Chris Hedges’ cynical view of Democrats is wrong
Chris Hedges is one of the U.S.’s great intellectuals. America’s empire is his subject, and he portrays its perverse elites and deluded masses with blistering precision. In his columns and his books, such as Death of the Liberal Class (written in 2011), Hedges savages the Democratic Party for its unwillingness to oppose wealthy elites, and for its embrace of neoliberalism, war, and the military- and prison- industrial complexes.
In his recent article, entitled, “Jan. 6 committee is spectacle taking the place of politics: It will accomplish nothing,” Hedges strikes his familiar prophetic tone. He predicts that the January 6th Committee hearings will fail to curb the rise of right-wing fascism in the United States. He implies that fascists are winning in the United States because our politicians are incapable of bringing about necessary changes on a number of direly important issues.
This is true on many issues of gravity. Biden has reneged on his commitment to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah state,” which means genocide will persist in Yemen. Each new president’s Pentagon budget exceeds the last’s. And universally free, single-payer healthcare still seems out of reach in the U.S.
Yet much of Hedges’ doom prophecy is unfounded, or even objectively false. He claims that U.S. politicians will never deliver on issues that they have already made notable progress on.
He writes, “Spectacle takes the place of politics. It is a tacit admission that all social programs, whether the Build Back Better plan, a ban on assault weapons, raising the minimum wage, ameliorating the ravages of inflation or instituting environmental reforms to stave off the climate emergency, will never be implemented.”
In fact, Democrats have had big successes on several of these issues. Where they haven’t, they have been obstructed by Republicans or their use of the filibuster.
Nearly every solid blue state has legislated a $15 minimum wage. This list includes California, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Illinois, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Delaware. Hawaii’s legislature recently passed an $18 minimum wage, which its governor intends to sign.
The U.S. House of Representatives also passed $15 minimum wage bills during both this legislative session and the previous one. Yes, the 50–50 U.S. Senate failed to pass the wage, with eight Democrats opposing a measure that would have overridden the Senate Parliamentarian in doing so. But Hedges’ notion that politicians in the U.S. will never “raise the minimum wage” seems absurd on its face. Over 1/3 of the country lives under $15 minimum wage laws, thanks to Democrats having done what Hedges claims they will never do.
Hedges’ claim that a “Build Back Better plan” can never pass amounts to a conspiracy theory. The House passed the bill. President Biden, of course, effectively staked his presidency on it. Before Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema whittled the bill from $3.5 trillion to less than $2 trillion, it seemed guaranteed to pass in some form. Few expected Manchin to fully quash the bill after spending months signaling that he wanted to pass a version of it.
Apparently, for Hedges, America’s “ruling political entity,” which includes the Democrats, Liz Cheney, the Bushes, and anti-Trump Republicans, never seriously intended to pass it. Build Back Better was just an elaborate ruse that 99% of Congressional Democrats participated in by supporting the bill. Biden of course was in on it too, even though the bill’s failure has been a body-blow to his presidency.
Democrats, you see, are incapable of acting to harm the wealthy. Never mind that they cut child poverty in half via Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which itself cost $1.9 trillion. Never mind that Noam Chomsky praised Biden’s domestic policies as “a rather pleasant surprise,” and “better than I would have expected” — in perhaps Chomsky’s first words of sincere praise for a contemporary president in his lifetime.
Blue states and cities, meanwhile, have been adopting Build Back Better-like social programs. Paid Family Medical Leave is law in California, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, Maine, Washington D.C. and Oregon. More blue states are guaranteeing sick leave and universal pre-kindergarten. There’s even near-universal free tuition in New York state.
There has also been a wave of Democratic action on environmental issues in recent years. Before Trump’s presidency, few states had legislated paths to 100% clean electricity. But since Democrats’ successes in the 2018 midterms, through today, most blue states have enacted paths to 100% by 2040, 2045, or 2050.
Biden has tried to accelerate the shift, attempting to achieve 100% clean electricity, nationwide, by 2035 via Build Back Better. Despite that bill’s failure, Biden remains dedicated to his goal, committing the U.S. to 100% clean electricity by 2035 at this year’s G-7 meeting. He has also ordered the federal government’s electricity to be carbon free by 2030 and The Tennessee Valley Authority’s to be the same by 2035. Meanwhile, he has ordered strict tailpipe emissions standards, and taken action to cut methane emissions and environmentally harmful refrigerants.
Democrats are, of course, flawed. They are too corporate-influenced to speak clearly and act effectively enough on many issues where the ruling class opposes them. Not to mention that the party continues to allow genocide in Yemen, starvation in Afghanistan, and apartheid in Palestine — while it gives the Pentagon whatever it wants.
But Hedges is just objectively wrong about the Democrats. Their domestic achievements are significant, and would be cause for hope if they could remain in power. They would be more likely to if doom-prophets such as Hedges would stop lying about them.