The Labor Department reported September jobs numbers on Thursday, showing employers added 119,000 jobs to the economy but also an increase in unemployment to 4.4 percent. “The September report shows fairly good job growth, but every other report we have for October shows a slowdown,” says Robert Reich, the former secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton.

“Real wages — that is, wages adjusted for inflation — are going down for most people. The bottom 90 percent of Americans are in very bad shape,” says Reich. This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Akela Lacy speaks to the professor, author, and longtime commentator about the economy and the state of Democratic Party politics under Trump. “The only people who are doing well, who are keeping the economy going through their purchases, are the top 10 percent, and they’re basically doing well because they’re the ones who own most of the shares of stock,” says Reich. “What happens when and if the stock market implodes?”

Reich has been beating the drum on poverty and inequality for decades. And while that message took some time to hit the mainstream, it seems to be hitting home now more than ever, but Democratic leadership continues to fall flat in conveying they understand the urgency of the economic hardships ordinary Americans face.

The answer, Reich says, is new leadership. He is disappointed in Democrats who caved to Trump on the government shutdown. “It’s another example of the Democrats not having enough backbone,” Reich says. “I think Chuck Schumer has to go. And Jeffries too.” He adds, “I’m 79 years old. I have standing to speak about the fact that there is a time to move on. And I think that the Democratic leaders today should move on.”

Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Transcript

Akela Lacy: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing, I’m Akela Lacy.

If you’ve been following politics coverage at The Intercept, you know we have a minor obsession with the battle over the soul of the Democratic Party. Our guest today may give us a run for our money.

Robert Reich: People ask me every day, where the fuck are the Democrats? There are a handful leading the fight against Trump’s regime.

JB Pritzker: Come and get me.

RR: But the party’s leadership has been asleep at the wheel.

AL: That’s Robert Reich, secretary of labor under former President Bill Clinton and a professor, author, and commentator on capitalism and inequality. Reich has organized his life project around progressive policies: getting big money out of politics, strengthening unions, and taxing the rich. His new memoir, “Coming Up Short,” walks through his life’s work and the various bullies and boogeymen who crossed his path. Reich also has a new documentary, “The Last Class,” which chronicles his final semester teaching at U.C. Berkeley about wealth and inequality.

RR (in trailer): One of the best ways of learning is to discuss something with somebody who disagrees with you. Can I do what I love to do, as well as I should be doing it? The wealth is held by the richest 400 Americans. You get the picture? We have to all engage their curiosity. Democracy’s not a spectator sport. It’s active.

AL: Reich hasn’t been quiet about his criticisms for Democrats. He endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in 2016 and had harsh words for the new billionaire-financed Democratic think tank launched earlier this year by ex-staffers of Sen. John Fetterman. But he’s also been a quintessential party insider: He wholeheartedly backed both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020 and 2024, though he’s been open about where Biden fell short.

Reich has been beating the drum on poverty and inequality for decades. And while that message took some time to hit the mainstream, it seems to be hitting home now more than ever. Voters are at the end of their ropes under an administration unabashed about its mission to enrich the world’s elite — and itself — while terrorizing communities around the country.

And while that frustration with Trump has been evident in Democrats’ recent electoral wins, it still feels like Democratic leadership is failing, in so many ways, to meet the moment. So what has to happen for things to really change? What more has to break until something gives?

Now, we’ll delve into those questions and more with Robert Reich.

Mr. Reich, welcome to the show.

RR: Akela, thank you very much for having me.

AL: Mr. Reich, you’ve argued that Democrats have lost the working class because they’ve catered to big money and corporations, and that the way to fix American democracy is to get big money out of the picture. Why do you think that has been so hard to do?

RR: Because big money doesn’t want big money to be out of the picture, Akela. It’s pretty straightforward. It’s a chicken and egg problem, and it’s become a larger and larger problem. I saw it begin in the 1970s after the Powell memo to the Chamber of Commerce calling on big corporations to get involved in American politics.

In terms of putting big money into American politics, I saw it in the ’80s getting much worse when I was secretary of labor — it was really awful, I thought big money was taking over. But little did I know that the 21st century would be far, far worse. Well, it’s worse than ever, but I think that in some ways, Trump is a consequence, a culmination of four decades, five decades of more and more corporate and big, wealthy money in American politics.

AL: You mentioned the rise of Trump. He campaigned as a populist, but his policies have obviously favored the wealthy, including massive tax cuts. Why does that political contradiction work for him?

“What he’s given the working class is people and institutions to hate.”

RR: I think it worked for Donald Trump because he’s a con man. He knows how to speak in the language of the working class, but appealing to the red meat — and I hate to say it — but bigotry side of the working class. That is, even though Trump has given the wealthy exactly what they want in terms of tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks and everything that can make them even wealthier — at the same........

© The Intercept