Labor Needs Seats at the Table

Annie Karni in today's New York Times sees (and explores in some depth) the rise of impressive candidates who have been laborers and who know how to relate to the working class. Many or most of these new candidates on the Democratic side are running for US Senate seats, and they represent a real departure from the typical kinds of people Democrats have recruited in recent years to win elections -- "educated professionals with sterling pedigrees, including prestigious national security credentials." That's the elite, fussbudget image the Democratic Party wears like an opera cape.

Karni writes about many of the working-class candidates whose names I recognize, because I've written about them too, like Dan Osborn, industrial mechanic at the Kellogg’s plant in Omaha, or Graham Platner, an oysterman from the tiny town of Sullivan, Maine, or Nathan Sage, a car mechanic who was raised in a trailer park in Mason City, Iowa. These guys are attracting attention as mold-breakers and their blunt speech has energy and sting. Some of them are raising impressive money, like Graham Platner, running for Susan Collins' Senate seat. Yet the Democratic establishment has refused to endorse any of them, which is frankly infuriating. Sen. Chuck Schumer's machine in the Senate wants "safer" candidates (like a 77-year-old former governor in Maine rather than Graham Platner). (And granted, Dan Osborn is running as an Independent in Nebraska, which makes him forbidden fruit to the Party establishment. That shying away from Independents is also a policy that needs to change in certain circumstances, especially when and where Democrats don't have a viable candidate of their own and aren't likely to find one.)

Reporter Karni understands the numbers: "The halls of Congress are still, by and large, populated by career politicians, lawyers and wealthy businessmen. About 78 percent of senators currently serving in office hold an advanced degree, according to Congressional Quarterly. More than 30 percent of House members and 47 percent of senators hold a law degree."

So make no mistake. It's a class issue, which Bernie Sanders has been warning us about: 

“The Democratic leadership [Mr. Schumer, call your office] has got to make a choice whether they stand with their billionaire friends and corporate backers or whether they stand with the working class. The leadership much prefers the comfort of wealthy people rather than working-class people and grass-roots organizing. That’s a profound mistake.”

Meanwhile, the candidates profiled by Karni understand struggle, which makes them potent if not outright revolutionary for saving the Democrats: “We work nonstop every day, over and over, and it seems like all we do is survive, right?” Nathan Sage told voters at a recent event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. With Sage's "right," he punctuated his connection to his audience's reality, and the crowd roared their fellow-feeling. They had found a champion. What differentiates a Nathan Sage from MAGA is that progressive labor doesn't want to burn it down. It wants to reform and build it stronger to uphold the social contract.

This Is Worth Watching

 

Back in April, Democrat Nathan Sage beat everybody to the punch by announcing his candidacy first in what might end up being a crowded Democratic primary to take on veteran Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst in '26. I've kinda had a thing for Iowa Democratic candidates on this site for years now. (Don't believe me -- use the search engine, upper left.) Nathan Sage catches my attention for this: "He said his campaign will be about repairing the party’s connection to working-class voters" (Iowa Public Radio). 

Sage's introductory video is both a vindication of working-class as a valuable designator and a sort of bitch-slapping of establishment Democratic attitudes -- a direct challenge to a ruling class that looks down on blue-collar grunts. "We built the damn table," Sage says. "We need a seat at it!"

Sage doesn't talk like an establishment Dem, doesn't look like an establishment Democrat. He projects a smart, bullshit-detecting analytical understanding of exactly how the deck has been stacked against workers.  And Sage's video production reminds us what a little early campaign money can buy (money, which is often the hurdle for any brilliant working-class candidate, like for example Darren Staley who ran as a Democrat for the NC Senate down in Wilkes last fall -- Senate Dist. 36, one of the most heavily Republican districts in the state. If Darren had only had the early money like Nathan Sage clearly does!)