I read Mr. Donegan’s column, “Democratic postmortem” (Jan. 16), with some interest. Sure, there was the expected snarky gloat regarding the decisive win of Trump over Harris, and yet he did have some good points. Democrats have lost touch with what has made the party great and my home for 50 years. However, it would be a myopic mistake to take the election results as some Republican mandate. It’s clear from the majority of down-ballot races, reproductive rights laws that passed, pro-labor laws, and progressive judicial wins, that the presidential voters were not endorsing the Republican ideology.
The American people are hurting, and they are angry. The level of wealth inequality is more extreme today than it has been since 1928. If the minimum wage of 1970, $1.65 per hour, would have kept pace with the U.S. cost of living index, in 2022 it would have been $22.52 per hour. In 1959, the average corporate CEO was making around 34 times the wages of the company’s line workers. Today the titans of industry claim an average compensation of 480 times that of their base workers.
In 2022, the wealthiest 400 people in the U.S. as a group had the second lowest tax rate of all returns. My father was self-employed with four kids. He never took more than $2,000 per month out of the dental lab. We always had two cars, took vacations, and my folks owned all the houses we lived in from when I was in second grade. Today, I live by myself, no dependents, and I’m underwater if I don’t bring home around $4,500 per month.
We relaxed banking regulations starting in the ’80s so that profits could be increased in that sector, the collapse almost dragged us into another depression, many people lost their homes. Medically induced bankruptcies. I could go on … NAFTA, the campaigns to crush organized labor, the projected loss of 83 million white collar jobs in the next five years as AI expands its reach. All that is “good for business,” a disaster for any remnants of our middle class. Almost always a disaster for the only planet we have.
The Democrats failed in the most tone-deaf way to hear that chorus, the Republicans with their spray-tanned messiah sold a pack of lies, and the pitch worked. When the working families discover that this administration’s policies are nothing but toxic gases and with our economy skidding toward the ditch, they join with the rest of the disgruntled carrying torches to the Capitol. Maybe, just maybe, the ruling classes of all persuasions will see that a grand adjustment is needed. Or maybe not. They’re too busy arguing over Greenland, or Mars.
We’ve been here before. It will be interesting to see what the modern version of soup lines and the WPA will look like. Δ
Allen Root writes to New Times from San Luis Obispo. Add your opinion to the conversation by emailing it to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jan 23 – Feb 2, 2025.
If what you say is true and your predictions about Trump’s economy comes to pass, perhaps this is the best thing to happen to American society since the election of FDR. Along with selling their U.S. bonds, China has stopped buying American soybeans. In so doing, this will enrage a large portion of Trump’s base. When commercial real estate has to refinance their loans and are unable to do so on terms that are amenable, banks will fail since they are the lenders for commercial real estate. Trump’s supporters from the finance sector will all be enraged.
When Americans continue to have children out of wedlock, continue to have raucous Pride parades, continue to read banned books, continue to not identify as members of organized religion, and basically thumb their noses at the self-appointed “upright” citizens and supporters of Trump, what then?
Is it possible that despite the wide gulf between these groups they, share something in common, something binding? Could poverty and shattered dreams be that glue? Could the worst thing in the nightmares of this country’s oligarchs actually happen? Could an actual CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS develop that might unite all these disparate people? Could a moment come where Americans finally see through ever present propaganda and fairy tales told to them from very young, could the fear of state violence disappear, could seeing their children and elderly parents starve, drive us, in a frenzy, to stop going to our dead-end jobs, stop playing video games, and actually embolden us as an organized and enraged mass, to do the things that always happen in a revolution?
Should this moment come, we can expect the state to issue lists, to encourage neighbor to report neighbor all for a crust of bread. We can expect spying, kidnapping, disappearances, incarceration, public beatings, and the repossession of the property of dissidents. Chile, East Germany, China, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy all come to mind as examples of this situation. Why should America be any different?
Yes, what was a modest bulwark against a fully privatized society, the Democratic Party, has failed. This election cycle saw
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien actually speak at the RNC, if this isn’t proof how useless the Democratic Party has become, I don’t know what is.
In San Francisco, “The Rose Pak Democratic Club, one of the citys most prominent progressive Asian political organizations,…announced that it has decided not to recharter with the San Francisco Democratic Party, saying the Democratic brand has become toxic to local Asian voters…Meanwhile, Donald Trump gained significant ground with the same voters by speaking to fears around public safety, economic stability, stagnant wages, and the rising cost of living issues where the Democratic Party has fallen short. Though support for Trump in San Francisco was minimal, Asian neighborhoods were some of the most supportive in the city.” ( https://missionlocal.org/2025/01/prominent-s-f-asian-democratic-club-drops-out-of-local-democratic-party/ )
What people want is bread and the land, that’s it. We don’t want to see oligarchs laughing at us as they manipulate sycophantic politicians (Rubio, Graham, AOC). In today’s world, FDR and any politician with a mildly progressive social agenda would be painted as a full blown communist.
If the wealthy readers of this gazette resent paying taxes to fund a robust social safety net to include Medicare For All, public housing, high quality public education with well paid teachers, generous maternity leave, social security, and a host of basic quality of life entitlements, the rich have a choice: stop funding a trillion dollar defense budget, pay a tax on every single stock trade/transaction, invoke inheritance taxes, get prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for insider trading, stop bailing out failed banks, and for those over a certain amount of wealth, return it to the state. It is the surplus value of labor and production. If this bothers you, leave. Get on your yacht and sail as far away from this beautiful state and country as humanly possible, because people like you aren’t welcome here. Whether you like it or not, you are your brother’s keeper and ruining the lives of Americans all so you can toss another coin on your pile of coins has run its course. Get your aged noses out of the New York Times or The Atlantic Monthly and take a quick look at independent media. You are going to see a world of rage and actual economic information that might cause you rethink what you are you are doing to a country that my late grandparents and their generation fought and died for. I don’t think they did it all so you can, in your golden years, count your “net worth,” sip wine, and drive your Tesla by homeless encampments like they didn’t even exist. Until people like you know deprivation, you will never change. We need this new Depression to happen as soon as possible. The public will organize quickly and come after concentrated wealth. This is what happens when people have nothing to lose. History is rife with examples and almost formulaic. With or without Trump, our economy was and is doomed to fail.
“II. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself.”
Excellent analysis, Allen – though I would strongly disagree that Democrats were tone-deaf to the chorus of complaints from those in the working class/renters/low- to moderate income folks. I think of Senators like Bernie Sanders, John Fetterman, or Sheldon Whitehouse who recently lost his re-election in Ohio. You cannot find elected officials like these guys ANYWHERE in the halls of Congress or the Legislature with an “R” after their names. They are almost all “D”s (or, like Bernie, and Independent). To me, Democrats are the only party that is truly listening and, more importantly, DOING SOMETHING about income inequality. You’re absolutely correct that the GOP has been feeding a pack of lies through their social media and legacy media ownership, and all too many people believe these lies. Keep writing pieces like this, Allen – New Times should hire you for the same large salary that they pay me!
Sherrod Brown was the defeated senator from Ohio, a major loss for the nation. Whitehouse is from Rhode Island and still in office. I agree that he is a fine senator who cares about the people. But John Fetterman, please. The man is a mess, does he even own a suit? He recently said that he was “rooting for President Trump.” While I appreciate the sentiment, Trump will do nothing good for our country and the Dems need to take the same stance that Republicans did when both Obama and Biden were elected, say no to everything. I mean, just read this recent interview with Fetterman. Can he actually answer a question or simply equivocate on every issue? He’s shameful.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sen-john-f…
John &: Michael:
Regardless of which party was in power during the period you both referred to, why is it Americans cant even afford to eat At McDonald’s? Why are mass layoffs happening? Why are flagship stores closing? Why is governmental hiring outpacing private sector hiring? Why is inflation rising faster than wages? Why are working class Americans unable to obtain mortgages? Why are we deindustrialized? Why does an unexpected medical emergency mean immediate bankruptcy for a lot of Americans? Why do rich people get tax breaks and the rest of us get tax increases? Why has China lifted 900 million of their people out of poverty while we send our people into poverty? Why are banks collapsing? Why are we sending pallets of cash to corrupt dictators in eastern Europe but cutting food stamps? Why has upward mobility disappeared?
Concentrated wealth needs to be taxed (hard) and redistributed downward through a strong welfare state. Period. Full stop.
The simple answer Mr. or Ms. Fly is too many corporate Democrats, products of the age of Clinton (who, I would remind you, was the first Dem to win the White House in 12 years, following the destruction wrought by Reaganomics and the feckless leadership of George H.W. Bush. That Clinton went along with NAFTA and the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act will forever be a stain on the party). The middle and working classes have not been the same since.
The only solution I see to any future equity is to immediately repeal Citizens United and get dark money out of politics so that the top tax rate can once again be placed at the levels it was when Eisenhower built the interstate highway system and the middle class advanced to its highest level. Until our elected officials can no longer be legally bribed by wealthy donors, nothing will change.
And while I don’t share your claim that our economy is in eminent collapse, it is certainly in decline and I don’t see how the policies of Mr. Trump will change that. Mr. Trump said we are now in a “Golden Age.” I would say it is more like a repeat of the “Gilded Age” that did finally collapse in 1929. Unfortunately, I don’t see any leaders such as FDR emerging in American politics who can save us. We do have some good leaders, such as Sanders and Whitehouse mentioned above, but far too few. Of course I’ve become quite pessimistic about the politics of my country lately, so maybe just write my comments off to the despair of an old man.
Smith:
You have some good points. The problem with the deindustrialization Clinton helped expedite is the loss of organized labor. Without that bloc of votes, Democrats have nothing to count on. They can’t expect to get the church vote while advocating for abortion on demand. This is why Republicans appeal to organized religion.
Yes, publicly financed elections are our only alternative. When looking at the state of politics in it’s entirety, it’s beyond depressing.
This is why our economy really needs to bottom out, hard. We need a collapsed economy to unify the public in collective misery. Right now, there are pockets of people (like you) unaffected by inflation or a loss of income or depressed wages. The phrase “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” comes to mind. Our enemy in this case is our political class, bankers, mainstream media, the Supreme Court, and private equity. Until these people are seen as mutual enemies by those whom read religious text literally and not allegorically, there won’t be much middle ground. Until we are all in the bread line, they will continue to vote fascists into power. They will have to make a choice of starving or banning same sex marriage.
I don’t understand why all that cash given to that corrupt, unelected dictator Zylensky couldn’t have been used to create the same kind of state owned industries China is using to keep millions of their people employed and to stomp all over the US. Can our geriatric political class not think outside of the box? It’s like we are living the last years of the Soviet Union except that WE are the Soviet Union.
I’ve simply accepted that we are in a Depression and bought a KitchenAid mixer and bread machine while I could and make our own food in the hovel my family and I inhabit. I can make an insane, rustic pizza for pennies. COSTCO sells a 25lb sack of bread flour for about $9.00. a pizza crust costs pennies, a can of tomatoes costs $.99 cents of which I can make a huge batch of sauce, and I simply throw whatever scraps are in my fridge on the pizza.
Everything WILL collapse. I fully expect Franks on Monterey to close any day now just as the Splash cafe did across the street. How is SLO going to function without tax receipts from business when they are all shutting down? We are in a Depression, sir. The reason houses costs so much isn’t because they are worth what they are, it’s because the dollar has collapsed. It’s a testament to the worthless nature of the dollar.
If you’ll pardon me, I’m going to crank up my Victrola and play some Woodie Guthry. I might even catch a boxcar and ride the rails.
* If any reader needs help surviving these hard times, I have two extra bread makers I’d be happy to give away. Just DM me.
“This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land was made for you and me.
As I was walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway;
I saw below me that golden valley;
This land was made for you and me.
I’ve roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding;
This land was made for you and me.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing;
This land was made for you and me
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.”
Fly_meet_ointment – correction to your statement that Zelenskyy was not elected: in 2019, Zelenskyy received 73% of the vote to his opponent’s 25% and was elected President of Ukraine. Not only was Zelenskyy elected, he won by a landslide.