(1/9) So, I wrote a book.* I thought I was done after Economism, but I couldn't help it. For once, I can say that I really felt the need to say something.
* It's only 32,000 words, so law professors call it an "article," not a book.
* It's only 32,000 words, so law professors call it an "article," not a book.
(2/9) I wanted people to read it—especially before the Iowa primary. So I asked @ddayen if he would put it on the website of @theprospect for free, and lo and behold, he agreed!*
* As he said, magazines serialized books in the Gilded Age, so why not in the Second Gilded Age?
* As he said, magazines serialized books in the Gilded Age, so why not in the Second Gilded Age?
(3/9) The book is about the central (economic) problem of our time: extreme inequality. But it's really about the politics. Because in a two-party system oriented around capital and labor, the very rich shouldn't be able to take all the spoils, as they have in recent decades.
(4/9) But, as @CoreyRobin said somewhere, the United States really has two parties of capital. We know there will always be a party for big business and the rich. The question is: Where's the party for everyone else?
(5/9) That party used to be the Democrats. Yes, I know they had failings. But in the 1970s, when I was a kid,* the Democrats were the party of unions, the social safety net, and poverty programs.
* I was born in 1969. Google thinks I was born in 1950. (Try Googling me!)
* I was born in 1969. Google thinks I was born in 1950. (Try Googling me!)
(6/9) But after the drubbings of 1980 and 1984, the New Democrats (Clinton, Gore, Nunn, etc.) decided they were tired of being associated with unions and poor people. They adopted the ideology of markets, finance, small government, balanced budgets, and private sector growth.
(7/9) And since then the Democratic establishment has been reflexively suppressing anything that might sound like a social program or redistribution (see the attacks on Medicare for All for the latest installment).
(8/9) And that's why Democrats today are "impotent in the face of growing inequality, even when in power, and incapable of making the case that we can help families struggling against economic insecurity and misfortune."
(9/9) That's from the introduction, which appeared on @theprospect yesterday.
And chapter 1 will be up tomorrow morning. Enjoy!
And chapter 1 will be up tomorrow morning. Enjoy!
