Can Democrats raise money from wealthy people?

How money is raised is body language. 

Democrats are at a crossroad.

Democrats are deciding whether they are the party of the poor, the working poor, and the struggling middle class, people angry with a rigged system and demanding a new, fairer deal. FDR's Party. Bernie's Party.

Or are they the party of educated people comfortable enough with their situation that they are open to outsiders and victims of discrimination, and willing to share their country and its benefits with them. Clinton's Party. Obama's Party. Biden's Party.

Buttigieg event in Portland, Oregon.

Bernie Sanders points one path, arguing that justice and morality require America do a much better job taking care of the poor and working people of our nation and that requires a major change in the allocation of wealth and power. The middle class is struggling, which made them open to the false and dangerous path of a "pathological liar" Donald Trump.

Sanders sees a political path toward justice by motivating the vast majority of the people--the 90%--with new, redistributionist policies that address their concerns. 


A new Democratic Party would reduce power not just of billionaires, but also prosperous managers and professionals and comfortable bourgeois who do the work of the billionaires. They got ahead and don't see big problems. They attend fancy fundraisers.

Sanders and Warren raise money from the internet, not from fundraisers.

Elizabeth Warren called Pete Buttigieg to account: "We made the decision many years ago that rich people in smoke-filled rooms would not pick the next president of the United States. Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States."

Internet donations work for Warren and Sanders, but not well enough for the others, so Buttigieg and Biden are doing it the old way, with larger checks from wealthy people from fundraising events. Biden and Buttigieg have appeal, both personally and for their policies of incremental improvement. They are following a path set by Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama, who had made peace with the wealthy. 

The new clean money. Click a button.

Wealthy, educated people found Clinton's Third Way partnership talk to be acceptable if not ideal, and they considered the GOP's alliance with social conservatives uncomfortable, especially on Wall Street, in Hollywood, and in the universities. Both parties were globalist, foreigner and immigration friendly, and supported free trade. Democrats were  more tolerant, and nice people. They had all gone to school together.

Besides, the world they see is getting richer.

Not everyone. Not nearly. This failure of trickle down culminated in a populist revolt in 2016, led by Sanders and Trump. Sanders had the challenge of attempting to displace Hillary, who had paid her dues to the Party. Trump said the problem was rich professionals like Hillary, in cahoots with Wall Street, and dangerous, uncontrolled immigration.

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are saying that Democrats by raising money from wealthy people, are ratifying an unjust status quo that let  prosperous people get rich when others struggle. They are signaling the direction of the Party by choosing to represent people succeeding in the system--the opposite of populism.

It is a dilemma. If pressure from Sanders, Warren, and the progressive activist base forces Biden and Buttigieg to stop raising money from the wealthy, then their campaigns collapse. But continuing to raise money from the wealthy sends the message they are missing the populist wave. 

If Biden and Buttigieg don't communicate they align with the frustrated working person on economics--left populism--they can be sure Trump will connect with them by appealing to their fears, ethnocentrism, and nationalism--right populism.

It worked in 2016.