The current chair Perez) is a former civil rights lawyer and consumer activist.
His deputy chair (Ellison) is from the Sanders wing of the party, and was a civil rights lawyer.
The associate chairs include public advocates, a union leader who is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and got her start with Chavez, a couple of career politicians (eg one who got his start with Paul Wellstone, another who is a journalist with Jamaican immigrant parents). The only “Wall Street type” at this level is Jaime Harrison, an African-American who grew up with a single teen mother in rural South Carolina.
The rank-and-file of the DNC is drawn from national party activists, who are often from public sector unions (like teachers) and generally on the left of the party.
The constant derogation of the DNC by self-styled progressives is a thing they say when they want to seem interested in progressive politics but want an excuse to not get actually involved in politics, even to the extent of simply fact checking their own claims or learning how the Democratic party works.
A lot of this platform reads like what the democrats were pushing for back in the 70’s. I’d hardly call it left, but it would be a swing back to the old balance of “center and right” as opposed to “right and literally calls nazis good people”
Another reason Clinton was a horrible candidate, she had no position to challenge any of this. . One term senator from wall street with shell companies (plural) set up in tax haven states.
Hint: That’s the middle class these days. There are people with income over $100k/yr in the same boat. One unexpected blow, and it all comes tumbling down.
Also, most of the donor-class get a double-dip from this tax break. They will see most of the drop in the corporate tax rate as stock options or investment income and will be applying the capital gains rate of 15% on it, rather than the income rate, plus no AMT. There’s a reason why Mittens had an effective tax rate of <13%; all his income was investment rather than salary.
The problem is they have become the party of another elite - “the professional class” and over the past 30years have shifted to the centre and abandoned the traditional working class (which Trump was able to tap into- not that he’s going to deliver)
They should really convince someone like Mark Dayton of Minnesota and run on his record of turning around the economy from a Republican tax cut deficit state to one that raised taxes progressively and came out with more jobs and a surprlus. But somehow I think their campaign will be as always “wait for Republicans to screw up”
I would argue that that is not in fact middle class, but working class at best.
Middle class means you can afford to put your kids through college, buy a new car every couple years, keep up with the Joneses, and retire relatively comfortably.
Right now, we have a whole shitload of poor and working class people who think they’re middle class and don’t realize that middle class now starts around $150k a year. Temporarily embarrassed millionaires, every one.
The politics of triangulation haven’t been disastrous for the Democrats. Since the Dems adopted triangulation for the Clinton campaign in 1992, the party has held the presidency for 16 of 25 years.
