A Blueprint for Sanders and AOC to Take Over the Party? by Jonathan Chait
“When [Donald] Trump assumed the presidency after a 2016 election that Democrats should have won by a landslide …” writes John Nichols in his new book, “the crisis came into focus. It was not the Republican Party that was ruining our politics. Rather, the lack of a coherent and appealing opposition to the Republicans was the problem.”
That's a familiar argument, that the Democratic Party has strayed from FDR's New Deal and become corporatist and Republican Lite. There is a lot to be said for that argument, I think.
But JN, national correspondent for "The Nation", has written a book, "The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party", where he makes an odd argument: the Democratic Party departed from the New Deal when it rejected Henry Wallace back in 1944. He had been FDR's Secretary of Agriculture for two terms, then Vice President for one term.
JN argues in his book that HW was FDR's true successor, but author JC makes a good case that it was Harry Truman, despite HT being much more strongly anti-Soviet than FDR. HT attempted to continue the New Deal with national health insurance and public housing, but it was stymied by the Republicans. He also was good on civil rights: he ordered the desegregation of the armed forces.
HW was curiously sympathetic to the Soviet Union, even after that nation's takeover of Eastern Europe. That was a turn-off for most of the Democratic Party.
JC argues that Bernie Sanders is much like HW, and he makes an impressive case. But I doubt that BS has anything comparable to HW's sympathy with the Soviet Union.
Both HW and BS correctly recognized that white racism only served the interests of the corporate elite, by keeping that elite's opponents divided. But they both underestimated how much that many poor white people were willing to suffer as long as black people and Hispanics and the like suffered more than they did. Like what LBJ said:
Did LBJ Advocate: 'Convince the Lowest White Man He's Better Than the Best Colored Man'?
We were in Tennessee. During the motorcade, he spotted some ugly racial epithets scrawled on signs. Late that night in the hotel, when the local dignitaries had finished the last bottles of bourbon and branch water and departed, he started talking about those signs. “I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it,” he said. “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
