The morning after the election, a social media pundit expressed amazement that Democrat Kamala Harris had lost, noting that America is enjoying “an objectively strong economy.”

Indeed, the data shows impressive job growth, rising wages, slowing inflation, etc.  – all indicators of a solid economy. Nearly every pundit hailed this as meaning Harris’s campaign could glide on rising prosperity, while focusing her main message on what a dangerous bumbling buffoon Trump is.

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The problem is that “objective economic data” often deceives. For example, consider economist John Kenneth Galbraith’s sad tale of the six-foot-tall statistician who drowned crossing a stream with an average depth of two feet.

Millions of Americans are drowning in today’s economy – even workaday people with college degrees – are struggling to make ends meet and feeling pessimistic about their future. Happy talk by economists, pundits, and politicians doesn’t pay the rising bills for rent, child care, groceries, insurance, medicines, etc. Everything is moving out of reach… except a protest vote. About half of Trump voters say high prices were “the largest factor” in their vote.

Democratic Party officials were dazzled by the soaring Dow Jones Average, ignoring the Doug Jones Average, which showed that Doug and Donna are struggling, anxious, angry… and even open to a bull goose demagog blustering that he’ll “fix” the rigged system on Day One.

Few of these hard-hit men and women actually believe in, agree with, trust, or like Trump – nor are they stuck on supporting him. But they will be, unless and until some progressive party decides to side with grassroots people in an unabashed fight for economic fairness and social justice. To help push in that direction, go to WorkingFamilies.org.

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Okay, the election was a gut punch. And all of us need a moment to catch our breath.

But no more than that, for this is a long-term battle, and we have enormous democratic strength to give us heart and hope for a progressive future. Yes, yesterday’s Trump surge is depressing and dangerous, but the message of that surge is not for progressives to sulk and surrender. Rather, a workaday majority is fairly shouting for the Democratic Party to get out of the corporate boardrooms and Washington salons, standing unequivocally, FDR-like, with that majority, focusing intently on the very volatile, central issues of power and powerlessness in our nation.

Election analysts hurl a blizzard of election statistics at us, but here’s one that I think tells the real story: Despite the intensity and importance of this year’s presidential election, some 20 million FEWER people voted than in 2020. Kamala Harris drew 14 million fewer votes than Biden did back then. And, despite Trump’s grandiose claim of unprecedented popular support, he actually got 3 million fewer votes this year than in 2020.*

A big reason for Harris’ defeat, I think, in addition to the sexism and racism values that still raises its ugly head in our society, is that her campaign focused on how awful Trump is, rather than bringing a clear message of economic hope for hard pressed families. She bought into the establishment’s assertions that “objectively” the economy is doing great. While they exclaim that the Dow Jones Index is booming, most people say: But a boom for whom? Check the Doug Jones Index, and you’ll find Doug and Donna are struggling—and feeling some compatibility with Trump’s constant refrain that “the whole system is rigged .”

And when Harris did strike populist gold with her plan for Medicare to provide home health care  to help families who are struggling with the high costs of care for seniors, people with disabilities, and more, few people even knew she said that, because she didn’t hammer that popular message every day at every step.

Trump’s core message (magnified by X and a gaggle of other far-right media propagandists) is avowedly plutocratic, xenophobic, racist and sexist. But I believe that America as a whole is better than that.

So our challenge is not to try appeasing MAGA extremists, but to buck-up and recommit to the hard, steady work of grassroots organizing, directly challenging what I call the 6Bs: Bosses, Bankers, Billionaires, Big Shots, Bastards, and Bullshitters who’re running roughshod over America’s workaday majority. 

True progressivism has had to endure many downs, but it’s the ups that define us. So the fight continues, with renewed vigor. See you there. 

* Number of votes is as of midday on November 6th, 2024.

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In bold type, nearly every newspaper urges readers to “VOTE! TAKE A STAND!”

But in this year’s truly momentous national election, we saw such giants of corporate media as the Washington Post, LA Times, and USA Today cower from taking their own stand on the presidency. Worse, the papers shamefully insisted that ducking their duty was itself a principled stand. Readers are smart enough to make their own decisions, they barked piously. Well, yes, but are you?

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And who, exactly, are “you.” Take the Washington Post, a paper with a rich history of courageous journalism. But it wasn’t the paper’s knowledgeable reporters or editorial staffers who elected to be silent this year. Rather, one guy – Jeff Bezos – unilaterally chose to mute the paper’s voice.

Bezos, the gabillionaire founder of Amazon, bought the Post a decade ago, promising not to impose his financial self-interest over the staff’s journalistic integrity.

But that was then. Today, the notoriously weaselly Bezos is drawing some $13 billion from federal taxpayers, and he’s eager to get more. So, realizing that the next president can determine who gets those piles of money, Bezos abruptly stopped his paper from endorsing Harris, putting his financial principle above journalistic principles. The Post would’ve exploded, however, if he had dictated a Trump endorsement, so Boss Bezos tried the backdoor maneuver of no endorsement.

The Post exploded anyway. Star reporters either resigned or howled at the crass sell-out, while more than 250,000 readers cancelled their subscriptions. As one reader posted about the billionaire’s self-serving manipulation: “If you don’t have the guts to run a newspaper, don’t buy one.”

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Many people feel that America’s political campaigns have become vapid PR hustles with little connection to the real-life concerns of workaday people. Luckily, Adam Swart says he has the fix for such voter malaise: Just add a more professional level of vapidity to the process, he says, and you can reduce the need for having actual voters involved in campaigning.

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Swart is a for-hire politico who’s been hailed as a “visionary” and a “business rockstar” for launching an outfit he calls: Crowds on Demand. His entrepreneurial concept is as simple as it is devious. Rather than the tedium of strategizing and organizing people into grassroots campaigns, just pay his COD team to stage a “movement” – you know, like Hollywood would do. Indeed, Swart’s operation is even headquartered in the center of Hollywood make believe, Beverly Hills.

But let him sell his own product. He says he can create and staff a turn-key political front group for clients. “We provide everything,” exclaims COD’s website, “including the people, the materials, and even the ideas… We can help you plan the strategy and execute it.”

How happy – if you’re a corporate schemer needing to win or defeat a proposal, but you don’t have any grassroots base of support, Crowds On Demand promises to fake it for you. “We can set up protests, rallies, demonstrations… and even create non-profit organizations to advance your agenda.” It’s basically an Astroturf campaign operation, but with even less turf and more plastic.

If there is one thing the American majority would agree on today, it is that the last thing our political system needs is more PR trickery, issue fakery, and political hustlers. How about we give a little more honesty a try?

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Happy Friday, Lowdowners! DZ, your friendly neighborhood nerd, here. It goes without saying that we’re all feeling the pressure intensify exponentially as we head into this final weekend before the election. We’ve loved seeing all the different kinds of organizing happening, and we want to hear from you: How are you spending the next five days? From actions you’re taking, to candidates you’re supporting, to ways to find joy and soothe your souls, what are you up to? If you’re looking for things to do, keep reading below—we’re looking at Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Swap Your Vote. Leave your suggestions in the comments so we can read and share!

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Over at In These Times, has written about the importance of organizing older folks as the fight for good care nationwide gets more and more intense. He’s been organizing with a community in Wisconsin, where a county-owned care facility has been threatened with privatization.

Nationwide, more than 10,000 people turn 65 every day, and the number of people over 85 is expected to double by 2040. For those who are serious about organizing working-class people, that must include older people — and lots of them. Millions of seniors in the United States have been working-class their entire lives, and millions more have slid into poverty since they retired. A movement of working-class people that does not include them is missing the mark by a country mile.

If you want to join up with the folks George is organizing with to make phone calls to senior voters in Wisconsin, you’re in luck! They’ve got phone banks going every day, multiple times a day, until Tuesday. Sign up with them here.

Sign up to call WI senior voters here

Calling Pennsylvania

There are still a few more times that the Pennsylvania Democratic Party has available to call rural voters there—we’ve been hearing some great stories from friends joining up with these events. Tonight’s event is hosted by none other than , the executive director of Blue Missouri and writer behind .

Register for the PA Rural Phonebanks

“A Dating Site to Defeat Fascism”

Over at , Micah Sifry has a great post about some reasons he’s still feeling optimistic about the outcome of the election. We’re intrigued by the idea of Swap Your Vote, where activists are, by hand, matching people who live in swing states and want to vote for a third party candidate with people who are willing to change their votes in exchange in a non-swing state. And while I’m one of those people that supports long-term organizing to get rid of the Electoral College, I also believe in harm reduction wherever possible. So, their tagline, “Outwit the Electoral College,” really resonated with me. From Micah’s post:

Obviously, SwapYourVote has a very political goal—to elect Harris, defeat Trump while providing voters a way to pressure Harris on issues like America’s support for Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza and the climate emergency. Rae Abileah, its co-creator, says, “As a Jewish-American I was raised with a vigilance against rising fascism, and I can’t just stand by as I witness the ongoing starvation and death of children in Gaza.” She adds, “I know we must defeat Trump (and Netanyahu) but it’s also so hard to bring ourselves to vote for a Democratic party that continues to send weapons to Israel. I wanted to find a middle path that would be both strategic and connective.” 

Here's her key argument: “Our communities are embroiled in a bitter fight over this election, and we want to help unite progressives toward a winning strategy. Voting is not a love letter, it’s choosing our opponent, and Harris would be far more receptive to pressure from the Left than Trump would be.” 

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Here’s a progressive idea I picked up from the unlikeliest of sources: Corporate CEOs!

For decades, these chieftains of our economic order have been steadily implementing a very visionary process for establishing corporate wage levels. The essence of it is this: Let the workers set their own pay! Since the 1970s, when the idea began taking hold in Corporate America, pay levels have zoomed up by more than 1,000 percent.

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Well… not for you. This set-your-own pay movement has only been available to top corporate executives, whose median paychecks now top $16 million a year! But since it’s been a boon for this test group, I say it’s time to expand the no-hassle compensation concept to all employees. This would greatly boost grassroots purchasing power, economic growth, and fairness for all.

“Omigod no!” squawk corporate apologists, rushing to say that, technically, CEOs do not directly set their pay. Rather, the bosses have attached their earnings to their corporations’ ever-rising stock prices. Thus, astronomical rewards go to those who obsessively focus on jacking-up the price of their own stock, even though that’s a selfishly-narrow and false measure of a corporation’s performance.

Also, stock price is no indicator of a CEO’s worthiness. Even bosses who’re blockheads can still get a boost simply because they’ve rigged the system to hitch a free ride on inflated stock value.

This is Jim Hightower saying… Still, if it’s good enough for them, why not an equal deal for working stiffs, who actually deliver the products and services that give a corporation some true value. I say, each worker should get the same percentage increase in pay that the top honcho takes. It’s a very simple process… and it’s only fair.

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Our pal invited Hightower to speak at this fantastic rally on Zoom tonight—do not miss the opportunity to discuss the implications of a changing (to put it lightly) care industry that likely won’t have care at its core anymore if private equity has its way. He’ll join activist Dora Gorski, Ai-Jen Poo and John Nichols at 7pm CT; register here for FREE. From the organizers:

The population of Wisconsinites who are 75 and older is growing quickly and is projected to reach 574,000 by 2030. Many families are already feeling stretched to the limit between caring for their children and caring for older parents. We need more high quality care options, not less.

In Wisconsin, the races for U.S. Senate and President are neck-and-neck. We'll talk about the track records and policy proposals of the candidates in these races who are leading on senior care – including Kamala Harris’ proposal to expand Medicare to cover vision, hearing, and in-home care.

“What Else Can I Do?”

Over the weekend, Democrats knocked on more than 300,000 doors in rural Pennsylvania, and we’re hearing that those rural Trump margins are actually being cut into! Since this is (another) election that will be decided in those margins, everything we can do to get out votes, especially rural votes, in swing states is worth doing.

One of the most important things you can do is keep reaching out to people you know, especially in battleground states. As our friend Jaclyn Friedman said:

In this last week, the absolute most effective thing you can do is talk with your friends and family—people you already know—about whether they have a plan to vote. You'd be surprised how many people aren't sure if they'll vote or not, and you can make a huge difference by just reaching out.

You can use apps like Reach or Empower where you can join other people also doing the same thing (informally called "friendbanking" -- you'll get a script and some training and support if you do it this way. Or you can just reach out to everyone you know.

That said, we also love to support work being done specifically to reach out to rural voters, and the PA Democrats have the goods on that front. There are events most nights this week to reach out to rural Pennsylvania voters, hosted by some really great folks—comedian Trae Crowder, Missouri badass , and more. More info and registration are here.

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Woody Guthrie satirized Depression-era bankers who routinely gouged farmers and poor people. “I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I,” Woody sang, about the joyful lenders who profiteered on people’s misery.

Woody’s song could be sung today by Bharat Masrani, CEO of the TD Bank empire. Investigative digger reports that Masrani has long profited from a jolly scheme by his bank to launder $670 million in drug money from criminal networks. Federal prosecutors found that top TD bankers knew they were engaged in illegal drug dealing, but—shhhh—they “chose profits over [legal] compliance.”

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So – POW! – The Feds socked it to TD Bank with a $3 billion fine. That’ll teach ‘em… right?

No. Banks don’t commit crimes; bankers do. But pointedly, none of TD Bank’s top officials were charged with the crimes they committed or sanctioned. Masrani, who now admits his culpability, simply says, “I apologize.”

That’s it. He faces no consequences! He got $10 million in pay last year – and no one even says: Give it back. Also, he’s now retiring but expects to get a multimillion-dollar farewell package and become a paid consultant for the bank. How is this supposed to deter other bank honchos from turning criminal?

Meanwhile, even though the bank must shovel out three billion Big Ones for its executives’ illegalities, that’s no deterrent to executive criminality. Banks today reap such excessive profits that losing $3-billion is just written off as the cost of doing business – freeing executives to create new ways to rig the system for their own profit.

This is Jim Hightower saying… The message to us commoners is plain: “Do the crime, and you’ll do the time – unless you’re a jolly banker.”

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Forget the cartoonish “Great Man” version of American history, nearly all social progress in our country has been spurred by unheralded “nobodies” who felt a sting of injustice – and resolved to right the wrong.

Lilly Ledbetter, who recently died at 86, was one such trailblazing rebel, and it’s worth remembering her gutsy stand for “paycheck fairness.” After 20 years as a supervisor at Goodyear Tire in Gadsden, Alabama, Ledbetter was stunned in 1998 to learn that she had routinely been paid about 40 percent less than men doing the same job – robbing her of some $200,000. She promptly sued Goodyear for backpay… and won. Justice!

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But Goodyear unleashed a pack of lawyers to drag Lilly through spirit-sucking years of legal appeals, including to the Supreme Court. There, Sam Alito, the far-right judicial extremist absurdly decreed that she should have filed her claim of sex discrimination when it first started 20 years ago. Never mind that she had no way of knowing back then that she was being gouged, Alito is not one to let reality interfere with his political agenda. So, she lost.

But sometimes you win by losing. Stung by the injustice, Ledbetter became a modern day Mother Jones, launching a fiery national campaign for workplace fairness. Backed by women’s groups and labor, her tenacious organizing finally compelled Washington to enact the 2009 “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act,” eliminating the sex discrimination loophole exploited by the likes of Alito and Goodyear.

Ledbetter never got a penny of the money the system cheated her out of, but with the passage of this law, she rightly said: “I have an even richer reward.” Yes… and so does America.  

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A lot of working stiffs today say the system is rigged to keep them from getting ahead. One thing that might make them feel like that is this: The system is rigged against them!

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Consider some very hard workers busting their butts going up and down our residential streets – Amazon’s army of delivery drivers, hauling tons of packages right to our doorsteps. Their exhausting, corporate-mandated hustle is a key source of Amazon’s enormous profits – making Amazon boss Jeff Bezos a cartoonishly-rich global playboy.

Yet Bezos – who’s entire career has been built on rigging the system against employees, competitors, and taxpayers – even refuses to acknowledge that those hundreds of thousands of drivers work for him. He disavows them because many are attempting to unionize over the autocratic and abusive working conditions he imposes on them – including having such dehumanizing delivery schedules that drivers can’t even stop to pee. So, they commonly carry bottles so they can “go on the go.”

Not my problem, says Jeff, pointing to a perverse, corporate-written gotcha in American labor law. It rigs the system by letting Amazon contract with thousands of local front groups called DSPs – “delivery service partners.” They then hire drivers to deliver Amazon’s packages. This lets Bezos deny responsibility for how the workers are treated since, technically, he doesn’t employ them.

Cute, huh? Worse, his DSP ruse further rigs the system by proclaiming that unions cannot even try to organize Amazon itself. Instead, they must go place to place, trying to organize each of the 3,000 DSP fronts that provide Amazon’s workforce.

These legalistic manipulations disempower workers, enrich bosses, and enforce the Corporate Golden Rule: “Those who have the gold, rule.”

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For you Lowdowners who are looking for ways to spend your anxious energy in productive ways for the next two weeks, we wanted to put together a quick list of ways to do just that. Squeezing out every last vote that we can! It’s go time! Rahr!

Swing State Rural Actions

From our friends at Rural4Harris, who are emailing out new swing state actions to take every few days:

Wisconsin

1. Contact Rural Voters in Wisconsin — Statewide calls for Harris/Walz

2. Flip Wisconsin 3: Elect Rebecca Cooke and Go Red to Blue — Rural Congressional District in Western Wisconsin

Pennsylvania

1. Make Calls to Rural Voters — Statewide calls for Harris/Walz

2. Bucks County Turnout — Important swing county north of Philadelphia

3. Get Out The Rural Vote — GOTV calls into Rural PA on last weekend

RUBI’s Rural Success Stories

I’ve been helping our friends over at the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative write up and spread messages about the investment in rural areas that have been made during the Biden-Harris administration. Whether you’ve only got 5 seconds, 30 seconds or 5 minutes, we’ve got things you can do and share in our Action Kit here. From RUBI:

RUBI believes, and our research has shown, that positive messages about progress and bottom-up solutions are more likely to persuade people in rural communities and small towns.  

We need your help amplifying stories about how Kamala Harris will continue the exciting progress happening in rural communities!

By choosing to focus on progress, we’re changing the narrative about rural America. After facing decades of bad policies, disinvestment and wealth extraction, rural communities are coming back, and the federal government, under Biden-Harris, is finally on board with practical and effective support. Sharing these stories is critical for the long-term work of keeping that progress moving forward with Harris-Walz.

Phonebank and textbank — to people you know

Over at , our friend wrote recently about how important true relational organizing is: not just reaching out to strangers, but tapping our own networks to find people who might not be reached by more standard lists of voters or donors in the campaign’s phonebanking operations. Micah gets into the gory details of it all, but if you want to jump in and learn more about the the Reach program, they’re running free introductions every single night online. Sign up here.

Kulkarni has a vision for the next three weeks. If enough people get on Reach and join the DCCC’s “Take Back the House” campaign, on November 1 it may be able to give every congressional campaign a list of missing voters in their district who have not yet voted and who are “in network” and reachable by volunteers who know them. That requires more than simply signing onto Reach; participants are being encouraged to “friendbank” and get more of their contacts in swing states to also get on the app. Every night, he and his team are running “Friendbanking” workshops online that will get you trained in how to use Reach for this specific purpose. Sign up now. 

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