Social Democracy Outlook:
October 01, 2023
This autumn finds social democracy alive and kicking in the United States, though struggling as always against major headwinds. Major strike actions from auto workers and Kaiser Permanente healthcare staff evidence a healthy assertion of worker participation in decisions that vitally affect their lives, while California legislation raising the state minimum wage for restaurant workers to $20 an hour is a major gain for social democratic values. In national politics, a cabal of Congress's most extreme right-wing radicals has ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (himself an enemy of social democracy), with two ardent Trumpites, Jim Jordan and Steve Scaliese, vying to replace him. Where this will all lead is anybody's guess, but continued stalemate in Washington between the Senate's razor-thin Democrat majority and what looks to be a House even more inimical to social democracy than the current one seems a certainty. In an ominous sign for the future, a recent ABC/Washington Post poll finds Trump beating Biden in a one-on-one match-up in 2024 by a margin of 51 to 42 percent. It's early days, but the closeness of the contest should be a major wake-up call for Democrats that what they've been doing isn't working; a rebranding of the Party is seriously needed if it is going to capture a portion of the electorate capable of delivering governing majorities.
