OK, On a bit of a roll here. More on where we have strength and low hanging fruit in the battle for hearts and minds:
My sense is that we liberal -- even leftist -- elites have seriously fallen short on ascending the slopes of democratic values and achievement, not simply because other, more clever or powerful elites suppressed us, but because we simply and seriously were co-opted and lost our way.
Perhaps neither Marx nor Engels, nor others of their ilk, could have anticipated how powerful is the appeal of late-stage capitalist wealth and how thoroughly seductive it is to find oneself and one’s family on the gravy train of late-stage/finance capital privilege. There is such an abundance of wealth and privilege accessible to an elite, intellectual class, that one is effectively corrupted and “bought-off” before one can say “Oh, right, and about the working class and the masses of people people left behind . . .”
I have the sense that capitalist “democracy” in American is going to get its ass kicked over the next few election cycles, and I’m not confident that there’s much we can do about that. The issue is how to create a path forward for “the people” that is not simply about trying to revitalize neoliberal globalization, but about “centering” the working class in a way that builds back an appreciation for what liberal democracy can do for us. This includes teaching us about the potential of an even more substantive form of democracy that doesn’t simply “share the wealth,” but embraces the remarkable capacity and model we have created here in the US of A of how a world of differences and heritages, etc., can be not just accommodated, but can and will catalyze more for the benefit of humankind under the banner of “e pluribus unum” than has been/is possible under any other governing or civic system.
It seems to me that Biden and his team should have figured out by now that he should be loudly and incessantly championing the working class, but in a way that communicates that the working class, like the rest of America is composed of people from all over the world and has achieved greater things because we are a country that knows how to assimilate and accommodate all sorts of ideas and passions that lead to great achievements benefitting all of us. There could be a litany of examples, from great sports figures, to working class heroes, to major industry figures (like, e.g., Steve Jobs who was of Syrian descent). These would illustrate the core truth that our true exceptionalism as a nation is our diversity and our dedication to a model of human fellowship and progress that embraces and gives opportunity to people based on their initiative and humane attributes.
“Out of Many, One.”