Another problem for Democrats is geography: Progressive activists only form a consistent critical mass in deep-blue cities or states—limiting their ability to win over moderate voters in other parts of the country. Universities and forward thinking think tanks like the Roosevelt Institute and Economic Policy Institute are bursting with innovative ideas about narrowing the income gap, expanding and lowering health care costs, drafting a Green New Deal, curbing Amazon’s power and his business kind . But their plans lie fallow without a well-organized constituency of working-class Americans who can elect enough politicians to make them law.
One can detect some shoots of a possible revival. Workers at Starbucks, an increasing number of websites and magazines, and high-tech companies like Google and Apple are joining unions and fighting for their employers to recognize them. And most Americans seem to share their appreciation for institutions whose purpose has always been to bring a semblance of democracy to work. In recent polls, organized labor is more popular than it has been since the mid-1960s.
However, as with social media, “liking” a group does not mean that someone takes action to join or build a group or even knows how to act. Most Americans today see unions as a good idea, but not as an institution that people they know belong to and cherish. With union membership of just one-tenth of the nation’s workforce, only government workers’ unions remain a powerful force in most Democratic campaigns.
Yet progressive politicians who consistently talk about class inequality can win, even in red areas. Sherrod Brown, a staunch champion of unions who have made fighting for “the dignity of work” his signature issue, has been elected three times to the US Senate in increasingly Republican-friendly Ohio. So is Montana’s Jon Tester, who has introduced a bill to ban companies that lock out their employees during labor disputes from receiving tax breaks, deductions or credits.
In his two runs for the White House, Bernie Sanders voiced a similar message with a blunt passion that no other politician of national stature could match. But his identity as a proud socialist may have cost him the nomination by knocking out the strong partisans voting in the Democratic primary.
The Democrat who was elected president could take some actions that would help stimulate a movement of working people. Mr. Biden was able to speak often and forcefully about how Build Back Better would improve the lives of most Americans. He could highlight the virtues of the Protecting the Right to Organization Act, passed by the House a year ago but bogged down in the Senate by its seemingly unbreakable filibuster. At this point, few people outside the Beltway bubble have ever heard of this measure.
Last fall, a Liberal polling station surveyed swingstates and battlefield districts to test how voters would react to a Democratic candidate who delivered such an aggressive pro-worker, anti-corporate message:
People live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to pay their bills and taxes. They need a government that cares for the middle class, working families, small businesses and the vulnerable who work hard. They don’t need a government springing up when the biggest corporations send money and lobbyists. My approach is blue collar. We must work for those who work hard so that we create jobs in America and grow the middle class again.
After hearing that pitch, respondents increased their support for Democrats from three to eight percentage points, enough to win seats in nearly every battlefield and state. Bruised by the rigors of the long pandemic, many of those polled, according to longtime strategist Stanley B. Greenberg, were “surprised to learn that Democrats are dissatisfied with an economy where many of the voters … live paycheck to paycheck” and that “Democrats prioritize major changes in the economy and who is in power.”