Alan Minsky — This Democratic Party Is Going Nowhere. Can Progressives Take it Over and Change the World?

The electoral left has a secret, albeit underutilized, asset. Almost no one in this benighted land knows that the Congressional Progressive Caucus is larger now than the Tea Party Caucus ever has been—yet given its relative influence on the national discourse, the CPC’s anonymity is no surprise. The progressive caucus is simply not as aggressive or as focused a political force as the tea party. 

This has to change, and if it does, progressives will go into the next election cycle holding a winning hand. All they have to do is boldly introduce themselves to the public, establish very clearly what they stand for and present themselves as a unified front in 2016. Even if they just hold on to the seats they currently hold, the results will have the appearance of a national victory for a unified insurgent movement. 

This might seem like petty gamesmanship, but it’s not. The GOP has been running on economic populism, claiming to represent the interests of working people, and winning elections. To date, the Democrats have failed pathetically to expose this lie—and only leftist progressives can really make the case.

Translation: Maybe Democrats would have a better chance of winning running as Democrats rather than GOP Lite.

We all know the right-wing media machine would create a cacophony about the horrors of Big Government, but if you list the components of what a leftist progressive platform might look like, it’s clear that many of the policies would have majority support:

- Social Security funded for the next century (with the possibility of expanding it) by raising the cap on income levels contributing into the system, while maintaining a cap on payments
- A single payer (Medicare for all) health system
- Free public education through college
- A sharp increase in the national minimum wage and two weeks of paid vacation for all workers
- Rapid citizenship for immigrant workers and their families
- Ending the war on drugs and decriminalization
- Ending government spying
- Sane gun laws
- Support for a woman’s right to choose and equal pay legislation
- Reform of the justice system so that it applies equally to all people
- Invest in green energy and take the lead in combating global warming globally
- Shift foreign policy to support people and not every region’s 1 percent
- As for funding fiscal policy, there’s no need for making income tax levels more progressive (since the change in Social Security achieves that already)—but, in accordance with “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” author Thomas Piketty, raise the rate on capital gains. Also bring corporate taxes back in to line with pre-Reagan era levels by both closing loopholes and raising the tax rate on profits.
- And finally, a program dear to my late father’s (economist Hyman Minsky) heart—an employer of last resort (ELR) program, like Roosevelt’s CCC. (This is probably too radical a proposal for many members of the current CPC, but not for some.) And if not this ambitious plan, a basic national income. I think ELR would work much better and also make a real contribution to elements of the economy that the market addresses inadequately; and it can be organized so that localities have control over ELR projects. ELR’s possibilities for transforming society are immense, but either ELR or a basic income program would conquer poverty like nothing we’ve seen in our lives and empower workers who would no longer fear leaving wretched jobs.
- If the tax increases on the wealthy and corporations aren’t enough to cover the costs, there’s a bloated military budget to shrink.

A program like this would take America off of its neoliberal course. It directly addresses the fears and anxieties of a precarious, under-compensated citizenry, and it’s no more radical than the approach espoused by the greatest Democrat of the 20th century, FDR.
Will it win majority support in the 2016 election cycle? Unlikely, but given the security of progressives already in office, there’s no harm in trying—and if leftist progressives get it in front of Americans for consideration, the next time the economy implodes … let’s just say it’s going to prove mighty compelling.

Truthdig

This Democratic Party Is Going Nowhere. Can Progressives Take it Over and Change the World?Alan Minsky |  program director of KPFK Radio Los Angeles

Alan Minsky is the son of Hyman Minsky.