by Randy Shaw on January 27, 2025 (BeyondChron.org)
Governor Newsom Showing Leadership
Government is the Democratic Party’s Brand
What do the LA fires have to do with the November 2024 election? A lot.
The Los Angeles fires were a natural disaster. They combined 100 mile an hour winds, no major rain since May, and a landscape vulnerable to massive fires.
But Republicans and some on the left blamed Democratic Party-led government bodies for the tragedy. Most targeted Governor Newsom, an outspoken Trump critic who has shown extraordinary leadership in addressing the fires. Mayor Karen Bass was blamed for being in Africa when the fires began, as if her presence at City Hall would have made a difference.
The media was obsessed with finding some government error they could blame. All while downplaying the fires connection with climate change.
President Trump has spent weeks spreading false claims blaming Democratic officials. The fire fit his campaign message: when problems occur, it’s the fault of government bodies run by Democrats.
The primarily Republican but often bipartisan attack on government explains reduced voter turnout last November. Election expert Tom Bonior found Democratic turnout in key swing states declined by 11% among those under 40. In Pennsylvania, “young voters were the worst turnout group for Democrats relative to 2020.”
That Harris voters lacked the enthusiasm of Biden voters in 2020 seems counter to her larger rallies. But in hindsight it’s understandable. Two generations of Americans have grown up in a media and political environment where government rather than the private sector is blamed for all problems.
If you don’t think government can improve your life, why vote?
Those over 60, raised as the Great Society programs of the 1960’s and 1970’s were implemented, maintained turnout at 2020 levels. These generations know how government action can bring positive results. These generations also know how the Republican Party since Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Contract With America have blocked the federal funding necessary to solve crises in housing, health care, transit, and education.
Democrats: The Party of Government
The fire reaffirmed how Republicans and corporate America have identified government with the Democratic Party brand. Unhappy with some government action? Blame Democrats. They are the ones pushing government to help people. In contrast, wrongful corporate conduct is associated with the specific corporation, not a Republican Party that tolerates such conduct.
Homelessness? Don’t blame the private sector’s failure to provide decent and affordable housing for all Americans. Ignore that Reagan’s 1981 budget triggered homelessness by slashing federal rent subsidies. And be sure to overlook how Congressional Republicans have blocked the federal funding necessary to solve the crisis.
Housing was always a federal concern, set forth in the Housing Act of 1949. But Republican Presidents and congressional majorities have ignored their duties to fund housing. They have long prevented Democratic Party-run cities from ending homelessness. This keeps the public blame on Democratic mayors, not Republican Presidents or Senators.
Failing to provide sufficient resources to government has proved a winning political strategy for Republicans. And it became even more successful when Republican judges struck down Biden programs—like student loan cuts—that would have directly shown younger voters that voting makes a difference.
Blaming Government, Not the Private Sector
There’s a difference between calling out government failures—which I regularly do—and seeing the solution to many problems as caused by, if not coming, from government. What has the private sector done to solve or meaningfully reduce homelessness? Or to serve the millions lacking affordable health care?
Elon Musk and the other billionaires backing Trump have the money to solve both longstanding problems. They also have the political clout to get the federal dollars needed. But that would mean they care about solving these problems. Their actions say they don’t. Musk and his crowd prefer doing little to nothing and then complaining that the government response under Democrats has failed.
Why do those relentlessly critical of government give private sector failures a pass? Why do those in need vote for politicians who fail to address their problems?
The answer can be found in the white husband of the Nebraska Senator who refused to look Kamala Harris in the eye or shake her hand—while offering a handshake to her white husband. If you doubt the race factor, read Heather McGhee’s The Sum of Us; What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together She shows how white support for government action on a broad range of issues declines as soon as respondents are told the action will help blacks.
Failure of the Benefits Theory
President Biden believed that providing benefits to people would help assure their loyalty to the Democratic Party in 2024. He arguably provided more benefits to the working and middle-class than any President since Lyndon Johnson and possibly FDR.
Yet Biden, and the many who agreed with his strategy, were wrong. It made not difference to millions of voters in November that the Biden Administration had brought them health care, student loan reductions or other benefits.
If the benefits strategy for building political support for Democrats still applies, it’s much less impactful. In contrast, Republicans provide benefits via tax cuts. They take place immediately, unlike the positive impacts of major infrastructure improvements or new housing that takes years to build.
I wrote last week that progressives must launch a national grassroots campaign to defeat Trump’s extreme agenda. This talking to voters should produce a rethinking of how they view government. The Trump years will revive support for an activist government, but a lot of voter education may be necessary to again get large majorities to support government solutions.
Randy Shaw
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco
