article hints at).
Overall this is a more positive take, because it means that if Dems just looked at the wrong place and got the wrong idea as a result, they’d be more open making whatever necessary adjustments are needed to avoid a repeat mistake.