New Deal Dems Understood Who The Bad Guys Were— Today's Party Establishment Is Way Off Base

Writing for Axios yesterday, Emily Peck reported that polling shows that Americans now support unions over big companies by a record-high margin. “The popularity of labor unions surged over the past decade, while American sentiment toward big business has fallen, according to new data published by the liberal Economic Policy Institute. The approval switcheroo helps explain, in part, why the Republican Party has been courting labor unions in recent years.”

What it doesn’t explain is why today's Democratic Party's buttoned-down establishment has, for the most part, abandoned it’s traditional alliance with unions and the working class and cozied up to an increasingly detested and corrupted corporate America.

Peck wrote that “After the pandemic, public support for labor unions and workers increased even more. At the same time, increasing populism meant less support for businesses, even from Republicans who typically support their interests. Americans are more likely to support unions than big companies by the widest margin in 60 years.”

Nathan Sage is a lifelong independent running for the Iowa Senate seat Trump ally Joni Ernst has. He’s a different kind of Democrat, one who actually cares about working people, a patriot, not a politician who enlisted in the Marines, served two tours in Iraq, then re-enlisted in the Army and served a third tour in Iraq. Back home, he put himself through college with the GI Bill and worked as a mechanic, a sports radio host, and eventually became Director of the Knoxville chamber of commerce, working closely with local businesses as a voice for Iowa small businesses and working people. Iowa Dems haven't had a working-class candidate in a race like this in recent memory, and if Sage can replicate Osborn's strength he’ll pose a serious threat to Ernst. Yesterday, he told us “When I was a teenager working at Wal-Mart they sent someone down from corporate for some good old fashioned union busting. That's when I learned there's nothing these massive corporations want more than to stomp out labor unions. The Democratic Party needs to be America's labor party. Our base should be the working class, not the billionaire class.”

Somehow, the Democratic Party establishment managed to miss the memo. At the very moment when Americans— across age, race, and even party lines— are turning against big business and rallying behind workers, establishment Democrats are still chasing Chamber of Commerce donors and tech billionaires like it’s 1999. 

It’s political malpractice. The Democratic Party was once the natural home for working-class people, and it built a durable coalition by aligning itself with unions, economic justice and the principle that workers deserved a fair share of the pie they created. But today’s establishment leaders seem to believe that vague slogans about “opportunity” and “innovation” can substitute for bold, material commitments to the people who keep this country running. They still imagine that appeasing corporate America will win them campaign cash and votes— despite all evidence to the contrary.

This isn’t just cowardice; it’s stupidity. The party is bleeding working-class support, especially among young people and communities of color, not because it’s “too far left” but because it’s incoherent and spineless. When the public is moving left on labor, the Democrats should be sprinting to get in front of that parade. Instead, they’re holding closed-door meetings with CEOs while Republicans are out here talking about “made in America” jobs and union endorsements. It’s another catastrophic misreading of the political moment by establishment Dems like Chuck Schumer, Mark Warner, Elissa Slotkin, Maggie Hassan, Michael Bennet and Mark Kelly— and a betrayal of the party’s own history. If the Democratic establishment continues to ignore the resurgent labor movement, they won’t just lose votes; they’ll lose their last shred of credibility as a party of the people.

Call me old fashioned, but I was interested in the Democrats as a party when economic dignity was a non-negotiable right, back when I got my first union card. Today's consultant-burdened leadership has basically traded picket lines for private equity, lunch-pail populism for LinkedIn jargon and real structural reform for “access” and “stakeholder capitalism.” These idiots are still trying to win over swing voters in boardrooms while the base is organizing walkouts and strikes on warehouse floors.

"Big, Beautiful, Golden Deal" by Nancy Ohanian

Meanwhile, Republicans— cynical as ever— have moved in to fill the void, wrapping their culture war agenda in the language of worker empowerment. It’s hollow and opportunistic, of course. But it’s working, in part, because Democratic parties across the states have left the door wide open. The stupidity of the Democratic establishment has the anti-Bernie party ignoring a historic surge in pro-labor sentiment, in favor of courting a donor class that will never truly be on our side. In a time of rampant inequality and corporate overreach, there’s no future for a party that stands in the mushy middle. We all know that Bill Clinton/Rahm Emanuel-grade triangulation isn’t a rational path forward. Maybe the DNC and satte parties should try picking a side, the way these House Democrats have.