By pandering to both Wall Street and the Left, the party has forgotten its blue-collar base
. . .
As their traditional constituency shifts, Democrats will struggle to maintain their odd coupling of the woke and the ultra-rich. They could try to square the circle by devising a more regulated economy that would curb competition — always manna for the monopolists — while dishing out more welfare and subsidies to allay the potentially disruptive masses.
But this trick, particularly as the bond markets and foreign investors begin to recoil from massive deficits, may ignite a battle over raising taxes, which would force the party to go after the tech monopolies, who historically pay little. It could also force them to increase levies on its cadre of educated upper-class adherents.
In the meantime, however, the contradictions between socialism and even woke capitalism may prove too massive to reconcile. It seems certain that far-Left candidates will continue to challenge and replace old FDR-style Democrats, particularly in big cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis and Seattle.
Growing pressure from the Left, and also from the financial markets, could undermine Biden’s brief kumbaya moment, forcing him to choose between the interests of his elite and grassroots supporters. A Democratic Civil War seems inevitable — and in such a scenario, the winner will only be the Republicans.
The looming Democrat Civil War
Forward!