Once upon a time, American politics had settled into a familiar battle between oligarchs. Clintons battled Bushes and the DLC and RNC were all happy campers taking turns in an oligarchic two-step. Then, in rode a kid from Chicago and disrupted the nice oligarchic tea party, so they had to form a new tea party.
But seriously, Reagan and his Supreme Court set the stage for politics that was dominated by dark money, forcing both sides to rely on large donors in a battle of the oligarchs. Obama broke the mold by raising millions of dollars through small donations, threatening oligarchic control. The oligarchy responded, as they usually do, by stoking racial resentments and they funded the Tea Party. They rode the wave of resentment to win the 2010 midterms in historic fashion and did all they could to block hope and change.
But after six years of stymied government, people were restless. 2016 promised to be a year of change. Bill Clinton understood this and at the Convention in Philadelphia, he praised Hillary Clinton as the “greatest agent of change” he knew. Unfortunately, the Hillary campaign did not pick up on the theme, ceding the message of change to the outsider who promised to drain the swamp.
The resonance of the “drain the swamp” message should show us that many people are tired of politics as usual in Washington—that is the politics of oligarchy. Just enough of them were angry enough in 2016 to take a chance on the guy who promised to stick his finger in the eyes of the oligarchs—or as they are more commonly called, the elite.
People have reason to be angry. The oligarchs are not delivering for the people. Life expectancy is actually falling as diseases of despair are on the rise. Something is the matter in Kansas and Ohio, but the oligarchs offer no solutions. They continue to distract through cultural issues while not addressing the growing wealth inequality in America. Each side sees the other side’s oligarchs as the threat. One side fears liberal elites who want to take their guns and let boys in the girls room, as conservative elites are destroying the planet while getting rich from fossil fuels.
With the exception of a few brave voices, no one seems to want to take on the power of the oligarchs and lead a democratic movement for a more equal and just society. The fact that, as flawed as he is, Trump has attracted a large and loyal following shows that there is an appetite among the people for challenging oligarchic rule. Democrats cannot afford simply to defend democracy if it only means continued domination by the oligarchs. They need do more than to campaign simply on promises to design more programs to help working families. The programs are often beneficial but the message is problematic. It’s an oligarchic message that says: “We’re the nice oligarchs who will give you stuff.”
People need to be empowered. We already know what that looks like, we just need to do it. By 1935, Franklin Roosevelt had become discouraged by his efforts to use the NRA to enlist business into a program for economic recovery. He decided he could not rely on the business community and that people needed to have the power to improve their own lives. The result was the Wagner Act that set up a level playing field so that workers could unionize and negotiate for themselves. With increased wages and organization, political power followed.
Labor is already leading the way, flexing its increased muscle. Shawn Fain and the UAW have shown what real union leadership looks like, and they are not alone. The Teamsters won higher wages at UPS and a coalition of unions prevailed in a strike against Kaiser Permanente. Joe Biden is well positioned to tie his lang-standing support for unions into his message of defending democracy. So let’s make sure people know that 2024 is about restoring democracy in more than just a procedural sense. Let’s make it about the right of the people to rule.