The Populist Manifesto

Shahid presents a deep assessment of the “zero-sum gridlock of two party politics” in the US, and offers a thorough plan for what the Democrats need to become next (could be a lesson for Labour too). “The Democratic Party has become trapped in a politics dominated by the upper middle class, where fighting for democracy and combating bigotry are framed more as moral performances of negative partisanship than as paths to real change… What remains is a politics of performative gestures and timid incrementalism – actions designed to placate elite donors and upper-middle-class voters while sidelining the working class and marginalised communities in the name of respectability… If Democrats want to reclaim their position as the party of working people, they need to stop hedging and start confronting the power structures that define inequality… To govern in the people’s interest, you first have to be willing to take on those who profit from their suffering… The next DNC Chair must rebuild the party around a simple idea: Democrats win when they are the party of working-class people of all backgrounds.” Also see.