It’s time for Dems to commit to getting big money out of American politics

In the wake of Kamala Harris’s loss to Trump, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he isn’t going to criticize Trump’s nominees “because that’s all a distraction.”

A distraction from what? Governing?

Had 35-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez succeeded in her recent bid to become the lead Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, she would have represented a generational shift for the party and given it an energetic communicator with anti-establishment views.

But the party wouldn’t have it. The position went instead to 74-year-old Gerry Connolly, a longtime representative from Virginia who was next in line.

Some Democrats are now even calling for Biden to pardon Trump.

South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn says a pardon for Trump would be a way of “cleaning the slate” for the country. Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman posted (on Trump’s Truth Social, no less) that the “Trump hush money and Hunter Biden cases were both bullshit, and pardons are appropriate.”

Now, that’s bulls---.

I’ve been around long enough to remember how Democrats reacted to Adlai Stevenson’s two defeats to Republican Dwight Eisenhower: They said it was time for Democrats to move to the center.

When Humbert Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon, Democrats said it was time for Democrats to move to the center. When Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan? Move to the center! When Walter Mondale lost to Reagan? The center! When Mike Dukakis lost to George H. W. Bush? When Al Gore … When John Kerry … When Hillary Clinton … And on it goes: center, center, center.

What has this refrain bought Democrats apart from campaign contributions from big corporations and the wealthy? A loss of purpose.

Some Democrats warned along the way that a move to the so-called “center” would erode the party’s noblest goals. Ted Kennedy admonished Democrats at the 1980 national convention not to forget the fight for “the cause of the common man and the common woman.”

Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote in TheNew York Times that “me-too Reaganism” would be disastrous for Democrats because “if American voters are in a conservative mood, they will surely choose the real thing and not a Democratic imitation.”

But Democrats didn’t listen. In the late 1980s they became “New Democrats,” almost indistinguishable from “Reagan Democrats.” In 1996, Bill Clinton said “the era of big government is over” — ending welfare, enacting a vicious crime bill, and deregulating Wall Street.

Twenty years later, when Bernie Sanders tried to return the Democratic Party to giving voice to working people being shafted by CEOs and Wall Street, he was knee-capped by the Democratic National Committee to make way for Hillary Clinton — who lost to Trump.

Democrats have been moving to the so-called “center” so long they’ve pushed the “center” toward authoritarianism.

It’s more important than ever for Democrats to hold Trump accountable, even if doing so takes years. Democrats must also oppose any Trump move to prosecute those who have tried to hold him accountable.

Democrats must commit to opposing Trump’s agenda of deporting millions of people who, although undocumented, have been longstanding members of their communities; substituting Trump loyalists for dedicated civil servants; and appointing dangerous wackos like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, and Peter Hegseth, who shouldn’t be allowed to get anywhere near our government.

Now more than ever, Democrats should call out the multimillionaires and multibillionaires who are taking over our system by making gigantic campaign contributions and then seeking tax cuts, regulatory rollbacks, and exemptions to tariffs for their own businesses. Yes, I’m talking about you, Elon Musk.

It’s time for Democrats to commit to getting big money out of American politics.

Now is the time for Democrats to do what they used to do before the Democratic Party tried to move to the so-called “center.” Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Strengthen safety nets. Increase public investments. Pay for all this by raising taxes on the super-wealthy.

This is no time for retreat. No time for compromise.

There can be no center between decency and indecency, no center between democracy and authoritarianism, no center between a government of billionaires and a government of the people.

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/