I've scribbled a lot about the immediate danger of the fast-approachingTrump presidency, and what the Democrats should do to counter him. I want to be really clear, though, that the Democratic Party has contributed mightily to the circumstances that made Trump's election possible. The party has had a default attitude that the loss of factory and blue color jobs is an inevitable part of the global economy, participating in the myth that the economy is some natural thing that happens outside of political decisions, like the weather. The Democratic Party has indeed fought for racial justice, gender equality, gay rights, and environmentalism, often to its electoral detriment. And it seems that many, if not most, of the party's movers and shakers have bought into the argument that demographics are in the Democrats' favor due to the Democrats' support of the aforementioned issues. But this argument seems to rely, cynically in my opinion, that voters grateful for progressive positions on these very important issues (which are primarily cultural, but do have important economic elements) will then not make a fuss when they discover they have massive college debt or curtailed job prospects.

Look, I get it. Politicians are naturally cautious animals. They don't want to rock the system under which they've risen to power. But to have looked out at the dire inequality in our country over the last couple decades, and not felt outrage, disgust, and a profound desire to reverse it, should disqualify anyone from becoming an elected official in our country. Not just on grounds of fairness and morality, which alone should be enough, but because of the consequences we are now beginning to face: a society unhinged by a bleak future, with a sizable chunk of the population rightly feeling fucked over by the upper ranks, and who are now primed to follow the lure of authoritarian solutions and the scapegoating of others perceived as having benefitted while they fell down. Economic justice is the bedrock of a healthy democratic system.

The Tea Party movement, the birthers, the alt-right, not to mention the massive Republican gains in Congress as early as 2010, should have been early warning signs that more radical, structural change was needed to get the country back in track. After George Bush, the Republicans should have been discredited as a major political party; yet, instead, the Democratic Party managed to discredit itself by never taking as seriously as it should have the economic abyss of 2008 and the need for a continued, emergency-level response to widespread dire economic circumstances.