The Social Democrat finds it fascinating to watch politics in a nation where social democracy is an established, ongoing experiment. No issue has been more prominent in French politics of late than France’s extensive employement code. Critics, like France’s new president, claim that its protections for workers go too far, hindering job creation. For the old-guard socialist left, the employment code is sacred turf, its critics traitors to the leftist project. Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell offers a neat summary of the issue. (June, 2017)

Yes, you read that right. Jackson Mississippi’s new mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, will bring a social democracy perspective to leading the major city of this deeply red state.

This Washington Post analysis makes it plain: the much-repeated observation that the “working class” elected Trump is a fabrication. Two-thirds of Trump voters make more than the median income. Beware of media memes!

A growing group of activists are advocating the creation of public-owned banks in order to save municipalities money, to give them more options, and to allow decisions about lending to be based on community need rather than the profit motive. This Nation article examines the trend.

Katherine vanden Huevel, editor of The Nation, describes the budget proposal of the Congressional Progessive Caucus, a blueprint for social democratic progress.

Speaking last year about the acrimonious topic of immigration, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germans would discuss the matter calmly, “because we are Democrats.” For many Americans, identifying the appropriate people to hate is the end of political consciousness. As the national discussion seems to become ever coarser, the L.A. Times Editorial Board calls for more listening and more dialogue.

NYT  columnist Thomas Edsall looks at a problem facing Democratis leaders looking to consolidate their base: Urban democratic voters have prospered from globalization, not so factory workers in the hinterland.

Kevin Baker, writing in the New Republic, fantasizes about life without the Red states.

New York Times columnist Ed Edsal weighs in on the current struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party. Will it identify chiefly as the bearer of cutting edge cultural norms and racial and gender grievance, or will it emphasize its roots in bread and butter issues for the working class? The Social Democrat would suggest that the answer is not "either-or," but "both-and."

The director of the Campaign for the Welfare State (Norway) discusses problems facing social democracy in the current climate on the Social Europe site.

The Trump budget’s full-out assault on social democracy may galvanize the left, writes Paul Waldman in The Washington Post.

Despite Trump’s populist appeals, the author of this Washington Post column places the president squarely in the neo-liberal tradition of laissez-faire capitalism.

Writing in the New York Times, columnist Thomas B. Edsall discusses recent research on the effects of family structure, income levels and other factors on a child’s successful development.

Current research indicates a “sea of despair” among Americans with less than college degrees.

Washington Post columnist Paul Waldman finds a ready model for Trump’s political vision: the American South, where unions are despised, the Bible taught in schools, the natural environment ravaged and statues of Confederate generals grace town squares.