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Summary
Democrats must reclaim their identity as the party of the working class to regain electoral strength.
Despite pro-labor policies under Biden, working-class voters feel disconnected, seeing Democrats as defenders of a failing system.
The party’s decline traces back to NAFTA and neoliberal economic policies that favored corporations over workers.
A generational effort to prioritize labor rights, fair wages, and economic security while addressing working-class frustrations are needed.
Without serious reform, Democrats will continue losing ground to populist alternatives.
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biden was the most pro labor president in my lifetime.
Ain’t saying much.
And even he fucked over railroad workers when they striked.
No he didn’t.
You’re leaving out half of the story.
He ended the railroad strike, but worked and got all their demands met. He was very effective handling that.
ive apparently blocked whoever youre replying to so they’re probably arguing in bad faith.
Nope, they didn’t get sick leave: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-block-us-railroad-strike-2022-12-02/
And the gains they did receive they credited to
Drumroll
Bernie “Not A Democrat and Not A Liberal Because He’s Literally A Socialist” Sanders.
Hey look at this other article from the same source a few months later: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/most-unionized-us-rail-workers-now-have-new-sick-leave-2023-06-05/
And also this one from the guv’ment: https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/biden-harris-administration-calls-class-i-freight-railroads-guarantee-paid-sick-leave
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Is Wikipedia lying too?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_railroad_labor_dispute
In September 2022, U.S. Senators Richard Burr and Roger Wicker introduced a bill that would have required labor unions to agree to the terms proposed by the Presidential Emergency Board, to prevent a strike.[18] It was blocked by Senator Bernie Sanders, who noted that freight rail workers receive a “grand total of zero sick days” while railroad companies made significant profits.[19] In the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “We’d rather see negotiations prevail so there’s no need for any actions from Congress.”[16]
In late November, after some unions had rejected the agreement, Biden asked Congress to pass the agreement into law. On November 30, the House of Representatives passed the existing tentative agreement along with an amended version that would require railroad employers to ensure 7 days paid sick leave.[20] On December 1, the Senate passed the tentative agreement with only 1 day of sick leave.[21] President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law on December 2.[4] Writing for Jacobin, Barry Eidlin, associate professor of sociology at McGill University, said the message sent to the rail workers by the president and Congress was “shut up and get back to work.”[22] The Biden administration’s intervention in the dispute was condemned by over 500 labor historians in an open letter to Joe Biden and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh.[23]
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Claiming to be pro labor starts at livable wages.
There needs to be a worker’s party. It doesn’t have to be the Democrats.
That there are only going to be two viable parties in this country is a mathematical inevitability of how our voting system works, but there’s no reason why the Democrats have to remain one of those parties. If what they’re doing right now is the best they’ve got then they shouldn’t be difficult to replace. A damp sandwich could do a better job.
Its a first past the post 2 party system. It’s gonna have to be the Democrats.
Democrats have no intention of being pro-labor. They need to go away and be replaced by a better party.
Check out the Working Families Party. It’s not in every state, but they aren’t delusional about running their own candidates as third parties. The strategy is generally to find candidates that align to their values and get them into Democratic primaries.
Now, at the end of the day, I don’t think any political party can save us. The best case scenario is to make sure the state isn’t too repressive, but that’s useful in itself.
DAMP SANDWICH 2028
They can’t. Middle class oil workers, workers in the gasoline auto-sector will not vote for Democrats. The same goes for many who are contractors; plumbers, electricians, HVAC.
Those working for Amazon might be able to unionize, same with Walmart. Hopefully they can get better pay, and hours. But they are not fighting the same fight as climate activists.
Trump might break teacher unions soon with school vouchers.
Democrats need to start with hyper-local issues, and organize around those.
Why do people act like the only real workers are oil workers, coal miners, and building contractors? This is a tiny sliver of the workforce.
Because it simultaneously gives them an excuse to do noting for both unions and the environment.
Can’t be the party of wall st and the party of workers, at best you can pay lip service to one or the other, its no wonder which they would choose
Just hopping back on lemmy to see if we’re still doing the “blame Democrats for literally everything” thing.
Yeah?
Cool.
Ok bye, dumbasses
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They won’t leave, this is like their 4th time saying “I’m done with lemmy”.
Worth checking every now and then. The technology has so much promise, if only there weren’t so many morons using it.
If they occupy the only space to fight Republicans, and they are doing a bad job at fighting Republicans, they should receive criticism.
Can we stop this working class bullshit? You people are so damn disingenuous with this. Just say what it is. Culture War Bullshit!
Organizing along class lines is literally the farthest thing from “culture war bullshit” there is.
Go organize with the right wingers then, and see how far you get.
Democrats are already the workers party, but the “real” workers party voters refuse to vote for Democrats.
Lol, no they’re fucking not, why are you all over this thread trying so hard to pretend that reality is different than it is?
You really like to defend blatantly bad groups, it’s weird
Gross smells like fucking Trump supporter in here
Says the guy who defended Nazis
Weak attempt at an insult, go back to huffing Dem farts and trying to lose future elections
Why do you defend nazis?
Biden’s pro-union moves are historic, but voters need more than symbolism. Effectively outlines the problem and proposes actionable solutions.
🐱🐱🐱🐱
I keep hearing this, but Biden shut down the rail workers strike and then slowly got them a small portion of that they were striking for. They would have gotten a better deal if Biden had just stayed out of it.
Teamsters wouldnt endorse him in 2024. Whens the last time you saw unions not line up behind a Dem?
When I look up what else he did, people like to say he appointed some people to some positions, and upped funding for NRLB. NLRB arbitrates labor disputes, but doesnt advocate for unions specifically. And Biden walked 1 picket line, while ignoring some others, like during the amazon strike. He did nothing in many cases where the cops were called in to brutalize picketers and demonstrators in both the amazon teamsters strike and the rail union workers strike.
So all this adoration for him showing up for one picket line for a few minutes, and one needless derailing of a rail strike. And no blame for his ignoring some other labor stuff he could have helped with if he actually cared about labor even just a little bit. Seems like a C- grade to me.
Following the new DNC flowchart: Is that better than an trump? OK, sure. If thats our only yardstick for everything.
Following the DNC critics: is that enough to get elected? Eff No. Biden and Harris both hemorhaged votes amongst union members too, along with every other working demographic. Working people do not see pro business centrists as serious partners. Dress Biden up in the clothes of being pro union all you like, I think everyone see thats thats just performative BS for the chumps. Just like his phony ‘red lines’ in pretending to push against war crimes while enabling them in both constant weapons shipments on the US taxpayer dime, and running interference for Israel in the UN. Should we give Mr best labor president ever a nobel peace prize for his strong stances against war crimes? Or can we stop this charade of his being the best president ever in every possible category?
Those rail workers were trying to tank the economy. Fuck them. And fuck these unions too. We don’t need unions, we need regulations directly.
the rail companies were trying to tank the economy by not giving them the bare minimum of benefits any reasonable employer should give. They easily could have afforded some tiny amount of benefits, they just didnt feel like it.
Biden’s rail decision wasn’t perfect, but it prevented economic collapse while securing paid sick leave—a historic first. Teamsters’ hesitation reflects union independence, not failure. NLRB funding and pro-union appointments are structural wins ignored here.
Biden’s labor record isn’t flawless, but it’s leagues ahead of anti-union predecessors. Your ‘C-’ grade ignores these achievements and oversimplifies complex realities. Pragmatism beats ideological purity in advancing labor rights.
😺😺
Other countries manage to allow for rail workers to strike though. Why should the US government and not a court of law be able to evaluate whether limiting strikes is an appropriate measure for protecting the economy?
Take German as example. There’s this union:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gewerkschaft_Deutscher_Lokomotivführer
They are one of the only unions that is willing to actually fight in Germany and have achieved results exceeding those of significantly larger unions. Why shouldn’t they be permitted to strike? Strikes in Germany can be blocked by labor courts if they cause too much economic damage by the way.
Also, as a sidenote:
Aren’t you doing something right when you get an actually decent song praising you shown on - and created by - a publicly founded TV channel?
The song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2fVMSKfI7E English translation by me: https://pastebin.com/c3YXtpGN
Further context: The song was uploaded shortly before the 2023/2024 strikes were announced by the union. Claus Weselsky, the union leader since 2008, retired after the union got its demands fulfilled.
Other countries’ systems aren’t directly comparable to the U.S., where federalism complicates labor law uniformity. Germany’s co-determination model works within its unique legal and economic framework, but applying it to the U.S. ignores vast structural differences. Rail strikes in the U.S. directly impact interstate commerce, which federal law prioritizes above all else.
GDL’s success stems from Germany’s specific labor environment, where unions negotiate under different constraints. In the U.S., rail unions face systemic hurdles like the Railway Labor Act, designed to limit disruptions. Comparing outcomes without acknowledging these disparities oversimplifies the issue.
Finally, your sidetrack about a song and TV production is irrelevant to the discussion of labor rights. Focus on substance instead of tangential anecdotes.
A mix of effort and relevance but flawed arguments and diversions.
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Other countries’ systems aren’t directly comparable to the U.S., where federalism complicates labor law uniformity
Federalism is enshrined in the German constitution and does complicate a shitton of things too though. Labor and contract rights just happen to be there too but isn’t the latter in the US constitution as well?
Rail strikes in the U.S. directly impact interstate commerce, which federal law prioritizes above all else.
But so would truck driver union strikes or port worker strikes. As far as my limited knowledge and quick research goes, the latter does strike somewhat frequently and the former doesn’t exist as each company has their own small union, if any.
Federal law also prioritizes the economy in Germany. It’s just that courts must rule whether the violation of labor rights can be justified with this argument - the government cannot unilaterally disband a strike. That’s the point of separation of powers.
In the U.S., rail unions face systemic hurdles like the Railway Labor Act, designed to limit disruptions. Comparing outcomes without acknowledging these disparities oversimplifies the issue.
To some extent, yes. Biden and congress however were not forced by this act to act the way they did if I can read this law correctly. They could’ve easily permitted warning strikes or put significant pressure on the involved companies.
Even then, indefinite strikes rarely happen in Germany either. There are always several warning strikes beforehand which cause limited damage.
Finally, your sidetrack about a song and TV production is irrelevant to the discussion of labor rights.
I thought it was fun to bring up in this topic. The song is quite apt w.r.t. the impact and perception of rail strikes. The GDL is despised by rail companies, politicians, tabloids et al and usually portrayed as unreasonable monsters targeting poor commuters.
But that’s the entire point of strikes. They must hurt, otherwise they are meaningless. Don’t you think that had Biden not intervened, the workers would’ve gotten all their demands fulfilled - including paid sick leave (mandatory in countries with labor rights btw)?
The only thing I’m certain about is that if the German government had the same capability to end strikes willy-nilly, rail unions would be neutered until they exist on paper alone. Like they seem to in the US.
Federalism may complicate matters in Germany, but comparing it to the U.S. misses the point. American federalism prioritizes commerce over labor rights, creating systemic barriers unique to its legal framework. Tossing in contract rights feels like a red herring—stick to the rails, friend.
Your take on German courts balancing labor rights better is valid but irrelevant here. The U.S. government’s intervention wasn’t about legal obligation; it was political calculus. That nuance undermines your argument while proving mine.
As for strikes “needing to hurt,” congratulations on stating the obvious. The real issue is how systemic suppression in the U.S. neuters unions, leaving workers with little leverage. Your tangents about songs and tabloids? Entertaining but hollow.
Focus your argument, or you’ll derail yourself again.
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contract rights
Isn’t that why unions are allowed to exist? Freedom of association and negotiation is the necessary foundation which I believe is inclided somewhere in the US constitution. And strikes - at least from what I’ve read - are part of what’s granted through this freedom. After all, labor disputes are between two private parties (company + union) and limiting one of the parties violates their freedom of forming contracts. I might be wrong though, its been some time since I researched the legal foundations of strikes, at least in Germany.
t’was political calculus
Was it though? I don’t see who benefitted but the rail companies. The workers only got some of what they would’ve striked for but not everything. Any political benefit usually vanishes a month after the headlines have moved on, so I don’t think breaking up the strike has helped them win any “moderates” who would’ve voted Republican. And it might have alienated some workers from the Democrats, seeing them side with the companies instead of them.
systemic suppression
That’s what this is about though. Biden is part of the system and has used it to systemically suppress unions by literally preventing one from striking. Why should he be praised for limiting his suppression slightly when he could have just… not suppressed unions? He certainly had the required votes in Congress to block any legislation preventing the railway strike.
Also, is your comment written with the help of AI? I can’t quite put my finger on it but some your writing sounds like it could come straight from an LLM. You also used this symbol: — earlier which isn’t on any standard keyboard layout I know - unless you have some autocorrect feature replacing short dashes with long one’s.
Biden actually kept working to get the union their demands after the fact, when he clearly had the power to ignore them if he wanted to.
EDIT: GOVERNMENT WEBSITE LINK HERE "On Biden-Harris Administration’s watch, the percentage of rail workers who are guaranteed paid sick leave has gone from 5% to 90% "
The problem is that the voters do need symbolism. Voters are too stupid and propagandized to know what actions a party actually takes. Symbolism is all that matters. You can even just straight up lie and these dumbasses will believe it.
Observe the contempt for workers.
No shit. Now convince the democratic party leadership that winning elections is more important that kissing donor ass.
Don’t convince national Democratic leadership of anything. They’re too disconnected and don’t care about any state they don’t live in. Run for, and take control of state Democratic parties. Start telling national leadership your terms for your state supporting or working with them.
If enough people do that. They will change or become irrelevant.
What state do you live in?
Missouri. Not sure why you’re being downvoted for asking that. We generally even in larger metropolitan areas have a ton of offices that no one other than Republicans run for. Which is part of why this is a red state. National Democrats don’t even try to field candidates for anything but the biggest offices. Which often backfires denying them even those.
All states need to take back their leadership and a lot of the funding from the national party. The National Party should be nothing more than a body that coordinates the state parties. Not the actual leadership itself. That’s part of the reason they seem so disconnected. Because they are
People downvote you for anything other than agreeing with their echo chamber message. Not that I even disagree with what this thread is saying. That’s just how it is
most of them dont want to ruffle the feathers of the same donors that gets the GOP elected, theres one too many DINOS in the dnc, just need to rout out those first, which is a first step
Where can I sign up? Fuck it. I’ll run for something.
What state are you in? I will absolutely find you the info.
AZ
The state party has some resources here on volunteering and when the state committee meets for elections and whatnot.
You can go here and look at your county party website as well, they’ll have more info on how to get involved/run there. I looked at a few, most of them had a way of singing up to be a committee person.
Best of luck!
Should spread the word. I’ll help. We should have been doing this 20 years ago.
The only ones that get any level of power or influence within the party are ones that will defend the status quo. A system that’s operating as designed cannot be reformed from within.
It’s actually a pretty low bar to clear. You can even claim a decent annual wage off campaign donations if its your only income source, so a literal unemployed homeless person could run if he got the party endorsement.
The only concern is if the state has active politicians on the ticket that you would be competing against, such as career politicians, long time staffers, and volunteers who would be seen as more preferable. You could still fill one of those staffer, intern, and/or volunteer positions to make your voice heard as well.
Their goal is never to win elections. Their only goal is to prevent leftist movements and organization from gaining positions of power. To defend these status quo.
Yes they will gladly surrender to fascists to prevent socialists from getting a voice. This is the core issue
Why are you using the future tense?
Wouldn’t be surprised if you are in a situation where it needs to get worse before it can get better. Vote 3rd party so heavily that it kills one of the major parties. All the people that didn’t turn up vote for someone else?
Losing is more expensive
Convince the voters to stop falling for culture war bullshit then
The best way is to bring single payer health care.
Every other G7 nation has it
They tried to do that the moment they had senate supermajority with caucusing ind over a decade ago, but caucusing ind Joe Lieberman voted against it and the GOP filibustered it in 2010.
They haven’t even had more than 50 since like 2013, they only had bare minimum to select majority leader in 2021 because of caucusing independents and VP tiebreaker.
If you want single payer then the only way to get that is not to change the DNC, it’s to convince millions more people to vote for them or to remove Republicans.
ACA was never going to be single payer. Lieberman played the bad guy to kill the public option, but it was pretty obvious it was only there to be bargained out in the first place.
Single payer, on the other hand, was never even considered to be an option.
They voted on singlepayer and it lost by Independent Joe Liebermans vote.
You cannot blame that on the DNC.
They have never once voted on single payer.
Then I guess Barrack Obama and thousands of protestors all halucinated it back in December 2009
Even Nancy Pelosi, who passed the bill in the house with 218 votes, has multiple comments about it being removed in the Senate.
That’s not single payer.
Now convince the democratic party leadership that serving their constituents is more important that kissing donor ass.
Convince them of that, and the winning elections thing will solve itself.
The problem is “kissing donor ass” is a euphemism for serving themselves.
lol no it won’t. If I’m a Republican candidate, I can literally just say some culture war bullshit and still beat you in an election. Especially if you’re a woman or a minority.
The problem is they see large donors as the only path to victory as campaigns are expensive
The problem is that they see donations as the end goal and no longer give a shit if they lose.
They don’t have to be. Present the people with policies that they want and the public will do all the work themselves.
The problem is getting the word out is expensive. Advertisement buys aren’t cheap.
And guess what the innovation in advertising this last cycle was? Cheap, to voters, text messages asking for funding. Sounds like a great time to dump the dead-weight corpos and win some elections
And what was the turnover on those buys? The fact that texts aren’t expensive doesn’t mean that is effective.
They do get the word out. The problem is that we don’t believe them.
A motivated voter seriously engaging with their social network is worth a lot more than an ad buy. The whole ad world is trying to smuggle their advertising as the genuine thoughts of a real person and politics is acting like it’s still the age of Must See TV.
True but is there any indication of that currently working on the same level in terms of the return on the ad buy that a TV ad can produce? Ads are passive and they work.
Do they? We’ve outspent Trump in three elections now and still lost two of them. Is there any actual measure of the value of an ad for political purposes? It’s not like business where you could note an increase in sales after you run an ad campaign, there’s one single opportunity to “buy” and it’s a secret. Anything you learn in that one campaign you just have to hope still applies years later in a different environment with a different candidate.
I’m sure they have some benefit, but the only time I’ve ever seen someone talk about political advertising was either when they were sick of seeing them or when an ad was going viral because regular people were using their social networks to share it.
Yes, they do work. Anyone who thinks marketing and advertising are ineffective on them ate just ignorant of how ads work on them.
If you study advertising or marketing you’ll inevitable learn about Charmin toilet paper in the USA. They ran a campaign that was irritating regarding people squeezing toilet paper rolls because they were so soft. “Don’t squeeze the Charmin” was their slogan. People hated the ad. They complained about the ad to stations but Charmin also sold a shitload of toilet paper based on this ad campaign so even irritating ads can work.
Here I thought “providing the better option in a binary race” would be enough; but snowflake voters need individual attention?
“Here. We’ll keep a traitorous felon out of office because that’s the choice” and people still preferred the felon.
I think we need to start by apologizing to the Democrats for being stupid. Not just “oops I voted wrong” stupid, but “oops I voted for the Russian agent who’s raped everything he touches and sold every secret he probably touched too, and is now oddly hellbent on destroying a country as a favour to Russia” stupid.
That’s a lotta stupid.
Winning elections by checks notes demanding voters apologize for not voting for you.
Brilliant.
“We’re second worst and you will be voting for us no matter what we do” was going to fail eventually, and you were fools to keep doing it.
I feel like I have to cook so many times on this app.
They’re downvoting you, but you’re right. One day they’ll grow out of this communist shit
Your hostage situation electioneering is the past, electoral reform is the future.
We will not be abused by people like you any longer. We will be free to vote how we wish. The people will have many options to choose from, and the democrats will have to represent people to earn their votes or be tossed into the garbage can alongside the republicans.
More democracy is the way forward, not this domestic assault you try to pass off as representation.
Videos on Electoral Reform
First Past The Post voting (What most states use now)
Videos on alternative electoral systems we can try out.
You will NEVER get electoral reform from republicans. You will get electoral dismantling.
The hostage situation is ongoing and you’re asking for every hostage to die.
Ok, keep voting for stupid things, win stupid prizes.
So long as they have corporate donors and insider trading, they will never be the workers’ party.
A two party system isn’t it and this can be the best time to start a new party, one that focuses on the worker’s not to say this party would completely destroy help for the wealthy but make them do what’s fair for living and operating in this country.
But then the corporations are not going to pay them.
I think that is one of those “far left” ideas that the DNC said they need to run away from.
No. The Dems must implode and let something actually decent come in
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