BUILD BACK MUCH BETTER

By Joe Segal

I’m personally tired of being insulted and yelled at by many for even suggesting anything is wrong with the Democratic Party. People cling to what’s familiar and feel allegiance to their team and tribe. I know. I was that way. I grew up in a family that voted Democrat since the 50s. I voted for Clinton & Gore’s “Bridge to the 21st Century” and campaigned my ass off for Obama and his “There are no red states there are no blue states only the United States” pragmatic idealism. But this is not FDRs New Deal Party anymore. It’s not LBJ’s Great Society party anymore either. Those Democratic Parties and presidents built a working-class coalition that brought us transformative public policies and agencies that helped reduce poverty in the case of the Great Society by over 40%!

After Ronald Reagan coopted “Reagan Democrats” (that was a thing), and said Government is not the solution, it’s the problem!” Bill Clinton later said, “The era of big government is over!” Every Democrat and Republican President played the game in Reagan's arena accepting and enacting deep cuts to welfare programs and work to welfare requirements that kicked families off programs that kept their heads above water. Clinton did it, and Obama did it. It was the price they paid to the pro-big business anti-government Republicans for keeping the government open and their mutual rich donors happy.