Democrats poised to eat their own candidates

            David Dayen has an article in the New Republic about the needless attacks on Kamala Harris for her non-prosecution of Steven Mnuchen during the financial crisis. This was also one of the topics discussed on this Monday’s (8/7/17) Pod Save America. Mr. Dayen correctly points out that the Democratic Party could end up eating its own on this front. To use his words, “no public official in this country, from Barrack Obama on down, covered themselves in glory during the foreclosure crisis.” It is obviously true, only one person went to jail, and the fines seemed to go in the wrong direction once the banks were declared too big to fail.

            Dayen also stumbles upon what could be the most revelatory point of his article, but he doesn’t meditate on it too much. The foreclosure crisis and the financial problems it caused were a major scandal, and they were not prosecuted. There was never a genuine attempt to bring those who crashed our economy to justice, and Democrats were in charge nearly everywhere.

            Post mortems on the 2016 election have talked about the populist rage and how the Democrats were not prepared to deal with it. I have read numerous think pieces claiming this movement just came from nowhere and most can’t figure it out beyond noting the media elite were not willing to talk to white working class voters. That’s the best most are willing to offer. The concerning thing is there is a shift I think many Democrats missed in the party, something independents and those aggrieved Trumpites have been saying as an otherwise unsupported accusation. Democrats are no longer the party of the people.

            The Democrats stopped being the party of the people when they failed to prosecute anyone for the financial crisis. We swept in to power at its height and promised change, promised to care for the people. When it came time to actually wield that power though, suddenly everyone was too big to fail or we were concerned about the secondary economic impact of punishing the malfeasance of companies that had acted immorally and illegally. That’s not something that proves that we are for the people. Sure we did not want to destroy a fragile economy, but we were failing to see the impact and implication of protecting the corporations responsible. Foreclosures continued, and Democrats allowed the poison narrative of personal responsibility to justify it as well.

            The jobs initiatives we did have didn’t do enough and wages never recovered enough to fully replenish the middle class. These problems persist to today, so much so that it is even in the milquetoast new platform, but where is the confidence that we can actually benefit both the economy and the average person. Democrats haven’t been winning elections because they haven’t been fighting. Sure, things got a lot better under the Obama administration, but he acted more the economics professor than the crusader. This is why Senator Bernie Sanders’ message was so appealing to so many. It was a return to the rhetoric that was worker centric. Not surprising for a Socialist, but still a shift away from a more corporate strategy favored by the establishment of the party.

            Bernie may not have been a perfect candidate but he at least was willing to name the problem and vow to fight it. Obama did positive things for the economy and he certainly left the country better than he found it. But in so doing he didn’t rise all boats equally. He is a Democrat, it should be a little socialist too. He failed in not being FDR and bringing the programs that really helped people. Which is not the world’s biggest failure, Buchanan is derided as one of our worst president’s, but mostly because he failed to be Abraham Lincoln. Barrack Obama will be remembered as a good president, whether he rises to be thought of as a great president will be for historians.

            We are not here to litigate previous elections or administrations, but find a way to prepare better for the ones ahead. The lesson here is that Democrats must keep average people at the center of their rhetoric. That definition might shift a little one way or the other, but it is clear that we cannot prize a corporation over those it serves, or that we serve. Our focus on intelligent government solutions to problems can help the Democrats reclaim the mantle of party of the people.