Monday Reading - Democrats Finding Their Backbones

Is it possible?  Democrats actually standing up and fighting for progressive policies?

Paul Krugman takes a crack at why this might be the way of the electoral future:

Part of the answer is that Democrats, despite defeats in midterm elections, believe — rightly or wrongly — that the political wind is at their backs. Growing ethnic diversity is producing what should be a more favorable electorate; growing tolerance is turning social issues, once a source of Republican strength, into a Democratic advantage instead. Reagan was elected by a nation in which half the public still disapproved of interracial marriage; Mrs. Clinton is running to lead a nation in which 60 percent support same-sex marriage.

At the same time, Democrats seem finally to have taken on board something political scientists have been telling us for years: adopting “centrist” positions in an attempt to attract swing voters is a mug’s game, because such voters don’t exist. Most supposed independents are in fact strongly aligned with one party or the other, and the handful who aren’t are mainly just confused. So you might as well take a stand for what you believe in.

E.J. Dionne, Jr., focuses on Hillary Clinton's role in this new, muscular, progressive offensive:

... Clinton is trying to forge a new consensus and is unashamed to pile up policy proposals: on family leave, child care, college affordability, incentives to employers for higher wages, immigration reform, clean energy and limits on the power of wealthy campaign donors.

Her platform is more progressive because the political center is in a different place in 2015 than it was in 1991 when Bill Clinton touted his “New Covenant.” Americans are more socially liberal now. The financial implosion of 2008 fostered a deep skepticism about Wall Street. Growing resentment of inequality, stagnating wages and blocked social mobility is justified not by ideology but by the often-bitter facts about contemporary capitalism.

Hillary Clinton’s kickoff here on Saturday sent all these messages. The venue itself, Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, oddly captured the vast diversity and glorious contradictions of the country she hopes to lead.

Doubtless, we owe a lot to principled progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders for being the conscience of the party (i.e., "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party").  That their fight for progressive values has led the way for others to follow should not be lost in the discussion.

"America's Basic Bargain"

Dem presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivered her much anticipated first major speech of her 2016 campaign today in New York City, and struck the theme of bringing shared prosperity to America's middle class:  

"It's America's basic bargain.  If you do your part, you ought to be able to get ahead, and when everybody does their part, America gets ahead too. That bargain inspired generations of American families, including my own."

In an era of widening gaps in income, Clinton said that prosperity must be "built by all and shared by all," a theme in stark contrast to Republican right-wing economics which places tax, regulatory and subsidy resources in the hands of the wealthiest, trusting them to make decisions to benefit the economy.

Clinton delivered her campaign's inaugural address to thousands on Roosevelt Island, a symbolic nod to the 20th century's greatest President, Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, whose New Deal pulled the country out of the Great Depression and who led the U.S. to victory in World War II.

(photo:  Reuters, Brendan McDermid)