1/ nytimes.com/2019/01/05/opi… I think this is an important point. We are so indoctrinated that success and failure are personal, not institutional. As C. Wright Mills wrote, one person unemployed is a personal problem. One million people unemployed is a social problem. Americans
2/ have very little class consciousness. They believe their success and failure and the success/failure of others is personal, not systemic or institutional. Candidates need to explain the institutional and systemic reasons for what is going on in this country. Why are they
3/ living with crushing home, credit card, student, or medical debts. They need explaining how the gains of wealth and income went to the very richest. They need to know how Wall Street operated their fraudulent casino to rob them. They need to hear how economic and social
4/ matters for communities of color are worse, have been worse, and have racist institutional and systemic causes. The white middle class is the latest victim of a system they thought was working. Dems need to go full universal programs without means-testing. Why? Because if
5/ everyone gets the benefit, the GOP cannot play the racist producerist narrative--the elites are taxing and robbing the middle class to give unearned benefits to the undeserving poor. In that narrative, the middle class ask, "What's in it for me?" and the answer is, "Nothing."
6/ Universal health care, free public college & university, maternity and family leave, daycare tell the American people 2 things: 1. Everyone is going to benefit and share the bounty of this country. 2. This is going to make individual & family lives better & stronger by taking
7/ away anxieties and fears that one unforced error means financial ruin. That is best explained in the book, "The Nordic Theory of Everything." Any number of Dem candidates can do this, so don't take this as supporting one candidate. Yes, I vol'd for Bernie in 2016, but this
8/ approach is open to any number of Democrats who are committed to it, not just mouthing it. This is consistent with the Roosevelt Institute's 2015 plan written by Joseph Stiglitz, who knows a thing or two about economics. rooseveltinstitute.org/rewriting-rule… However, this narrative goes
9/ beyond that "re-writing the rules" by embracing big, bold, visionary programs like #GreenNewDeal and #MedicareForAll . This is not the time for Dems to go small-ball and GOP-lite. I put narrative, principles, policies, & programs first. Then, I look for the candidate. END
@threadreaderapp unroll please
