‘Landlord-Democrats’ Are Right Wingers Who Hate the Left
Trump was right: Milwaukee is a horrible city - if you’re working class.
The former president might have been referring to the fact that Milwaukee is the most segregated metro area in the country; that, since the Covid-19 pandemic started, we have over 1,000 shootings a year (~200 homicides, ~800 non-fatal); he was most probably dog-whistling about the fact that another Milwaukee exists west of the double fortifications of the river and the highway. Still, for those born without assets, those who don’t own a business, or have a well-paid white collar profession, Milwaukee is, indeed, a horrible city.
Mainstream Democrats, in their response to this affront, sadly and predictably refused to acknowledge any of the horrible issues Milwaukeeans face, like some of the fastest rising rents in the country, and a political machine so remote from their lives as to hardly seem to exist. Because of the source of the remark, it was rejected out of hand, and any possible resulting opportunity to improve the city died on the vine.
The qualifier “mainstream” is necessary: not all those who run on the Democratic ticket or typically vote for Democratic candidates have these irrational, tribalistic tendencies; indeed, some even try to make policies which advance the interests of the working class and the poor –about which more later. “Mainstream”, however, carries too little information. Let’s call them “Landlord Dems”.
Landlord Dems consider themselves highly progressive, ‘woke’, even. They are often front-line infantry in the culture wars, and cannot wait to display their virtuous knowledge in stamping out this or that micro-transgression from acceptable, MSNBC norms. They are pure idealists, to whom structural inequality has nothing to do with the economy, and everything to do with the ill-intent of evil men, or some version of the concept of original sin carried from religion into politics. One might envision a typical specimen wearing a t-shirt which says “Justice for All” while supervising the eviction of a family of four, then texting their friends about work ethic, or how hard it is to find good help.
This represents the majority of the modern Democratic Party. Rhetorically associated with the culture, but not the content of mass movements, and espousing a belief in a “change” of ethereal substance. That orientation in the culture wars has made it simpler for the Landlord Dems to think of themselves as “The Left”. Not quite.
Can You Tell Your Left From Your Right?
It may be helpful, at this point, to elucidate the historical meaning of the terms “left” and “right” within political discourse. In 18th century pre-revolutionary France, their parliament was divided between monarchists and non-monarchists, and their seating arrangements reflected that. Those who would sit on the right believed that existing hierarchies of power were natural, and defensible; those on the left believed that existing power relations were not natural, and worth opposing. Applying these conceptualizations to our modern politics, we can see how Landlord Dems are right wing: their myth of ‘meritocracy’ is, to them, natural, and worth defending. That’s why they spend their time in between theatrical battles with the Republicans, defending existing power relations.
How Landlord Dems react when existing structures of power are critiqued is telling. See for instance a recent UrbanMilwaukee piece which solicited quotes from several Landlord Dems about Representative Ryan Clancy, a progressive workhorse and popular people’s champ.
Bruce Murphy, the author, is savvy and inveterate enough to know the effect his journalism will have; he also ought to understand that the spiteful personal jabs his sources threw derive less from any actual personality traits of Rep. Clancy than from resentment at the fact that he spends his time working for the poor and working class, while they work for capitalists and landlords. A popular incumbent running as a Democrat, Clancy is nonetheless attacked, a primary opponent is put up against him, and big money is mobilized.
This episode illustrates how Landlord Dems function as the immune system of power, but it is far from the only recent example of Landlord Dems attacking The Left on behalf of moneyed interests.
Earlier this year, Ron Jansen, a socialist, and a pitbull of an agitator for poor and working people’s interests made a run at the 4th District County Board seat Clancy was vacating. During his campaign - on the Democrat ticket - he knocked on over 10,000 doors; despite what had to have been a hectic campaign schedule, he remained a staple presence at the many marches, rallies, and fundraisers drawing attention to the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza. He was active and outspoken in putting pressure on the County to address the deaths in their jails, and spoke often on this and other issues at the Board. He knew how the system worked, and how he would work it for us once he was able to infiltrate it.
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin put up a candidate against him who was able to raise $36,408, spending $18,074.25 just on literature to pump up name recognition at key junctures during the campaign (according to campaign finance reports). In particular, $16,185 - more than double Jansen’s entire campaign fund - was spent on March 15th on campaign literature; the primary election was February 2nd. Two weeks before the election, an overwhelming amount of money is spread throughout the district, keeping the candidate’s name on the minds of voters. This is how a local election is bought. Landlord Dems Sheldon Wasserman, Marcelia Nicholson, Liz Sumner, Shawn Rolland, Clarence Kinnard (a Wasserman staffer), Jonathon Brostoff, and Gary Goyke contributed personally.
More recently, Deisy Espana, candidate for the 9th District State Assembly seat, and a longtime immigrants rights organizer, was asked to speak at an event celebrating DACA, the “Dreamers” act. She was asked to speak as an organizer rather than as a candidate, and did so. Despite having respected this delineation of roles, she was attacked there by establishment Democrats, namely Sylvia Ortiz-Velez and Issy Ramon, who demanded that she declare her support for the now irrelevant President Biden, and for Gwen Moore, the Caterpillar and Boeing money-taking Representative from our fair state. Pause and mentally picture the scene: Dems attacking an immigrants rights organizer at an event celebrating DACA.
We have here three rich examples of Landlord Democrats punching down and to the left, tacitly and implicitly aligning themselves with established power and power relations. How many more reminders do leftists need? Perhaps instead of real-life instances, the point may be driven home with a bit more history. In 1985, the Democratic Leadership Council, a Party think tank, was established, and began to shape the electoral strategy of the Democratic Party[1]. That strategy was to move to the right: on free-market rapacity, on criminal justice, and in foreign affairs. Bill Clinton comes from its ranks. Ascendant in the 90’s, its right-of-Reagan agenda started to be implemented: NAFTA (impoverishing Mexican workers and busting US unions), the Omnibus Crime Bill (mass incarceration), and “Welfare Reform” (gutting the social safety net, ending AFDC). The Democratic Party continues to be guided by the thinking that the interests of big business are the national interest, and that means we must have ‘flexible labor markets’ (precarious existence for workers), and we must do everything we can to promote ‘innovation’ (nonsense). Amazingly, and in part due to the guilty consciences of some of the more bleeding-heart elites within the Party, Landlord Dems the country over consider themselves to be The Left; see themselves as ‘justice warriors’; this while basically allowing businesses to complete their takeover of the nation. Forty years of this.
Landlord Dems now run our city. Having inherited power over a de-industrialized wasteland, they imagine they can build a professionalized economy of real estate, finance, and insurance - downtown, of course, and in areas being gentrified. In the linked article, a 2021 survey asked Milwaukee residents about the issues facing the city, about which it is said: ‘when survey respondents were asked how nice it was to live in Milwaukee, racial and ethnic contours came to the fore. More than half the white and Hispanic people polled said the city is “excellent” or “good,” while 80% of Black respondents rated the city “fair” or “poor.”’
So yes, Trump is right about Milwaukee being a horrible city, when we ask “for whom”. If we want to address the material factors which contribute to this sad state, we have to evict the Landlord Dems from political power, and cancel the rents they extract by monopolizing political opposition to even-further-right Republicans. And, when one of them identifies themselves with The Left, ask for proof.
1 See Frank, Thomas “Listen, Liberal: What Ever Happened to the Party of the People”, 2016, pp. 57-60, 66, 88, 90, 95, 123-125, 141
This is a guest submission, written by Jess Devitt. More about Jess:
Jess Devitt is a high school dropout and a Marxist. He does little, and enjoys less. He can be reached at jess.devit84@gmail.com.