“Political democracy requires economic democracy.”

“I spent the day of Donald Trump’s election to the presidency of the U.S. in – of all places – Las Vegas, Nevada. The slot machines garishly blaring in the lobby, and the Trump hotel down the block, were apt symbols for the kind of world we in the U.S. felt ourselves rudely thrust into. I was in town for the annual gathering of the ESOP Association, a membership meeting of hundreds of companies with Employee Stock Ownership Plans. In the post-election moment, that gathering proved apt in a different way. The dialogues I took part in showed me that advancing employee ownership need not be imperiled by a Trump presidency. Indeed, this approach to rebuilding the middle class may be uniquely suited to the new political world. It is one of the most promising paths forward for progressives at this moment.”

Read more from The Democracy Collaborative’s Marjorie Kelly here.