Beyond ‘deliverism’

The widespread assumption among progressives that the way to win robust support is simply to deliver economic improvements in people’s lives – an assumption reminiscent of commodity fetishism – is fatally flawed. It’s not that economic improvements aren’t important, it’s just that people need something more:

Solving the authoritarianism challenge requires a progressive program and organizing strategy that speak directly and persuasively to the wave of unhappiness and despair and are rooted in the texture of everyday life—what people actually talk about, care about, and worry about. Such an approach will continue to foreground economic security and rights, but it must also affirm other aspects of human flourishing that have long been emphasized by diverse social movements, including the importance of collective care, community, belonging, and solidarity. The task for progressives at this historical juncture is not to find the magic message or to deliver more popular policies. Rather, it is to offer a compelling, energizing, persuasive vision of the good life and to organize mass-based organizations through which people shape and live out those values in the here and now.

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