Amid Democratic mourning over the loss of the presidential election to Donald Trump, the party chair risked deepening already growing divisions by rebuking the leftwing Vermont senator Bernie Sanders for saying Democrats have “abandoned working class people”.

“This is straight up BS,” Jaime Harrison, the Democratic National Committee chair, said on Thursday. “[Joe] Biden was the most pro-worker president of my lifetime – saved union pensions, created millions of good paying jobs and even marched in a picket line.”

Harrison also defended Kamala Harris, the vice-president who lost the election to Trump, for proposing policies that “would have fundamentally transformed the quality of life and closed the racial wealth gap for working people across this country”.

He said: “From the child tax credits, to [$]25k for a down payment for a house to Medicare covering the cost of senior healthcare in their homes. There are a lot of post-election takes and this one ain’t a good one.”

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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    7 days ago

    I’m developing a nasty feeling that Democrat wonks are ideologically incapable of understanding that the price of bread has gone up 20% since '21.

    • ryepunk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      the-democrat But inflation has gone down! And the wage growth has never been higher. The economy is actually booming and you stupid plebs don’t even know it!

        • ryepunk [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          7 days ago

          Wage growth is a wildly difficult thing to categorize and analyze as a result. The largest percentage points gained came from the working class wages getting several dollars an hour more, but typically from the 9 bucks an hour range into 12 or 13 an hour, because employers literally were unable to get people working in grocery stores. So big percent gain but I’m real dollars and when coupled with inflation of rent and food it basically meant they were and are still falling behind.

          Of course you have the “middle class” as well which saw moderate wage gains as well, but most of these people are more likely to swap jobs for raises rather than beg for raises from a current employer. Those who didn’t job hop were seeing 4% gains iirc? Which when you roll together with the 12% of working class increases, does indeed paint a picture of “wow lol at all these gains were seeing the economy is doing great!”

          But again the “middle class” is probably more upper class than actually middle, which has basically shrunk to such a small piece of the pie that it’s like the top 60-80% (so only 20% of the people) of families and so I don’t think they’re actually hurting at all, compared to the bottom 60% of working class folks who are balanced on a knife’s edge and it literally doesn’t matter to them who is in power, life sucks, it’s hard and they are just trying to last as long as possible before a health care issue knocks them out.

          That’s my take on it, I get most of my numbers from what sam seder talks about on his show, but I have the complete opposite take from him. The economy is a shambling zombie that doesn’t know it’s dead and is just waiting to collapse.

        • TerminalEncounter [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          7 days ago

          Sometimes it’s literally up as a cohort of app wage earners, but like 1% lol. And I bet most of that is just the top 10% of wage earners getting decent raises (maybe more broad but only union members)

          Taken together, there’s been a decrease as wage increases have not been close to inflation overall. Their big business lobbyists and friends and the business owner politician themselves really really don’t want any wage growth, the dems as constituted right now will never work to meaningfully increase wages

          • REgon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            7 days ago

            Taken together, there’s been a decrease as wage increases have not been close to inflation overall.

            nerd But they have increased, if they hadn’t then people would be even worse off smuglord

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        7 days ago

        You could argue that a pandemic which killed millions while Trump talked about drinking bleach was their Truss tanks the economy in a day moment. 2020 was an abboration that got Biden over the line. I’d argue the yanks are one election cycle ahead on this trajectory compare to us Brits, rather than one election cycle behind.

        • SacredExcrement [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          I don’t think they wanted to do it to begin with, beyond the positive boost they get from doing it. What social programs have liberals actually started in the last 20 years?

          A pitifully half assed government health care plan?

          Doing it the way they did means they get to use it as a plank they ‘fulfilled’, they can let it expire and blame Joe Manchin and Conservatives for ‘killing it’, and then they don’t have to keep it around

          • SevenSkalls [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            6 days ago

            I would argue the infrastructure bill was good. Forget what that was a part of, maybe the Inflation Reduction Act? It’s helped my local city build up their public transportation and roads more.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      I think so, and this dork’s analysis is consistent with that since the dems keep trying to claim credit for programs that helped people years ago, which they ended, as though anyone remembers or gives a shit when they’re struggling now.

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    7 days ago

    A conclusion of the Chair’s (false) argument is that appealing to the working class doesn’t win elections, therefore why should they be appeal to in the future

    Dems preparing to move ever rightward

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      It is remarkable that he’s the first president ever to do that, and it’s literally the bare minimum of supporting the working class. That he’s the first is more of an indictment of the US government than a sign of progress

  • goose [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    7 days ago

    I’m going to seal myself in a sensory deprivation chamber and induce a coma that reduces my brain activity to the bare minimum required to sustain life in order to see if it is possible to somehow beat the DNC at a “learn nothing” competition

  • TheModerateTankie [any]@hexbear.net
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    7 days ago

    When they pre-maturely declared an end to the pandemic and rolled back social supports they screwed over millions of people. Fucking idiots.

    “But we promised people a bunch of stuff. What more do people want?”

  • footfaults [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    7 days ago

    They lost the popular vote for the first time in decades and they are dead set on learning absolutely nothing.

    The DNC and the Democratic party needs to go the way of the whigs

  • sewer_rat_420 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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    6 days ago

    These dumbasses that point at $25k housing assistance and the small business thing as “social policies” are so fucking out of touch.

    Tax credits arent a great way to administer social problems, although the child tax credit is somewhat good and should be expanded in the absence of other social programs.

    But a tax credit for buying a house is useless. It would have driven up housing prices, with most benefit to developers and realtors, marginal benefit for people that will buy a house and get the credit (im in this category btw, as a likely first rime home buyer in the next 4 years). And it will hurt the working class who are overwhelmingly renters and would be hurt by the rising housing prices. Not to mention the likelihood of being blocked by courts the same way bidens loan forgiveness was (which i wouldve benefitted from to the tune of $20k as I received a Pell grant).

    And the small business thing is like…so obviously dumb. Just a small scale trickle down idea i guess? It wouldnt really help anyone except marginal help to people who wanted to start a business and maybe creation of some new low wage jobs.