The Third Way, a group of so-called “moderate” (which means neoliberal) Democrats, who remind me of the Clinton-era Democratic Leadership Council, which advocated for racist incarceration policies, held a conference this week in Charleston, South Carolina, and guess who was there?
San Francisco’s district attorney, Brooke Jenkins.
According to Henry Burke, a senior researcher at RevolvingDoorDC, who tweeted a livestream:
While most people are preoccupied with the war with Iran, Third Way is hosting a conference in Charleston on how moderates can crush the left in 2028. No mention of the war so far this morning, but their 15 viewers have enjoyed plenty of GenXers making “jokes” in GenZ slang!
Jenkins appeared on a panel that featured the mayor of Cleveland talking about public-private partnerships. Private money is helping rebuild the city’s airport, he said, but there would be “project labor agreements” to get the unions to the table
Jenkins then interrupted, saying that San Francisco is at a “reckoning point” with local unions and needs to be nicer to billionaires.
It was remarkable anti-labor and right-wing rant.
Some selections:
“Most of the billionaires are Democrats, and they donate to Democratic candidates. They have extensive philanthropic records.”
And you wonder why the Democratic Party hasn’t made any efforts to tax the very rich since the 1970s. (Philanthropy is fine, as far as it goes, but it can’t and won’t solve major social problems. And even the Business Times confirms that many of the biggest tech companies give almost nothing to the community.)
Next: “I think we are at a reckoning point in our party when we continue to be anti-business. … We should not be making [the billionaires] the enemy when they give more than most.”
I don’t even know where to start, except maybe this: Corporate propaganda, funded by billionaires, has cost 90 percent of US residents more than $47 trillion since 1975.
Moderator (Matt Yglesias) to Mayor Justin Bibb: “You could probably use a few more billionaires.”
Jenkins: “We are trying not to run them out of town.”
Everybody laughed.
Brutal economic inequality that threatens the future of civilization is just so darn funny.
