“The Billionaires Have Two Parties, We Need a Party of Our Own" with Les Leopold
Les Leopold’s new book, “The Billionaires Have Two Parties – We Need a Party of Our Own,” starts from a simple claim: Republicans and Democrats alike have become instruments of the billionaire class, while working people are left with no real political home.
On Coming From Left Field, Leopold walks through the economic history behind that argument, from deindustrialization and NAFTA to Wall Street’s “financial strip mining” of communities through mass layoffs and stock buybacks. He highlights places like Mingo County, West Virginia—once a New Deal Democratic and union stronghold—where coal jobs collapsed, no serious public reconstruction ever arrived, and the opioid industry filled the vacuum as the only growth sector. In county after county across the Rust Belt and Appalachia, he and his co‑researchers found that rising mass layoffs map onto falling Democratic vote share; voters blame the party that was supposed to fight for them, not because of “wokeness,” but because Democrats abandoned New Deal‑style job guarantees and embraced a corporate‑first politics.
The heart of Leopold’s case, though, is that ordinary people are far readier for a bold working‑class program than the political class believes. In a 3,000‑person survey in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, he tested a fictional “Independent Workers Political Association” with a radical platform: a right to a job at a living wage (with the public sector stepping in if the private sector fails), a ban on compulsory layoffs at firms receiving government money, a genuinely livable minimum wage, and strong action against price‑gouging by pharmaceutical and food corporations. He expected fringe support; instead, 57% of voters backed the idea, only 18% opposed it, support was consistent across all four states, 40% of Trump voters said yes, and 70% of voters under 30 were on board. The same survey showed the Democratic label itself has become a liability: for identical populist platforms, “independent” candidates started about eight points ahead of “Democrats,” and in Ohio, the penalty for the Democratic label rose to roughly sixteen points.
For Leopold, the implication is clear: you cannot build a serious working‑class politics by trying to be “better Democrats” everywhere. Instead, his book calls for building a new “party of our own” from the ground up in deep‑red areas where Democrats barely exist—running independent working‑class candidates, pushing ballot initiatives like banning forced layoffs at firms on the public dime, and using labor‑rooted political education to turn widespread anger and insecurity into a coherent, independent working‑class movement.
About Les Leopold
Les Leopold is a longtime labor educator, author, and co‑founder of the Labor Institute, which has been training workers and union activists on economic and environmental issues since the 1970s. Raised in a working‑class family of war refugees, he studied at Oberlin College and earned a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton before working closely with visionary labor leader Tony Mazzocchi, a pioneer of the occupational safety movement and an early advocate of a Labor Party. Leopold is the author of several books, including “Runaway Inequality,” “How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour,” “Wall Street’s War on Workers,” and a biography of Mazzocchi, “The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor.” His work combines data‑driven political economy with on‑the‑ground organizing, aimed at helping working people.
Order the book: https://www.amazon.com/Billionaires-Have-Parties-Need-Party/dp/B0GX77LK8B/ [https://www.amazon.com/Billionaires-Have-Parties-Need-Party/dp/B0GX77LK8B/]
Website: The Labor Institute [https://www.thelaborinstitute.org/]
Substack: https://lesleopold.substack.com/p/the-billionaires-have-two-parties-f10 [https://lesleopold.substack.com/p/the-billionaires-have-two-parties-f10]
Greg’s Blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/ [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbnZiaXBnYmhhZXA1VmI0NTJudjl2V3VRUVJRZ3xBQ3Jtc0tsdzVkVXZzVW5KUEZscnU4ZndWTmUweFJxRVJONGpsa0JIdi1ScDYycUxSQ2gyRnB4UU1Ca0Fkd1dQZWFPUUNWM3dodUVwNk9kR2ZSTHVSdG5zUU5nVFF6S2xnb1EzTnBiSnJWZkFHRUZuOTZ0Z3NfYw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fzzs-blg.blogspot.com%2F&v=6oUWpHKqewA]
Pat’s Substack: https://patcummings.substack.com/ [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbHdOR0hWUUtEZ01GcHNDaEZPZ0hMd18xTmtPQXxBQ3Jtc0tscS1ZcUx3YW5jQUhLY1BEN21iaXFWNlhhOTlMNmljMjM5c2F2U2E3empQdEFBMmZSbEFBQmw0Z3I0Znk0bnByYXlQbnpmWnQzUmV0OWVhc090YzFlREVsYXVtd2hSZVRLN1o5UmtsN3pOUlNzeWlCRQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fpatcummings.substack.com%2F&v=6oUWpHKqewA]
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