Democrats deliver

By Deauwand Myers

"A great democracy has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy," is a prescient excerpt from the "New Nationalism Speech" by Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States.

"Nothing succeeds like success" is an old American adage conveying this maxim: hard work and success breed more achievements. (This view is held by most Asian societies, especially Korea and Japan, who have the highest levels of work hours of any other advanced democracy in the world. Mexico also has very high work hours per annum). Strangely, only America and the aforementioned countries share this ideology so vigorously, like a kind of secular religion, and like any religion, it isn't based on any empirical evidence.

Hard work most often does not equal financial success, as the poorest people across the world work the longest hours, with the least benefits, and rarely acquire financial security. This unequal reality is also gendered. The COVID-19 pandemic showed what thinking people already knew: women work the hardest and are rewarded the least for their efforts, coupled with the unpaid labor of parenting, domestic work, and parental/familial care.

"Nothing succeeds like success" is meaningless if not backed by a government willing to create a society where merit and access are promoted. Democrats understood this fact way back in the days of FDR. The Democratic Party has produced the most positive results for working people so profoundly, but no one notices.
People (especially working-class white folks) are ignorant of where all their benefits come from. Disability payments, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, workers' rights, the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, Housing Rights Act and food scarcity government subsidies like WIC, SNAP, and EBT, among others ― the list is extremely extensive ― were all shepherded into law by Democrats.

These government initiatives are so ubiquitous in everyday life, that many Americans assume they came from heaven or Mars, and not from the sweaty, sometimes bloody work of Democrats, elected and otherwise.

Part of this lack of recognition is due to a sad reality: Democrats are not particularly good political strategists. They have not been well-versed in messaging, especially at the national level, at least since the 1960s. We need look no further than the Obama era. President Obama hadn't been a U.S. senator that long before becoming president. This abbreviated tenure robbed him of a much-needed education in learning from conservative politicians in the Republican Party. Ruthless, amoral, and effective, the GOP is better at wielding power and advertising their legislative prowess and achievements.

Consider that even now, a lot of Americans like The Affordable Care Act, but hate "Obamacare." This healthcare reform law, the legislative jewel of the Obama-Biden administration, positively affected the lives of millions of Americans.

Yet, Republicans derided the ACA as "Obamacare," and used that term to effectively smear the law. The ACA and Obamacare are the exact same law, but President Obama never made this fact known via his political operation, one, because it's just not in his nature to brag, and two, he didn't see the political advantage in touting the benefits of the ACA after it was finally passed into law. He was wrong.

There are many reasons that, during Obama's eight years in office, Democrats were eviscerated in local and federal elections, not the least of which was the visceral and virulent reaction by a majority of white folks to a Black man's ascension to the presidency. It may be that no manner of political machination could have saved the Democrats from electoral losses throughout the country. But Obama's ego, his political naivete, and his lack of focusing on state party apparatuses during his tenure certainly didn't help.

For example, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told President Obama in 2009 to simply pass the ACA as quickly as possible because the Republicans would never treat him like President Reagan and work with him legislatively. But Obama believed his own popularity was magical and could sway the opposing party. Speaker Pelosi was resoundingly correct; President Obama was not.

Sometimes conventional wisdom is wise. The best politicians are usually older women and men (Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley notwithstanding). Speaker Pelosi has been in politics for over a quarter of a century, and President Biden for nearly half a century. Biden is smart to use his bullhorn in promoting the passage of his massive COVID-19 package and advertise his infrastructure initiatives on the national stage. He wants to go big and speak loudly while doing so, smiling all the way.

President Biden's message is one the Democratic Party needs to hear, absorb, and practice in the coming election cycles. Like a lot of life's fundamentals, this message is remarkably simple. The social welfare system too many Americans take for granted should have never been taken for granted. The Biden-Harris Administration understands that Americans need to be reminded often and repeatedly, with clarity and conviction: Democrats deliver.

Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul. The views expressed in the above article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.