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Eric Mauro's avatar

The other thing that’s little known about this class of worker is how much they are tied into Wall Street through the investment of public employee pension funds. In addition state budgets depend on these funds gaining consistent returns every year.

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Eharding's avatar

"The pre-Trump GOP, for thirty or so years, was taken fully by a pathology dictating that “the Freer the Markets, the Freer the People”."

Was it? That was their rhetoric, but the GOP over the past 30 years was never a free market party. Trump made it more protectionist, but did not fundamentally alter its course. The "Paultards" were always a hated minority among the Rs, and they never won many primaries or found much business support.

"Instead, what I see is a dogma"

I'm not seeing it. College administrators really are a fundamental Democratic constituency.

"politically self-destructive policy and rhetoric"

Is it really? Democrats have the overwhelming advantage on racial issues in polling. Have they reduced that to any great degree over the past five to ten years?

"This is because for too many Democratic politicians and media figures, bureaucracy and democracy are no more distinguishable than free markets and free people were in the eyes of the Reaganites."

No doubt.

"In the coming years, the Democratic party will have to choose between protecting an ever-weakening, sclerotic bureaucracy and making a real attempt to win at democracy."

This idea Democrats are more doomed than Republicans are is fairly ridiculous. It's Democrats that are making gains in the fastest-growing suburbs. Look at how many congressional districts Biden flipped relative to Clinton in 2020.

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