It's hard to believe, but Democrats used to be the party of small business.

In The Nation, @SusanRHolmberg and I argue that the left should once again embrace small business. Doing so is crucial to reversing inequality & rescuing democracy. It’s also key to winning Congress. 1/ https://twitter.com/thenation/status/1329009006518693898

It’s seems odd to us now, but for much of the 20th century, organized labor was allied with small business in the fight for a fair economy.

This was the Democratic Party coalition under FDR and for decades that followed. 2/

As FDR put it, the struggle was between the large-scale “units of finance and industry on one side and the great mass of workers and small-business men on the other.” 3/

Democrats believed that concentrated power was the top threat to democracy & equality. Their agenda was all about dispersing power. Strengthening unions was one way to do this; safeguarding small businesses from monopolies was another. These two strategies fit together. 4/

In the 1970s, Democrats abandoned small businesses. They embraced big corporations on the ground that they would deliver more for consumers and workers. But that didn’t happen. Quite the opposite. 5/