Progressives “crashed the party by sort of becoming part of it, but also fundamentally changing its course,” said Heather Gautney, associate professor of sociology, in regards to her book Crashing the Party: From the Bernie Sanders Campaign to a Progressive Movement. “In the book, what I do is outline the development of the new Democrat model in which the Democratic Party was shifting rightward.” 

Gautney and Zephyr Teachout, associate professor of law, discussed the progressive movement and their respective books for Fordham Law’s Behind the Book series, organized by the Maloney Library and moderated by Todd Melnick, clinical associate professor of law and director of the library.

In the Nov. 16 event, the two professors offered thoughtful analysis of the future of the progressive movement, punctuated by details from their many active years in politics. 

Teachout, who has been at Fordham Law since 2009, ran for governor of New York in 2014 and for the United States House of Representatives in New York’s 19th congressional district in 2016. She published her antitrust book Break ‘Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money this past May. 

Gautney, who published her book in 2018, has worked on both Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns—as a senior policy adviser in 2020 and a volunteer organizer and researcher in 2016.

Defining Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism comes up in both books, Melnick noted. Gautney said for her, the definition of neoliberalism is less about what it is, and more about what it has accomplished and defeated. “I don’t have the exact words, but the concept is that neoliberalism has achieved the successful removal of working-class resistance,” she said. She gave the example of Reagan firing thousands of air traffic control workers who were on strike in 1981, saying “It was a message to labor: ‘Hey, you’re not safe anymore. The protections that you think that you enjoy, you don’t enjoy anymore.’” 

“All of these forces kind of coming together and pushing down working people and moving resistance aside—and fundamentally neoliberalism is about the primacy of the market.”

Similarly, Teachout defined neoliberalism as “the belief that markets are the best mechanism for allocating goods and services as opposed to publicly elected officials.” She said this depends on the fantasy that markets exist before people, and is an attempt by neoliberals to “naturalize what is wholly unnatural,” by framing market regulation as hampering the growth of something natural.

“Laws that enable workers to organize are absolutely essential,” Teachout continued, tying back to her book. “And the key tool to prevent capital from organizing is antitrust.” 

The Impact of the Sanders Campaign

According to Gautney, neoliberal identity politics also played a role in the end of Bernie Sanders’ campaign. Neoliberals considered diversity within the “1%” enough, she said, and they tried to paint Sanders as someone who didn’t care about diversity when what he really cared about was dismantling the 1% and helping the less fortunate. 

Gautney said both she and Sanders himself were surprised about his appeal to young people, since a good chunk of his political career was spent fighting for social security and working with seniors. But she believed that young people flocked to him because he ran a “very counter-cultural” campaign in 2016 when people were disillusioned with what the democratic party had become. And, she said, young people aren’t afraid of socialism the way that older generations are.

Gautney pointed out that even though Sanders lost, progressives who were inspired by his campaign like Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were elected. 

“In a way he didn’t lose because he shifted the horizon of possibility back,” she said. “We have people who clearly were running on the same agenda that Bernie had injected in 2016… having a substantial appeal. … I would consider that big wins.”

The Future of the Progressive Movement

In terms of the future of the progressive movement, Gautney said that Sanders had negotiated a number of task forces with the Biden campaign after the primary, one of which she co-chaired on education. These task forces, which in her view are “pretty darn good,” coupled with the possibility of a Democratic Senate due to the Georgia runoff, means that the progressive movement could have power in the Biden administration.

Teachout offered the next steps for the progressive movement from both an antitrust and a non-antitrust perspective. On the non-antitrust front, she said organizational work within Congress is essential. 

“Use the power you have,” she advised congressional leaders. “Use subpoena power. Take on those hospitals that are merging and overcharging people. Do the investigations. Show that you are fighting for people against the middlemen that are squeezing them. And you can do that even without the Senate.” 

On the antitrust side, Teachout said that Biden has the power to revive the economy using anti-monopoly policy. “And it’s not just that he should. It’s that I think, eventually, he’s going to have to, because if you are running into a wall on a Senate that will not pass a stimulus package, you know what a stimulus package is? Anti-monopoly. There’s recent research showing that $15,000 a year is being taken away from workers per year, from each worker per year, to investors, because of concentration in our society.”

When asked by Melnick about whether she felt optimistic moving forward, Gautney replied, “I’m somewhere in the middle, I have to say.”

But she believes Sanders’ influence on this Senate will make a big difference. “[Bernie] is running around with the manifesto and really trying to make sure that the Democratic party and Biden in particular sticks to it.” She said his pragmatic attitude, the force of the movement, and his popularity is what’s made him so successful. “I think he’s ready to go.”

Watch the conversation in full here.

Dear Members of the Fordham Community,

As citizens of the United States, we are justly proud of our nation’s democratic practices and we support the promotion of democracy elsewhere in the world. At the heart of the democratic sprit is the belief in self-determination, which means the right to vote is not just a civil right but an important human right. With rights, however, come responsibilities.

With Election Day approaching on November 3, we encourage you to be citizens engaged in the civic life of our local, state, and national communities.

Early Voting

Sometimes, personal or professional conflicts make it hard or impossible for you to vote on Election Day. However, your state may let registered voters vote on specified dates before Election Day. This early voting chart lists time frames for states that offer early voting. Please note that the rules change from state to state. The best place to check is your state or territorial election office website. Check under “absentee voting” if you do not see information listed under “voting in person” or “early voting.”

If you are registered to vote in New York state, early voting has already started and runs until November 1, 2020. You can find the times and places where you can vote early at the New York State Board of Elections. Voters living in the five boroughs of New York City must vote at their assigned early voting site. To locate your assigned site, please visit findmypollsite.vote.nyc. If you are registered to vote in Westchester County, you may vote at any polling station located within the county.

The early voting sites and hours for the University’s Rose Hill, Lincoln Center, and Westchester campuses are as follows:

Absentee Voting

Each state has mail-in voting but some allow you to take part only in certain circumstances:

• Some states require an excuse for voting by mail. Due to COVID-19, some states are giving all voters an excuse to vote by mail for certain elections.
• Because of COVID-19, your state may automatically send you an absentee ballot or a form to fill out to request one.

Please check your state election office for the specific rules for your state.

Making an Informed Choice

Finally, it can be difficult to determine the positions of each candidate running for office. Please feel free to visit nonpartisan voter information sites such as votesmart.org, vote411.org, and isidewith.com for more information on candidates, including their biographies, their voting records, their positions on issues, and contributions to their campaigns.

Participating in the democratic process is a privilege and responsibility we all share. Exercising your right to vote on Election Day is an important duty, too important to ignore or neglect. Please be sure to exercise your privilege and vote on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3.

Lesley Massiah-Arthur
Associate Vice President for Government Relations and Urban Affairs

This is not the first time the three organizations have collaborated. Over the past few years, the Bronx Connections collaboration has tackled a variety of issues, from gang and gun violence to food insecurity to the legalization of marijuana. 

For the election, the issues are no less thorny than topics covered in past collaborations, said Eliot Schiaparelli, WFUV news manager and senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH). Together with FCRH senior Nora Thomas, Schiaparelli will serve as reporter and anchor, tackling issues that will also include health care and immigration. They will wrap the series with an episode on racial and economic inequality. The duo will split four topics between them, but will work together on the final program. 

“The hardest subject is racial and economic inequality; all the issues we focus on play into that,”  said Schiaparelli. 

For the Sept. 29 program on climate change, Schiaparelli reached out to local organizers from the student-led environmental group Bronx Sunrise, including FCRH senior Anita Gita, as well as Friends of the Mosholu Parkway Executive Director Elizabeth Quaranta. 

“Bronx Sunrise is the local hub for the national [Sunrise Movement] group, so they were a good way to talk about national issues through a local lens,” said Schiaparelli. 

For next week’s focus on crime, Thomas interviewed New York City Council Member Ritchie Torres and Melody Jiménez of the anti-violence group No Voice Unheard. Thomas said that inflammatory political rhetoric at the national level has made it difficult to pin down interviews. 

“Everyone is sort of constrained in what they say, they want to be careful not to alienate their connections,” she said.

With such contentious issues on the table, the pair was careful to provide balance, but not at the expense of a Bronx point of view. 

“Our boss [WFUV News and Public Affairs Director] George Bodarky says that being impartial is not covering a story 50/50,” said Schiaparelli. “You don’t have to give a quote for the right and the left, you cover what deserves more attention.” 

As a journalism major, Schiaparelli said that she appreciated getting text edits back from Norwood News and she especially liked seeing the polished videos on Bronxnet.

“[Interim Norwood News editor] Síle Moloney is an amazing editor, it’s so helpful to get that print edit from someone who is working as a professional in print,” she said. “And even though we had to do all the interviews on Zoom, it still ends up looking beautiful after BronxNet edits it.”