New Yorkers are astonishingly quick to complain. People moan all the time, and are very quick to turn against someone or something. It takes guts to perform on a New York stage or a New York sports field, because boos will start raining down pretty quickly. Philadelphia has the same issue. It can be fun but it is also cruel, and often counter-productive, as sports stars can lose confidence or decide to play in a friendlier town.
So I suppose I should not have been surprised a couple of weeks ago by the aftermath of the announcement that Amazon had chosen Queens for part of its new headquarters, thereby creating tens of thousands of well paid jobs. I for one was delighted by the news – the career prospects of our college sophomore had just improved significantly.
But locals, including many Democrat politicians, rushed in to complain. Locals all thought the rents would go up and the subways would become more crowded. People in public housing nearby thought prices would go up and that they would be squeezed out. Everyone seemed to think that the mayor and governor had negotiated poorly with Amazon and given too many incentives. And Democrats riled against a system that seems to place giant corporations ahead of ordinary citizens.
Get a life, guys! Would you rather have lots of jobs or no prospects? Sure, the rents will go up but more people will have income to pay for them. Sure, the subways will become more crowded, but de Blasio has already shown initiative at infrastructure improvements and Amazon will support it too, maybe with a new LIRR stop in LIC. If you are in public housing, surely jobs on your doorstep is just what you want, so shape up and earn one. Who knows whether the negotiation was over-generous, all we know is that they won. And it is quite true that the system values corporations over citizens, and established successful areas over struggling ones, so how about coming up with some policies to fix that?
Sometimes you wonder what sort of world some Democrats would rather live in. Maybe they would like one where all jobs are equally paid and part of the public sector? Oh wait, the Russians tried that one and it didn’t seem to work too well. Steven Pinker reminded me earlier this year that market capitalism, for all its faults, has been the driver of tremendous human progress around the world. The smart move is not to rail against it but to use smart policy to moderate its detrimental side effects.
This matters politically. Virtually the only refrain that the Republicans have that has any resonance beyond single issues like abortion is jobs. As a refrain it is almost meaningless unless the Democrats give it meaning. Jobs are a flimsy defence behind deregulation that puts citizens at risk and places ever more power with capital. But it becomes meaningful if the other side appears to be somehow against jobs. And the reaction to the Amazon announcement seems to prove that some of them actually are.
This is one example of Democrats being dumb. While the congressional leadership has actually been pretty smart lately, thanks to Pelosi and others, there are other examples as well. It is a hard position to finesse, but sometimes Democrats can appear as though they care about groups on the fringe at the expense of more everyday concerns.
It is hard to finesse because right is usually on their side. Trans people shouldn’t face discrimination. LGBT, female and racial minority rights are a multi-generational struggle that must be continually fought, so that progress can be sustained in the face of bigotry disguised as evangelicalism. But while true, it can’t dominate the platform or the daily rhetoric, because for most folk outside big cities the concerns are rather marginal. Letting these issues dominate the discussion fuels the belief in the heartland that elite city-types really don’t care about people struggling to stay afloat in hollowed out towns.
The other own goal is immigration. All we here from Democrats is horror at the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers by the Trump administration. Again, that is justified and fair, but it simply feeds into the fears stoked by Trump and his cohorts. It was telling that immigration, via the caravan, was the dominant tactic used by Republicans leading up to the midterm elections. This has been shown to work around the world, and it worked here too.
But the Democrats have created many of their own problems. They simply have to come out against illegal immigration. Actually, the Obama administration did more to curb illegal immigration than predecessors. It is striking how many of the reports about deportations concern people who came in illegally and then committed further offences. Well, it may seem harsh, and we certainly should not be hunting these people down too hard, but in the end this is just following the law, and Democrats should say so. Then they can articulate a balanced policy, and the issue would be neutralised to a degree.
The Democrats are not short of issues where they can create a platform that will resonate with enough voters that they will need in 2020 to unseat Trump and flip the senate. Pelosi spotted healthcare as fertile territory, and that will not change. Another is the broad topic of sleaze and corruption, where the opposition commit daily own goals which will only become even easier to expose once the new House can exercise due oversight. This work should remain measured but persistent and the fruits will be abundant. Gerrymandering and voter suppression can be lumped into this topic. Let it crescendo into 2020 and reap the benefits then, rather than looking for impeachment beforehand.
I suspect a third issue will emerge over the coming year; the economy. Trump has played his cards too early on this one. Within a year it will become obvious that the injection of steroids represented by the tax bill and budget expansions will not have made ordinary people any better off, while stock market will have retreated and it will be clear that bullying GM is no substitute for an industrial policy. Even if a trade deal with China is announced with great fanfare, the tariffs will have hurt people too.
Healthcare, the economy and corruption will be plenty to fight and win with in 2020, represented by a young (not too minority) candidate of hope and optimism. People overrate Trump’s strategic skills – in practice he will dig his own electoral grave with hubris, and, by then, frustration and weariness. By all means emphasise other things too in the cities and on the coast. There are a million other worthy issues, from climate to civil rights, criminal justice, dreamers, education, and many more, wow, how many more. But focus the noise on those that will win the states that flipped in 2016.
And please, please, don’t be the party against jobs.
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