W.J. Astore
The Road Not Taken
Remember in February of 2021 when Democrats said they were going to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour? That raise would have lifted nearly a million workers out of poverty while placing Democrats firmly on the side of working-class Americans.
You may recall the “Senate Parliamentarian,” an obscure official, ruled that the pay raise couldn’t be included in the proposed bill, a decision that Democrats said they oh-so-reluctantly respected. And so the federal minimum wage still sits at $7.25 an hour (the last time it was raised was in 2009).
Vice President Kamala Harris, presiding over the Senate, could have simply overruled the Parliamentarian, but she and the Biden administration chose not to.
Think about that. Biden/Harris ran on a platform of raising that wage to $15. Biden himself promised it and promoted it. But when push came to shove, they didn’t shove, nor did they even push. They just caved to their corporate overlords.
A counterfactual: What if the Democrats had done what they’d promised? What if Harris had run in 2024 on a proven record of delivering higher wages to workers? What if she’d said she was going to raise it even higher, say to $20 an hour, when she became president? My guess is that she would have fared far better with workers and may in fact have won the election.
Elections have consequences, Democrats like to say. So too does a broken promise.
Bracing Views 
Ah, yes, the ephemeral Senate Parliamentarian, never heard of the office before, haven’t heard from it since. Presuming it actually does stand for adherence to parliamentary rules and procedures, it’s gone AWOL now when we need it most. Oh, wait a minute, where was this enigmatic Senate Parliamentarian when Mitch McConnell, during his overlong Senate career, did nothing aside from inflicting more than his fair share of destruction upon the country?
But back to whether Harris and the Democrats could have won if they had delivered on their promises… Seeing as it’s pocketbook issues that decide issues in elections here, and nothing of higher value than that, it’s likely that would have been enough to carry them over the finish line. But I think – and I know this is fanciful thinking on my part – Harris could have secured her place in history to far greater effect than occupying the Oval Office if she made a central part of her campaign the denunciation of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians. Political suicide of course, given the vicious reaction of the Israeli juggernaut (including Mossad assassins?), but then again she may have picked up a few votes for heroically speaking the truth. So go down in history as corporate lackey, or truth teller?
We saw this before, there would have been no Gulf War II had Colin Powell said before the UN that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, that assertions to the contrary were cooked up fabrications by the Dumbya administration, which he knew to be the case. Of course the fallout would have been tsunami-like, perhaps even bringing down Dumbya and his accomplices, but he would have made history, for the good (and he’d still have his pension).
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Thank goodness Trump won as his appetite for money and power and his inability to hide it are going to bring his MAGA project crashing down amid outrage by we the people.
Had Harris won, the 1% would not be upset, Israel would have as free a hand to slaughter as it did under Biden and we would not have the delight of seeing the seemingly infinite wealth of Elon Musk unable to keep him acting like a god over the lives of thousands of government workers.
Things will get worse as agencies are unable to do what Congress created them to do, but the lack of restraint by Trump/Musk as they take on Medicare and Social Security will seal their fate. If there is one thing both giant egos cannot bear it is to back down and admit they are wrong even as the uproar increases.
The sleeping giant, the public that became apathetic to the point of losing conscientiousness (and conscience regarding Zionism) is feeling a financial bite that offers a possibility for political change regarding the heretofore uncontested rule of the 1%. The “bern” that was felt with Bernie is now be the real burn of financial/job loss. The former was easily swept aside by the personification of the 1%, Hillary. This time people are hitting the streets.
And at only two months in office, the reaction to a greedy amoral man of no character smashing things has just begun. What irony if MAGA, turns out to really transform American politics in a way never imagined by the red hat wearers. But good will not come unless the Supreme Court approval of the corruption of government by unlimited private/anonymous campaign funding is reversed.
If that doesn’t happen then what we are seeing will truly be sound and fury signifying nothing.
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Is this article some kind of Bracing Views honeypot? I find it hard to believe that your position is that the minimum wage issue could/would have gotten Kamala elected. The election was about values; Americans rejected ridiculous progressive ideology. Perhaps if the student loan repayment scam had also succeeded (in addition to the minimum wage increase), there would have been enough bribery to swing the election? I think not. Americans would have taken the money, and still voted as they did. It is indeed interesting that the Democrats respected the Parliamentarian’s opinion, given that a) they respect nothing; and b) have no qualms acting against the Constitution when it suits them. Seems to me they intentionally wanted to break their promise. Your fantastical reflection here about a single election-swinging issue reminds me of Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite: “If only Coach had put me in…” Progressives, like Democrats, still need a reality check.
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So you see raising wages for workers as a form of “bribery”? Really?
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If it is done in good faith to truly help working class Americans, then no.
If it is one disingenuously as to win an election, then yes.
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The bottom line is that workers deserve fair wages–and Trump/Harris weren’t willing to keep their promise of a $15 wage. Thus they deserved to lose.
There is no honor in broken promises.
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As William Munny said to Little Bill in the movie Unforgiven, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” Americans could care less about an increased minimum wage when they are fighting for freedom of speech, secure borders, safe cities, the right to raise their children, and American Values. Minimum wage will never swing an election…Americans don’t want something that will still keep them barely surviving and dependent on government pay mandates (right where Progressives want them). They would rather have Freedom, and an economy that gives them the opportunity to succeed based on merit. Harris, the Dems, and all things Leftward deserved to lose, because they are out of touch with Americans and continuously try to impose ridiculous policies that the majority of Americans reject as harmful or laughable.
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The “freedom” to be exploited? The “freedom” to have no benefits with your job? Not sure I want that “freedom.”
There is such a thing as a fair and living wage, and $7.25 isn’t it. Even $15.00 only nets you $30K a year if you work full time for 50 weeks out of 52.
Not sure I want the “freedom” to have two or three part-time jobs that pay $10 an hour with no benefits that keep me in poverty and eligible for food stamps.
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Relentless…I see I’ve come to the right place.
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