Why Democrats Need to Stand With Working Americans vs. Big Banks

Why Democrats Need to Stand With Working Americans vs. Big Banks

Why Democrats Need to Stand With Working Americans vs. Big Banks

Democrats should stop supporting a bill that would loosen the reins on Wall Street.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

For election watchers, perhaps the most significant development of the past week happened not in Washington but in Wisconsin, where Democratic candidate Patty Schachtner won a state Senate race in a district that President Trump carried by 17 points. The unexpected victory, which Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) called a “wake-up call” for the GOP, marked the 34th legislative seat that Democrats have flipped this cycle and offered yet another signal that a wave election may be coming.

A year into the Trump era, the discontent that drove his support among the working class in places such as Wisconsin has not abated. Though Trump’s base has not yet abandoned him, his approval rating has dropped across voter demographics. The environment is ripe for Democrats, powered by the massive resistance that manifested again last weekend at Women’s March events nationwide, to reclaim control of Congress. Unfortunately, a group of Senate Democrats seems intent on squandering this moment by siding against working families on the issue that most clearly embodies how the US economy is rigged against them. They are joining with Republicans to roll back regulations on big banks.

As The New York Times reports, 11 Democrats are co-sponsoring a bill introduced by Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) that would significantly weaken the Dodd-Frank reforms enacted in 2010. Trump has expressed that loosening the reins on Wall Street is one of his top legislative priorities for 2018, and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is expected to bring Crapo’s bill to the floor within the next month.

Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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