The "Progressive Multiplier": How Democrats Can Defeat Trumpism
Community Change President Dorian Warren and I published a piece today in The American Prospect, “The ‘Progressive Multiplier’: How Democrats Can Defeat Trumpism.” We argue that progressives can learn from how conservatives have used governing power to reshape power relationships in society. We propose specific ways to strengthen the power of workers, people of color, women, and immigrants while also undercutting the sources of anti-democratic power. The piece references months of research by progressive academics including Alex Hertel-Fernandez, Megan Ming Francis, Jacob Hacker, Jamila Michener, and Leah Stokes, who collaborated with movement groups and identified over two dozen ways to shift power, using both legislation and executive action. Given Republicans’ escalating racist attacks on voting rights in the states, saving multi-racial democracy may depend on whether or not progressives inside and outside government focus sufficiently on power. The House passage of the For the People Act (H.R. 1) this week was welcome news, but much now rides on whether the Democrats have the guts to eliminate the filibuster, pass it in the Senate, and take other necessary steps to defang the authoritarian threat.
Deepak
Co-Editor (with Ruth Milkman and Penny Lewis), Immigration Matters: Visions, Strategies and Movements for a Progressive Future (New Press, April 2021)
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