A Slogan That Works
The Democratic Party is officially unveiling their new slogan for the 2018 races on Monday. Of course, it’s already leaked: “A Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages.” The initial reaction from the left was mockery and derision. This focus-grouped bullshit, which reminds us of nothing so much as Papa John’s “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza,” was the best they could do? This is why the Democrats lose. This is why they’re gonna lose again.
Make no mistake: it’s a bad slogan. But it’s very close to being a good slogan. The Democrats, if only by accident, have stumbled onto something they had forgotten about. They used to be the party of workers, and they won based on that: though individually the bosses have much more money and power, there are way, way more workers than bosses in this country. Aligning with them handed Donald Trump the White House on a razor-thin margin of disaffection and apathy.
Most of the criticism has focused on the “Better Skills” part of the slogan, and I can see why. Not only is it bad, its positioning dictates the terms of the rest of it, and poisons the well. “Better skills” blames the worker for his own inadequacy. If only you had better skills, you’d have a job right now! Look at you, you cretin, unfit for labor in the modern world! Of course, the “skills gap” is a myth. The problem isn’t that these workers don’t have skills; it’s that their communities have been hollowed out, and the only jobs left are McJobs, with low pay and no prospects. You can’t support a family on that. Even those that have jobs find that unpredictable hours and precarious employment mean that they can no longer depend on them for livelihood. We do, in fact, need better jobs.
“Better Skills” is reminiscent of the “learn to code!” chorus that breaks out whenever educated city-dwelling liberals are forced to confront the collapse of manufacturing jobs in this country. Not only is it heartless, it’s stupid. Learning to code is not only not an option for the majority of these workers, it wouldn’t work even if it was. How many coding jobs are out there? Where are they? They’re being outsourced to India even as we speak. Even if they were there, are you going to tell a 54-year-old laid-off forklift driver to pack up his wife (who may have a job she likes!) and kids (who are in school, and have friends!) and drive hundreds or thousands of miles? Who will pay the bills while this guy’s in coding school? What happens if he turns out to be no good at it? It’s demeaning to treat people like cogs that you can pull out of one machine, grind into a new shape, and stick into a new machine.
These programs are empty promises. People in shattered post-industrial communities have been hearing “learn to code!” for a decade now and it’s never solved any problems for them. It’s an illusion, a meaningless platitude recited as a prayer to mollify urban technocrats.
If you strip out “Better Skills” then you actually end up with a decent slogan. “A Better Deal” is reminiscent of the New Deal, which was wildly popular and led to four terms in a row for the Democrat FDR. It offers the American people a deal: you work hard and play by the rules, and we will make sure you are treated fairly. This deal used to be implicit in the social contract — it was, succinctly stated, the American Dream — but it was never universalized, and over the years the universe of people to whom it applied has continuously shrunk. “Better Work, Better Wages” is the core of any labor-focused progressive social movement. People want dignity, to feel valued, and to be able to support their families. Socialism is not a system for people who don’t want to work: it requires labor, the labor of a people who know that they are working not to enrich some stranger who makes more money in a day than they do in a year, but for themselves and their families and their neighbors.
Medicare for All is the goal, but the only way to make it come to pass is to pitch not as an entitlement for those unable or unwilling to work, but as a reward for people’s hard work. You work hard, you put in your best, and in return we will make sure that if something should happen to you you will be covered. That’s it. It’s a deal between the government and the people. That was what we believed in America, once, but the government let down its side of the bargain. Not because it was impossible, but because a crew of hucksters and con men got in and decided to strip mine the government and sell it for parts. The grotesque spectacle of the Trump administration is the apotheosis of this, but it’s not an irreversible process. We can make government work for people again, if we can offer them a fair deal.
UPDATE: I am told that “Better Skills” is being dropped from the slogan. Good! At least someone at the DNC is paying attention. Now, go out there and live the truth of this idea. It’s not enough to promise better jobs and better wages. You have to show that you’re willing to fight for them.
