December 14th, 2023

Read the prologue. Not sure where this book will go. It was written at the end of the Obama years, so the main part of the book won’t even see the Trump election. The theme I picking up is that staring in the Clinton era, things stopped getting better for the working class. The neoliberalism (the author hasn’t used this term) that Clinton adopted put a stop to the working class from taking home any growth in the nation’s economy. Then this system completely failed at the end of the Bush years, and Obama comes along and pardons the banks who destroyed the economy. This failure is likely a key topic in the book. The fact that Democrats use inequality and the plight of the working class to win elections and then continue the status quo is part of their failure. The constant centrism and desire for bipartisanship, something Republicans have no interest in, is another part of their failure.

December 15th, 2023

The first chapter discusses the idea that the Democratic Party is no longer the party of the people or working class. It is the party of the professional class, which essentially means anyone with a college education. Obama filled his cabinet Ivy League intellectuals, and Obama obviously sided with the banks. The professional class has had ups and downs in history. They were hated in the Jacksonian era and a beacon of hope against the capitalist class in the industrial era. Roosevelt had his brain-trust and they passed incredible reforms. But after the the Democrat became a party of and for the professional class. Many were Republicans in the Eisenhower era and then became Democrats. The author claims that this professional class, while liberal in social affairs, is very conservative fiscally and they have a disdain for unions. They support the meritocracy and believe that talent and hard work is rewarded. I’m not sure how true this is as a blanket statement. Of course, it is true for some individuals. Is it a majority? Maybe. I fall under the professional class and I am rather left-leaning economically. I know those who are conservative economically, but they are also older. Believing this helps the author’s point, of course.

December 16th, 2023

Finished the first chapter and read the second. The first chapter continues talking about professionals, but I’m still left wondering who this “class” really is. As described, they’re just as bad as the blue-collar types who think as long as you work hard and often, you’ll succeed. I don’t want either. I want to work minimal hours and I don’t want to spend more time and money on education. Do STEMs with neoliberal economic views really vote Democrat? The second chapter goes into a historical description of how the Democrats abandoned labor. FDR had some highly educated people behind him, but also some moderately educated people. His attorney general had no law degree, and Truman had no college education period. The difference is that the professional class tends to stay in the box, where many of FDR’s people were outsiders to the current trendy theories. After losing in 1968, with the war and convention riots, the Democrats reformed their party. Some changes were good, like open primaries. However, at the same time they decided to woo the young professional. Now both parties were going to be for the white-collar worker. The Democrats in charge were openly hostile to labor, and they viewed unions as something holding them back. There were also negative connotations of blue-collar workers in media, especially after George Wallace’s famous campaign that got a significant number of votes, more than any Green or Libertarian candidate. I guess that’s it. Over the next two decades, the Democrats moved further right with every lost election. Finally with Clinton, they hit the sweet spot.

December 17th, 2023

The third chapter talks about how the Democrats won in 1992 and their policies. It starts by talking about how the Reagan years led to a wide gap in prosperity, with the up X% holding more wealth than the lower X+50%. Productivity had increased and blue-collar workers were outputting more than ever, yet their wages were not rising. The profits go to Wall Street. Clinton and his cohorts come along saying how bad this is, etc. In reality, they love it. They openly advocate that a person should earn only as much as their education or skills will get them. If you don't make much money, it is your fault for not having the education. Meanwhile, Clinton also brings in more H-1B1s to dilute the buying power of an American degree. This kind of reiterates previous chapters of the Democrats becoming the face of the educated professional elite. Clinton's people replace the business elite of the Reagan and Bush years, but their economic views are indistinguishable. The author also tells a story about Decatur, where 3 big factories go on strike after abuses by management. Despite earlier rhetoric, they got no support from Washington. It sounds like the strikers shut the city down, with the abusive police even giving up. The author does not give us a conclusion though. Did they succeed?

December 19th, 2023

This next chapter seems to be all about the juxtaposition of Clinton’s words (and the old Dem ways) and his actual actions in office, a la New Democrat. It’s sort of written as if I should know most of these things, but I don’t really remember the Clinton years. My first political memory was the 2000 election, and I barely knew what was going on. I do remember learning that I was in Bush country. Asides aside, one big issue with Clinton was NAFTA. Free trade is supposed to benefit everyone and was going to create more jobs, but really only benefitted the owners and rich. Factories moved to Mexico costing hundreds of thousands of American jobs, while simultaneously Mexican farmers could not compete with American industrial farming and Mexican economic growth stagnated. This was not a pro-worker agreement and many Democrats in the House did not like it, at first I guess. Clinton also signed a brutal law enforcement bill that widened the use of the death penalty and added many mandatory minimum sentences. He also cut and just removed welfare plans that came from the New Deal era. All these economic changes were viewed as “inevitable”, as if neoliberalism was some sort of religious doctrine. The biggest consequences came from deregulation of many sectors, which increased monopolization and hurt small businesses. The worst was the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act, which then allowed banking to combine commercial and investment banking. This led directly to the crash of 2008, though unfortunately it was under a Republican, so Clinton escaped the blame. Essentially, the New Democrats turned on the allies that made the Democrats.

December 20th, 2023

It’s another chapter on Clinton. What it boils down to is that all these things Clinton was behind, NAFTA, the crime bill, deregulation, and his attempt to privatize Social Security (foiled by the BJ impeachment), could only have been done by a Democrat. Often, he was united with Newt Gingrich and the Republicans instead of his own party. A Republican doing these things would have been expected and viewed as their usual attacks on the poor and working class. The Democrats, however, are supposed to be FOR the poor and working class. So when Clinton says NAFTA will help them, they believe him. And in our system, they have nowhere else to turn. Only the party that constructed the New Deal could dismantle it permanently. Bill Clinton was able to do things Republicans dreamed of, and leagues beyond that. What a garbage person.

December 22nd, 2023

The next chapter is a shorter one and discusses the “hipster” and banker relationship. Essentially it boils down to what type of wealthy individual each party targets. Democrats cater to what the author, or someone he quoted, calls the “creative class”. The techies and Wall Street fall under this category. Wall Street supported Obama over the other guy, McCain if I remember correctly. The “New Economy” was not built on the backs of workers, but of creative types and CEOs. Creativity which led Wall Street to create risky investments that toppled the world economy. Bastions of counter-culture like San Franscico became headquarters for billion dollar tech companies. Decaying cities were attempted to be revived with “culture improvements”, such as festivals and downtowns. Though without the money or jobs, this was a wasted effort. So now we have the right-wing party that favors a certain type of “old” money and “physical” industry, and the center-right party that favors “new” money and “creative” industry. The worker is left in the dust.

December 23rd, 2023

The 7th chapter goes about Obama and his administration’s general reaction to the recession. Obama campaigned as an FDR type who would save the working man from the destroyed economy, but in actions he outperformed Clinton. Essentially, Obama did nothing. He did not create jobs, he did not take any of the banks over, he did not take any executives to court. He gave bailouts and tax cuts. He let bankers receive million dollar bonuses. He did not help passing laws that would have aided people undergoing foreclosure, despite having a Democratic House and Senate in his first term. He tried to outdo NAFTA by pushing for a Trans-Pacific equivalent (it failed). Later, Obama and his defenders would claim the president’s office has little power to do anything (a lie) and that the real power is in Congress (which was Democratic in the first term). What a scumbag. Glad I skipped those elections.

Also read the 8th chapter. It focuses on the “successes” of Obama. There were 3, of which I currently remember 2. First was the Dodd-Frank Act, which re-regulated banking. Instead of a simple black-and-white act like Glass-Steagall, it has some thousands of pages of loopholes and exceptions that don’t really control banking, but allow them to continue their course. The second was Obamacare, which again was a convoluted mess. Instead of a Canadian system or state-run system, which would hurt big-pharma, it not ingrained the awful health insurance system into law and mandated every citizen partake. These ivy leaguers think that complexity is good because it justifies their own existence. They are not outsiders, but insiders who are afraid to try new things or “unapproved” or “unprofessional” ideas. The Dems constantly sought and still seek consensus with the Republicans. They don’t understand that right is not interested in their ideas and in compromise and will drag them to the right as far as they can. Yet Biden is still trying the same failed garbage. When are we going to get a winner in office?

December 26th, 2023

I essentially finished the book over the past three days; all that’s left is an afterword written for the Trump era edition.

The 9th chapter is a refutation the idea that Obama and Clinton had to do they things they did and couldn’t do real liberal stuff because of the Republicans. The author explores deep blue states where Republican opposition is minimal. The main example is Massachusetts and specifically Boston. The point here is that Massachusetts has the same results as the federal government on a smaller level and without opposition. The Dems praise Boston, MIT, Harvard and all that jazz, vacation on the exclusively rich island of Martha’s Vineyard, while the old manufacturing towns outside the city decay and crumple. This is a state Democrats have an iron grip on and this is the state (of existence) that they want and desire. It is proof that their worldview is correct; that the educated and wealthy succeed and the others sink lower and lower.

The 10th chapter, I think, was about Silicon Valley. Somewhere down the line, Obama and Wall Street were no longer buddy-buddy. That didn’t matter, because Google and the other tech companies had become new best friends. These companies were making billions, like Wall Street, but doing in a better way. They were smarter, they were entrepreneurs, they were a willing partner. They became the new ally and in turn were allowed to skirt any laws that should have expanded to cover the new industries and protect worker and consumer. Again, the Democrats failed the working class and let companies like Uber take away the jobs of drivers while not being required to provide benefits, or Amazon where workers piss in bottles and are tracked for efficiency. Not much has changed since then.

The last chapter seems mostly to be about Hillary. I don’t think there’s much to say there. She would’ve been a repeat of her husband and Obama. Lots of talk, little action, and four years of the same. Another election I skipped. Then there’s a short conclusion that is a call to action about how the Democratic party won’t change while its constituents don’t call for change. I don’t see any results there. I’m not so sure of Biden’s victory next year.

December 27th, 2023

The afterword pretty much is the author’s victory lap. He warned the liberals and nothing changed, thus the working class turned red. As dumb as Trump is, he knew what to say to win over those who had been stepped on the last few decades. The left didn’t see it coming, and I don’t know how. Back then, if you went into even a slightly rural area, you saw Trump stuff everywhere. That was the problem; those support Clinton did not leave their meritocratic bubbles. And it still is the problem. We’ve had almost 4 years of Biden and though they advertise him as very pro-union, nothing has changed. Some people saw that Trump’s working class rhetoric was all talk, but some of the points he made are still out in the either. NAFTA still exists under a new name and government benefits are still meager. Biden did nothing when he had the majority in both houses. There’s no hope until there’s a real left party. There’s the Green party, but they’re too small. Oh well.