By Joseph M. Schwartz
The Dialectics between Social Movements and Electoral Politics
The Fight for the Senate: What’s at Stake for Progressive Social Movements
In part due to a massive corporate political offensive, the center of socio-economic policy discourse has shifted to the right over the past 40 years. However, the national Democratic Party leadership’s move to the pro-corporate center masks the underlying reality that the ideological differences between the two parties are the greatest since the civil war. The extinction of pro-labor “liberal” Northeast Republicans and white “blue dog” Southern Democrats means the respective party congressional caucuses vote in a more uniform manner than in the past. Given that 92% of Republican votes come from whites, and 42% of Democratic votes come from people of color (and that Democrats outside of right-to-work states are heavily dependent upon labor movement ground troops) it is no accident that 100 percent of Democrats in the House and Senate support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 while only 2 percent (!) of Republicans do. The Democratic Senate caucus backed the Employee Free Choice Act 51-4, while not one of 45 Republican senators supported the bill.
How much can change politically if the Republicans take the Senate in November, given their impregnable House majority and a consensus-oriented President who did not move against Wall Street even during the two years when he had a Democratic Congressional majority? The answer is that on the environment, judicial appointments and immigration reform, the loss of the Senate would have immediate negative results. The Obama administration used its executive power to enact significant environmental reforms, doubling the required fuel efficiency standards by 2020 and requiring radical improvements in coal-fired energy plant emissions. The Republicans promise that if they gain the majority in both chambers they will attach riders in budget bills to overturn these regulations. Would Obama veto the budget to save these reforms if he were to bear the blame for the resulting government shut-down?
Source: Socialists, the 2014 Elections and Beyond- Part 2
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