THE WORKING CLASS BUILT THIS COUNTRY AND IN 2024 WE MUST MOBILIZE TO TRANSFORM IT
Harry Targ (Originally
posted on Tuesday, September 7, 2010: With an update enough remains the same to
justify a repost.)
From the Democratic Convention to Election Day
I want to add my voice
to the thousands of essayists and bloggers who have been contemplating the 2024
elections, the media “framing” of MAGA influence, the role of progressives in
the elections, and mobilizing for the last months before the elections.
First, I think elections still matter. Since most people see politics
and elections as equivalent and some of them actively participate in the
electoral process, progressives need to be there as well. In addition, in
states and communities’ decisions will be made about how federal government
money for local school corporations is to be allocated, about workers
compensation for victims of asbestos related workplace injuries, so-called
Right to Work laws, and how congressional and state legislative districts will
be redesigned. At the national level, policy decisions about such critical
issues as jobs, climate change, education, military spending, social security
and medicare, and judicial appointments will be affected by election outcomes.
Second, most of these issues have not been the main narrative. The media
have framed the fall elections around the mental health of candidates, the conflicts
within the Democratic Party, the spectacle of Trump (and now J D Vance), and
how the Biden administration has not fixed the economy and world affairs (even
though he served after the disaster of the Trump years and the perpetual
problems under capitalism).
Third the “liberal” media, while more sophisticated and entertaining in
its coverage of election year stories over-emphasize “making fun” of Trump and
his followers. The corporate media (not just Fox) has made Trump the media meal
ticket for now nearly a decade.
In response, Trump and his allies have decided to do two things: forget about
trying to put together logical, coherent plans for an alternative set of
policies and when challenged by enterprising reporters just walk away. Since
the media they tell us is the enemy incoherence and evasiveness resonate well
with a disillusioned public.
Fourth, part of the context for the unstable politics of the fall, 2024,
is the continued economic crisis that grips working people. Declining real
wages, indebtedness, rising health care costs, and crumbling public services
remain all too real for the majority of Americans. In addition the advocacy of
humane and realistic immigration reform and climate change legislation, and an
end to the blockade of Cuba remain elusive. Meanwhile huge increases in
military spending, supporting wars in the Ukraine and Israel, and launching a
New Cold War against China have become centerpieces of US foreign policy.
Having said all this,
the administration has forestalled return to depression with a modest economic
recovery program, brought the country out of the COVID epidemic, created some
public sector jobs. and has worked to cap some prescription drug prices.
A Little History
A high level of distrust
of government, low regard for politicians, and periodic active anger at our
public institutions is a characteristic feature of American history often
reflected in voting against political incumbents and supporting candidates who
are most vocal against government programs. For example, the American National
Election Studies (ANES) prepared an index of Trust in Government made up of
several questions reflecting the points just raised. Looking over time the
level of trust in government was at a score of 49 in 1958, 52 in 1964, 27 in 1980,
29 in 1992, 36 in 2000, and declined to 26 by 2008. Only twice in the Johnson
years, did the Trust Index reach a score over 60 and six times since 1958 the
index score was below 30. More recently, 2024, Pew researchers found a similar
long-term downward trajectory in “trust in government.”
In addition, a constant feature of political life has been active and extremist
politics. For example, the American party of the 1850s, or “Know Nothing
Party,” got its name from members being instructed when asked about the party
to say “I know nothing.” While short-lived they elected several national and
state office holders before the civil war.
Throughout U.S. history so-called “nativist” groups formed and mobilized
against waves of immigrants: Catholics, Germans, the Irish, Chinese, Jews, and
Latinos. Armed Klan organizations terrorized the South and the Midwest in the
1880s and 1920s and 1930s and dominated the political life in many states in
these eras.
Of course, extremist movements, often organized and funded by corporations and
wealthy individuals, scared the American people during the dark days of
anti-Communism in the 1940s and 1950s. Red Channels, a small but well-funded
political organization, published lists of suspected Communists in the
entertainment industry and pressured the new television corporations and
advertisers to purge actors and actresses, with views supportive of labor,
racial integration, and peace, from the airwaves. Their activism paralleled and
reinforced Congressional reactionaries who used investigative committees to
hound individuals and groups. (Now these onerous Congressional investigatory
committees have been revived to attack educators, the secret service, and other
politically motivated targets).
Alternatively, for all of Labor’s flaws, the history of the American labor
movement has been central to social progress in the United States: from the
demands for an eight hour day, skilled trades controls of the pace of work,
health and safety at the work place, a fair wage, programs of health and
retirement benefits, and, after much internal conflict, support for the
struggles against racism and sexism. There is no question that organized labor,
although weakened and embattled, represents the most powerful force in today’s
society resisting the privatization of social security, deregulation of the
economy and environment, and the total marginalization of working people
everywhere. The number of union organizing drives, strikes, and victories have
increased enormously over the last few years, spearheaded by young and diverse
and non-traditional workers.
A Progressive Campaign Program
So what to do now? History and context suggests that given the importance of
elections, the enormous distrust of government, the existence of media and
corporate capital support for the historic undercurrents of anti-government and
anti-worker political traditions, often coupled with racism and fear of
foreigners, progressives have only one choice for the next three months: work
to elect political candidates from the city council to the Congress of the
United States who support a “working people’s agenda.”
American political history tells us that movements like the Tea Party and MAGA
are not new. While the concern and anger reflected among those grassroots
activists who participate in rallies and marches is usually sincere and
motivated by fears of strange times and economic crises with no seeming
resolution, its leaders offer no program, no vision, and no coherent agenda. If
Trump spokespersons and candidates are
queried about their goals, they evade or refuse to respond.
No, progressives cannot
argue with the MAGA movement. But, what we must do is to campaign, not just for
individual candidates or just for a party but for a “working people’s agenda.”
That constitutes the only future for the vast majority of Americans. This
agenda must include a fight for full employment, the extension of unemployment
benefits; rebuilding America’s schools, roads, and energy systems; the expansion
and support for the maintenance of state
and local public services; putting all people who want to work on jobs that
need to be done; and regulating banks more effectively so that they are
required to support local projects that create businesses which will create
jobs. And homelessness must end. In addition, we must act before it is too late to save the environment.
Most importantly, progressives must work in their communities and in solidarity
with workers, people of color, and youth to elect progressive candidates to
public office and to monitor their conduct once they are elected. It must be
made clear to all that the progressive majority is not engaged in politics to
support candidates or parties but to transform America.
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Addendum: Progressives must add a peace agenda to their work in 2024
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia and
continued United States support of Israel gives fuel to the emerging anti-China
Cold War rhetoric for politicians of both parties and the corporate media who
suggest that Taiwan will be next, presumably after a Chinese
invasion. Of course, these wars have led to thousands of deaths,
increased starvation, and mass migrations.
At the same time,. the Ukraine and
Israel/Gaza wars are enormous pluses for the military/industrial complex in the
US. The Ukraine story has transformed the global narrative from the
critical discussion of exploitation by the Global North of the Global South to
the Biden narrative of “authoritarians” vs. “democracies.”
The impacts of the debate on
progressive forces in the US and elsewhere are potentially devastating. In the
US, our discourse is shifting from a progressive agenda including President
Biden’s Build Back Better program for example to stories about the relationships
between Putin and former President Trump and so-called “national security.”
Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address reflected his “shift to the center.”
Now we have a cause all Americans can get behind: opposing the Russians. (I am
reminded how the Soviet menace in the 1940s was used to defang CIO militancy,
the drive for free health care, Henry Wallace’s call for US/Soviet dialogue
and, of course, civil rights for all). War and portraits of American
exceptionalism are profitable commodities for the increasingly concentrated
corporate media.
As we approach the election season we
must remember that foreign policy is inextricably connected to domestic policy.
It is time to campaign around war, military spending, the spread of nuclear
weapons, grotesque economic sanctions against poor countries, and a media
program of systematic distortions about the world , so-called “cognitive war.”
