Politics
Democrats Have a Credibility Crisis on Their Hands. And It’s Their Own Fault.
How Democrats’ Neoliberal Embrace Continues to Haunt Them (and Us).
Congress last passed a COVID relief bill in April. Since then, an additional 200,000 Americans have died of the virus, millions more have been furloughed or laid off and a staggering number of people are currently housing or food insecure, if not both. Yet, during this period, Congress neglected to pass any additional legislation to address the growing economic precarity faced by many Americans.
Of course, when one party is steadfast in its commitment to only addressing the needs of capital, while the other is only marginally less beholden to such an arrangement, such an outcome should not be surprising.
While many people seem resigned to the fact that the Republican Party is going to do what it always does — spit in the face of working and poor people — some seem to be particularly perturbed that the Democratic Party appears poised to accept the terms of the milquetoast bill currently being debated, without engaging in a more public battle with Republicans over its content. To wit, some took to Twitter to berate Democrats for not reminding Americans that they are not the villains, and that all that stands between crumbs and actual relief à la every other country that is run by halfway sensible people is…Mitch McConnell.
Now, even if this is so, screaming it from the mountaintops repeatedly — i.e, through frequent appearances on The ReidOut, Meet the Press and CNN Tonight — would not change how most Americans view the current political situation, nor the Democratic Party.
Why?
Because a large segment of the population simply does not take the Democratic Party at its word. Put simply, the Democratic Party has a credibility crisis on its hands.
This Democratic quagmire reminds me of an episode from Nickelodeon’s classic cartoon Rugrats. For those too young to have experienced the golden era of animation — or for those who simply need their memories jogged — Rugrats aired from 1991–2004, and chronicled the often mischievous adventures of a handful of middle-class, suburban toddlers and their parents.
In this particular episode, Susie Charmichael — the lone African-American tot — is gifted a sparkling, new tricycle. Complete with all the accoutrements that should satisfy a three-year-old, Susie decides to show off her new toy to the rugrats — leaving them awestruck in the process. Well, all but one: Angelica Pickles.
A number of things unfurl throughout the course of the episode, but the upshot is that, eventually, the tricycle disappears. And Angelica, often a key accomplice in situations that afflict the other rugrats, is the main suspect. Although she pleads innocent and argues that she had no hand in the matter, the babies do not believe her — fool them once, shame on her; fool them twice, shame on them. Angelica is ultimately vindicated — what appeared to be a vanishing act was actually just Susie’s dad relocating the tricycle while he painted the shed in which it was housed — but not until receipts are presented.
If Democrats want Americans to take them at their word — which is that they are, in fact, the party of working and poor people, as they contend — then they will have to produce receipts.
Of course, this is much easier said than done.
It may be hard to believe, but as sociologist Stephanie Mudge articulates in Leftism Reinvented: Western Parties from Socialism to Neoliberalism, the Democratic Party once represented the material interests of poor and working people. This support ranged from unabashed commitment, at best, to programmatic acceptance, at worst, contingent upon political and social context. But for a good deal of American history — particularly in the decades following the Great Depression — it was apparent to most people which party supported capital (Republicans) and which party supported workers (Democrats).
However, beginning in the late 1970s during the Carter Administration, Democrats began to accept the terms of an emerging neoliberal order orchestrated by the right — a commitment which eventually calcified under the Clinton Administration. Under these terms, Democrats — fearing their electoral prospects after successive beatdowns during the 1980, 1984 and 1988 presidential elections — adopted the Republican playbook of market fundamentalism, a skeletal welfare state and a capital-first logic. It is no wonder, then, that under the Clinton Administration, income inequality and finance capital exploded simultaneously — a trend that would continue unabated until 2007.
Ah, yes, The Great Recession. Though many of us likely do not recall the minutiae of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) — i.e., the Wall Street “bailout” — we surely remember that the deal was bipartisan in nature. This, of course, was a bill that Obama deemed as being “the beginning of a long-term rescue plan for our middle class.”
How did that turn out?
From the looks of it, not too well. At least not for working people. While hundreds of millions of Americans struggle, corporations — including many Wall Street firms which were instrumental in creating the economic crisis of 2007 — are posting record-breaking profits, even as the pandemic rages on. CEOs of all backgrounds are raking in billions in personal fortune. And Democrats, through all their hand-wringing, want Americans to believe that they are grudgingly accepting this arrangement; they are simply playing the cards they were dealt.
They could very well be telling the truth about their desire to help poor and working people. And perhaps in a world where Democrats had political leverage, Americans would be getting real relief and not pennies. But none of this matters. Democrats are suffering from a credibility crisis. And, like Angelica Pickles, exoneration will not come until receipts manifest.
The irony, of course, is that Democrats have written a neoliberal check that Mitch McConnell will ensure they can never cash. And, as a result, poor and working people will continue to suffer.
