Green & Red Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode Overview

Title: Best of G&R: Noam Chomsky on Why the Democrats Suck (G&R 442)
Date: November 26, 2025
Hosts: Bob Buzzanco, Scott Parkin
Guest: Noam Chomsky

This episode features an in-depth conversation with Noam Chomsky examining the Democratic Party's shift to the right over the past five decades, focusing on the aftermath of the 1972 McGovern campaign, the evolution of neoliberalism, the state of labor, propaganda, foreign policy, and prospects for progressive change in America. The hosts use the anniversaries of McGovern’s defeat and Watergate as a springboard to unpack the broader rightward movement in U.S. politics, interrogate the role of business and donor influence, and discuss the future of working-class politics.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The 1972 McGovern Campaign and Its Legacy

• McGovern’s Incompetence and Lack of Elite Support
  • Chomsky recounts firsthand experience of Democratic campaign incompetence, including the campaign’s lack of information on the Vietnam War's realities despite accessible documentation:
    • “He [McGovern] ran the most incompetent campaign you can possibly imagine... shafted by the labor leaders, refused to support him.” [02:33]
  • Major Democratic leaders and labor refused to back McGovern as actual opposition to the Vietnam War was almost non-existent among elites.
• Roots of Rightward Shift
  • The 1972 defeat marked the start of the Democrats turning away from New Deal and working-class commitments.

The "Carter Years" and the Prelude to Neoliberalism

• Carter’s Administration and Labor
  • Carter, despite his later humanitarian years, was anti-labor as president and set the foundation for Reagan’s class war:
    • “Carter basically laid the basis for [Reagan]...the drift of the Democratic Party...to a party of affluent professionals, Wall Street kind of people who show up at Obama’s fancy parties…” [09:10]
• Collapse of the New Deal Consensus
  • Business interests tolerated the New Deal due to strong popular movements but schemed to overturn labor gains since the late 1930s.
  • Chomsky cites the "Crisis of Democracy" report from the Trilateral Commission as an elite liberal call to suppress popular activism and press freedoms.

The Neoliberal Turn: Reagan, Deregulation, and Class War

• Systemic Economic Transformation
  • From the mid-1970s, the U.S. saw a sharp divergence from other wealthy nations in health, incarceration, and wage growth as class war policies took hold.
    • “You start getting the sharp split in economic statistics...since Reagan from to the top 1%...$50 trillion. That’s pretty impressive class war.” [17:27]
  • Republicans eagerly pursued deregulation, crushing labor, and the financialization of the economy, while Democrats provided little resistance.

Collapse of Working-Class Politics and the Rise of Donor-Driven Policymaking

• Why Did Both Parties Move Right?
  • Both political parties responded to shifting business power and the collapse of mass working-class movements.
  • Democrats recast themselves as a party of “affluent professionals,” sidelining unions and everyday economic concerns.
• Donor Influence & Lobbying
  • Chomsky explains that newly elected representatives immediately solicit donors and are overwhelmed by corporate lobbying, which shapes legislation:
    • "The first thing you do is get on the phone, call the donors, make sure they’re happy. While you’re doing that, a hoard of corporate lawyers are descending on your offices...to basically write the legislation." [38:28]
  • The explosion of corporate lobbying in the 1970s cemented business domination of policy.

Left Punching and Marginalization Within the Democratic Party

• Hostile Treatment of Progressives
  • The party routinely undercuts its left flank, targeting figures like Jesse Jackson, Paul Wellstone, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
    • "The Sanders movement is extremely important...trying to move the country towards some kind of social democracy...but here it’s very important. It’s worth remembering how reactionary the United States has become.” [23:32]
  • Terms like “socialist” and “capitalist” remain stigmatized, reflecting deep-rooted ideological barriers unique to America.

Clinton, Obama, and the Acceleration of Neoliberalism

• Bipartisan Deregulation and Globalization
  • Clinton’s embrace of welfare reform, NAFTA, and the formation of the DLC signified a deepening corporate grip and abandonment of labor:
    • “Clinton...initiated the period of corporate run globalization, a form of globalization designed to undermine the US working class and to enrich private corporations.” [27:12]
  • Obama and Clinton publicly stated their alignment with Reagan-era policies.

Biden and the (Suppressed) Return of Pro-Labor Policy

• The Build Back Better Paradox
  • Biden’s initial domestic agenda, influenced by Sanders and progressive pressure, was largely popular in principle but destroyed by GOP and right-wing Democrats’ opposition.
    • Chomsky laments that public support for the substance of Democratic proposals does not translate into electoral or policy support because of media and propaganda failures.

Disconnect Between Public Opinion and Policy

• Misunderstood Policy Platforms
  • Most Americans support traditionally liberal policies (health care, abortion rights, gun reform, etc.), but are unaware that Democrats promote them due to media and propaganda distortions:
    • "Most people didn’t know what was in the program. All they knew was this right wing propaganda..." [31:58]
  • Republicans make gains even with unpopular minority positions by deploying effective propaganda and exploiting the Democratic Party’s deficiencies in organizing and messaging.

Labor and Emerging Movements: Possibilities and Obstacles

• Renewed Energy for Labor—But Severe Barriers
  • Organizing attempts at companies like Starbucks and Amazon face sophisticated, unregulated union-busting from management as labor laws and protections have been shredded.
    • “Management by now has developed very sophisticated tools to crush any kind of labor movement. You watch the tactics that will be used by Starbucks and Amazon...” [35:04]
  • Atomization and the evisceration of working-class solidarity makes progress extremely difficult.

Identity vs. Class: Strategic Drift

• The Democratic Shift to Identity Politics
  • Hosts raise why Democrats have abandoned material issues for identity-based politics. Chomsky’s answer circles back to donor dependence and the pressures to serve business interests.

Foreign Policy: "Saintly Glow" as Cover for Brutality

• Democratic "Hawkishness" and Propaganda
  • Clinton’s supposedly “saintly” foreign record included backing Turkish atrocities, devastating sanctions on Iraq, and enabling corporate anti-labor measures through NAFTA. The media largely ignored or downplayed these facts:
    • “Clinton had an awful record. I mean, just take a look at U.S. funding...US aid to Turkey was greater than the entire Cold War period up to the launch of the counterinsurgency. Well, this was barely reported.” [42:40]
• Bipartisan Foreign Policy, Global Dangers
  • U.S. policies on Ukraine and Taiwan are described as reckless and dangerous, reflecting an empire “with a death instinct.”
    • “It's almost as if they have a death instinct. Let's get it over with fast. Let's have two major wars, each of which will destroy us.” [53:49]

The Present: Crisis, Hope, and Paths Forward

• Are Things Worse Now Than During McCarthyism or the 1960s?
  • Chomsky, while noting the real dangers (e.g., Trump, voter suppression, right-wing radicalization), argues that significant social progress, especially since the 1960s, means the country is better prepared for resistance and activism than in his youth.
    • “A lot of things are much better if you go back and think about what the country was like in the 1960s... There are a lot of changes like that. Not all too good by any means, but a basis for moving on.” [58:54]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• On elite support for the Vietnam War:
  “There was no real opposition to the war among elite circles, Democrat or Republican. They’d go as far as saying maybe it’s a mistake or something like that. But any actual opposition to the war almost non existent.” — Noam Chomsky [03:40]

• On Carter’s shift:
  "Carter basically laid the basis for [Reagan]...the drift of the Democratic Party...to a party of affluent professionals, Wall Street kind of people who show up at Obama’s fancy parties…” — Noam Chomsky [09:10]

• On the Trilateral Commission’s ‘Crisis of Democracy’ report:
  “They have to become more passive and apathetic and obedient and just let us smart guys run things... They were particularly concerned with the universities, which they said are failing in their responsibility of indoctrination of the young.” — Noam Chomsky [11:30]

• On the Democratic Party’s realignment:
  “The Democratic party which had basically abandoned the working class. They were as I said becoming the party of affluent professionals. But and the Republicans of course took off with it.” — Noam Chomsky [17:04]

• On public ignorance of Democratic policies:
  “Turns out that people don’t know that the Democratic programs are the kinds that they support... They opposed the program and when asked, turned out most people didn’t know what was in the program.” — Noam Chomsky [31:58]

• On U.S. foreign policy and media complicity:
  “Clinton had an awful record...US aid to Turkey was greater than the entire Cold War period up to the launch of the counterinsurgency. Well, this was barely reported. New York Times has a bureau, of course, in Ankara. Not a word about it.” — Noam Chomsky [42:40]

• On donor influence in politics:
  “The first thing you do is get on the phone, call the donors, make sure they’re happy. While you’re doing that, a hoard of corporate lawyers are descending on your offices...” — Noam Chomsky [38:28]

• On the current existential dangers:
  “It's almost as if they have a death instinct. Let's get it over with fast. Let's have two major wars, each of which will destroy us. Somebody watching this from outer space, they think they're insane.” — Noam Chomsky [53:49]

• On progress since the 1960s:
  “A lot of things are much better if you go back and think about what the country was like in the 1960s... There are a lot of changes like that. Not all too good by any means, but a basis for moving on. That's what we can hope for.” — Noam Chomsky [58:54]

Significant Timestamps for Segments

• 00:44 – [Opening and episode context]
• 02:33 – Chomsky on the incompetence of the McGovern campaign
• 06:37 – AFL-CIO’s refusal to back McGovern, rise of Carter
• 09:47 – Business opposition to the New Deal, Trilateral Commission
• 17:27 – Reagan’s class war and economic transformations
• 18:42 – Collapse of working-class politics, impact on health care and mortality
• 22:29 – Parallels in labor and Democratic Party rightward drift
• 23:32 – Treatment of the left by Democratic centrists, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez
• 27:12 – Clinton, DLC, and corporate neoliberalism
• 31:10 – Public support for progressive issues vs political outcomes
• 34:30 – Resurgence and repression of labor organizing
• 38:28 – Donor and corporate dominance in politics
• 42:40 – Democratic hawkishness in foreign policy
• 49:09 – U.S. foreign policy on Ukraine and Taiwan, "death instinct" in Washington
• 55:14 – U.S. as unipolar power vs rise of multipolarity
• 58:54 – Chomsky on progress since the 1960s, lessons for hope and change

Takeaways

• The Democratic Party’s trajectory since the 1970s is marked by a retreat from working-class interests, embrace of big donors, and alignment with corporate and foreign policy elites.
• Economic, political, and media structures in the U.S. reinforce a system resistant to left-wing or social democratic policies, even when they have broad public support.
• Propaganda and corporate lobbying have been central to marginalizing progressive change and maintaining elite control.
• Recent labor organizing and the Sanders movement offer some hope, but face steep institutional and economic obstacles.
• Despite grave dangers and rightward trends, Chomsky argues that today’s society is, in some respects, better equipped for activism than during the worst moments of mid-20th-century repression.

This summary captures the critical arguments and powerful moments from the episode, providing new listeners with a clear and compelling overview of Noam Chomsky’s sweeping historical critique of the Democratic Party and American politics.