Bryan Olin Dozier/NurPhoto via AP
Airport workers rally with local unions at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on September 21, 2022, to demand job protections for airport concessions and construction workers.
If we lose our democracy to fascism, one key reason will be that corporate Republicans and Democrats, who profess to care about saving democracy, have relentlessly opposed the populist economic policies that might give working-class people some reason to believe in democracy.
The other day, the usually perceptive Anand Giridharadas had an extended op-ed in the Times, adapted from his new book. He was eloquent on the fascist threat, but he got one big thing wrong.
Giridharadas had three basic points to make. First, we are at dire risk of becoming a fascist country, and we surely are. Second, the far right is simply better tactically at using what my generation called guerrilla theater to get people’s attention and rally support for the right’s issue-framing. (“The right presently runs laps around the left in its ability to manage and use attention. It understands the power of provocation to make people have the conversation that most benefits its side … Democrats and their allies lag on this score, bringing four-point plans to gunfights.”
He’s right about that, too. But his most important argument, which sounds accurate, is wide of the mark.
In urging Democrats to have the courage of their convictions and to lead more boldly, Giridharadas conflates the left with the pro-democracy center. He writes, “The left has a bold agenda: strengthen voting rights, save the planet, upgrade the safety net. But policies do not speak for themselves, and the cause remains starved for a larger, goosebumps-giving, heroes-and-villains, endlessly quotable story … that helps people make sense of the time and place they’re in.”
Progressives do not lack boldness or compelling narratives. What they lack is votes. And progressives are not the same as “Democrats.” The corporate wing of the Democratic Party has relentlessly resisted structural policies that would transform the life chances and political views of working people.
Universal and public health insurance; a much higher minimum wage; massive investment in caregiving; a strengthened right to organize unions—despite bare majorities in both houses, we have not been able to get these through Congress, because of the opposition of some Democrats as well as Republicans. All this goes well beyond the “upgraded safety net” that Giridharadas attributes as the left economic program.
In that respect—let’s not mince words—centrists have been enablers of fascists, because long-festering pocketbook grievances have won converts to Trumpism. More clever tactics will not alter that reality.
Giridharadas is right that it will take extensive organizing, but let’s not mistake the pro-democracy movement for a transformative economic movement. Republicans who loathe Trump—Liz Cheney, Rob Portman, Ben Sasse, and the House Republicans who voted to duly certify the 2020 election results—all these worthies voted for the pro-corporate and anti-worker policies that made Trump.
Pro-democracy has to mean pro-economic democracy. Giridharadas is on point when he salutes the efforts of on-the-ground organizers. But they need to be organizing for economic justice, not just for procedural rights, and often in opposition to other Democrats.
