There’s a reason House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is the most hated Democrat of them all. Yet they cannot forget that Nancy Pelosi is also the most formidable and over-connected fund-raiser the Democrats have. But picture a New Deal Dem (Pelosi actually slipped and used that phrase instead of the new, improved “Better Deal” mantra is au courante with the Dems), herself worth upwards of an estimated $120 million as the rich, old world liberal elite that is increasingly out of touch with the bulk of actual Democrats and those who should or do lean in that direction. The rank and file of ordinary Democrats, scared for their jobs and terrified for their future, simply cannot envision a mega-millionaire as understanding their plight and representing them on the national stage.
Not that Pelosi’s values are toxic; they’re just out of order and expressed in terms of traditional Democratic slogans. Equal rights for minorities are critical. Likewise, environmental values. Of course those are essential policies. But when you are a younger worker (or looking for work) with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loans, when wages have stagnated for 70% of Americans (the averages look good because those at the top skew the numbers), when private sector unions (representing under 7% of the workforce) are no longer there to fight for better pay and benefits, as the vast majority of Americans have zero retirement savings other than Social Security, as part-time work and the gig economy make earning a living harder, watching blue collar work fade fast, as income inequality is the worst in the developed world, as prices for everything from housing to food to healthcare skyrocket… and… most of all, as automation and artificial intelligence are sweeping aside some of the best paying jobs in the land, hearing the same tired old slogans wears thin. “It’s the economy, stupid!”
As representative of one of the richest constituencies in the United States – most of San Francisco – Nancy Pelosi just is the wrong person at the wrong time. At 78, Pelosi is roughly the same age as progressive Bernie Sanders (76), but her policies and presentation harken back to the New Deal era of Franklin Roosevelt and his successor Democrats. Old. Old. Old. Not that Sanders and Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren have all the answers; the left-wing progressive movement still scares of large chunks of Middle America, those swing voters who are increasingly the deciders in any election.
Pelosi is tenacious bulldog, using every opportunity to push herself to the fore. A seasoned and hardened politician, she remains ambitious and determined to be the shot-caller for the Democratic Party for as long as she can. But younger Democrats are distancing themselves from Pelosi, and her support as House Democratic leader is anything but certain.
Republicans love her; they sense the malaise and rancor over her old world, tired message, and wherever possible they try and link candidates they oppose to her. The Democratic Party drools at her fund-raising ability, but everyone knows she is toxic for the Party as a whole. She was right for an earlier era, but her time has passed. Too bad she won’t recognize that reality, keep raising funding, but step aside for the next generation of Democratic Party leaders. She just may have to be pushed out.
The Democrats have just missed a golden opportunity to rewrite their platform. Instead you have bickering between progressives and out-of-touch old world traditionalists. Result: same old message, new name. Here’s the way Jonah Goldberg, writing an editorial for the Los Angeles Times (April 10th) sees it: “House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, 78, is a child of the New Deal. Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., a passionate New Dealer in Congress, named one of his sons Franklin Roosevelt D’Alesandro. The New Deal remains Pelosi’s North Star, which may be why she accidentally referred to their new program as ‘the New Deal.’
“Now the Democrats have their ‘Better Deal’ agenda, yet another New Deal retread. The Democrats even admit it… [Senate Minority Leader, New York Democrat Chuck] Schumer insisted that the Better Deal is not ‘a course correction.’ It is ‘a presentation correction,’ chosen in part because of its ‘relation to the New Deal.’ Its core promises: an expansion of entitlements, increased tax hikes, more spending and more regulation.
“It’s remarkable how Democrats call GOP ideas ‘tired’ and ‘outdated,’ yet keep returning to a well that was dug four years after the invention of sliced bread. At the rollout of a Better Deal, Pelosi said it is ‘founded on strong values that we share. Strong values fueled by fresh ideas.’…
“There are many reasons the Democrats remain a cargo cult to the New Deal, but the most important one for this moment is that the approach unifies not Democratic voters but Democratic politicians.
“The FDR coalition is a relic. The coalition the Democrats want is shot through with divisions. The Better Deal gives Democratic pols something to talk about that won’t rile one faction or another.
“That may be good enough to win the 2018 midterm elections, because all they really need is some boilerplate to rely on as they ride an anti-Trump wave.
“But the time will come when it won’t be enough. The disruption is coming. They can help shape it, or they await a destroyer not of their own choosing.” The New Deal was hardly a clear and concise litany of carefully articulated programs anyway; it was at best an opportunistic patchwork quilt driven by the realities Great Depression. There almost no voters left who even remember what the New Deal even looked like, and clearly that piece of American history is completely alien to the overwhelming majority of American voters. Why try and link contemporary policies to polices long forgotten?
Where are the pragmatists in the Democratic Party? Where are the realists who can speak directly to the fears of Middle America? Where are the spokespeople able to explain the emptiness of Trumpconomics, statistics that make his policies look good because those at the top make “averages” seem solid, when in fact most of the recent economic gains really have created value only for the highest earners? When are the Democrats going to address the skyrocketing cost of living? Income inequality in a way that an average working family can actually see how they can live better from proposed changes? Not abstract slogans but hard and realistic programs? Universal healthcare cannot happen overnight; our system has to begin to adjust costs before such a program can be implemented. That takes time, but where is the plan? Where is the plan to shift income from those who own the automation that is displacing workers back to those displaced workers?
The Republicans don’t care about what best for most of us as long as those at the top of the food chain make big campaign contributions. They can use conservative courts and legislatures to stave off anti-gerrymandering and voter restrictions to maximize their power, even though they do not represent a majority of Americans. They are grateful that the Dems seem to like fighting among themselves even more than combatting the GOP. But it is truly sad that best the Dems can muster is “vote for us because we hate Donald Trump.” Yes, Dems, but what are you really for?
I’m Peter Dekom, and perhaps the Dems should address all the above issues with an entirely new people first agenda written by pragmatists for the modern era.
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