ICYMI: Murphy Op-Ed in the Atlantic: Democrats Must Reject Neoliberal Consensus, Prioritize American Workers and Families to Save Our Democracy
Press (Murphy)
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES
October 25, 2022
CONTACT
Rebecca Drago
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
MURPHY OP-ED IN THE ATLANTIC: DEMOCRATS MUST REJECT NEOLIBERAL CONSENSUS, PRIORITIZE AMERICAN WORKERS AND FAMILIES TO SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) authored an op-ed in the Atlantic arguing that the fate of American democracy is under threat and its best hope for survival is for Democrats to put forward a robust alternative to neoliberalism.
Murphy outlined the failures of neoliberalism to live up to its promises: “The newly global economy moved America’s well-paying jobs—the ones that had created the U.S.’s early- and mid-20th-century blue-collar aristocracy—overseas, but the jobs that replaced them offered lower pay, fewer benefits, and less opportunity for advancement. Technology, which had promised to make our lives easier and more connected, started to get so complicated, and advance at a pace so dizzying, that it no longer felt within our control. Social media joined us, but also bred resentment and societal fragmentation … The result, today, is a very real epidemic of American unhappiness. Surveys taken during the past decade suggest that Americans have never been so pessimistic.”
Murphy highlighted the hypocrisy of Republicans’ attacks on neoliberalism: “Although Trump’s anti-neoliberal messaging has been successful, his policies have never matched his rhetoric. By the time he left office, there were fewer, not more, well-paying manufacturing jobs in America. Trump did nothing to curb corporate excess or restore power to families and workers—his primary domestic legislative accomplishment was a tax cut in which 83 percent of the benefits would go to the same 1 percent of the population he attacked in his speeches.”
Murphy argued that an agenda centered on economic nationalism and a cohesive American industrial policy – building on three major legislative accomplishments of the Biden Administration in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act – provides a roadmap for success: “This isn’t talk; it’s action. It’s a real agenda of economic nationalism. And Democrats need to capitalize on this string of legislative successes to outflank the fake, anti-neoliberal populism of the right. This requires Democrats to juxtapose Republican support for elites (tax cuts for the rich, Social Security privatization) against Democrats’ commitment to a rebirth of American industry and well-paying jobs. Democrats can win the fight over industrial policy, but only if we commit to making the argument.”
Murphy also encouraged Democrats to take on Big Tech and make it clear they are the real pro-family party: “For instance, Democrats, not Republicans, are the natural party to make sure that technology works for people, instead of people working for technology. Republicans’ hostility toward regulation will make them allergic to setting new rules for social media. But the fact is that no technology company should be so big that a single CEO’s decision about an algorithm moves markets or redefines political conversation.”
He continued: “As with the question of economic globalization, Republicans are all talk and no action when it comes to families. Democrats, the party of the child tax credit, public education, and affordable college, are the true pro-family party. We have the better policies to return power and agency to families; framing these policies as an antidote to the excesses of the consumer economy helps put our party on the right side of the growing frustration with the outsourcing of morality to the market.”
Murphy concluded: “It is possible to reverse the damaging impacts of the neoliberal world order while saving democracy. Today, Democrats are noncompetitive in half of American states. In largely rural parts of the country, Americans who feel left behind by neoliberal economics want to regain control over their economic destiny… But it isn’t too late. Democrats can build a new, lasting political coalition if we become the party that best understands and addresses this angst. This task is as achievable as it is vital.”
You can read the full op-ed here.
###