Old Left, New Left, and Left Behind – Robert Reich/LAP
“By the 1990s, America no longer had a mass movement centered on lifting most Americans’ living standards. It had what remained of the Civil Rights Movement, the women’s rights movement, the consumer movement, and the environmental movement, but no working-class movement.
“Democratic presidents took organized labor for granted, if they thought about unions at all. When Jimmy Carter had to choose between a bill to strengthen labor unions or a treaty to hand over control of the Panama Canal to Panama, he chose the treaty, and the labor bill died. Bill Clinton didn’t push for labor law reform in his first two years of office, when Democrats held a majority in both houses of Congress. Nor did Barack Obama, under similar circumstances.
“The consequence of all this was that by 2016, millions of American workers — the vast majority of them with no college education and no union to support them—had been left behind. Their wages were stagnant. They could be fired at will. Their lifespans were shrinking. The economy no longer offered them the means of doing better. Politics no longer offered them a voice…”
Poor voters and voters of color may be key on Super Tuesday. Will ‘enthusiasm gap’ hurt? – USA Today
Trump leads Biden among Hispanics, registered voters overall: poll – Fox