A hand with a scissors cutting student loan papers in half.
No issue brings into more stark relief the chasm between me and my party’s elites than student loan forgiveness. And few things I write about generate the kind of strong feelings this one does, on both sides of the issue. I think this matter is as good as any to demonstrate the gap between moderate Democrats, like me, and the party’s liberal elites.
It might surprise readers to learn that self-identified liberals make up only half of Democrats. According to a 2020 Pew Research poll, the other half is made up of moderates (38 percent) and conservatives (14 percent). And people who describe themselves as very liberal make up only 15 percent of Democrats. But that’s not the image of the party because it’s those very liberal elites who hold fundraisers, dominate college campuses and most media and entertainment outlets, and are most active on social media. It’s the children of elites who staff campaigns and nonprofits and end up working in congressional offices. It’s elites who form the public’s view of the party, much to the party’s detriment, I believe.
(And, by the way, when I use the term “elites” I mean that in both the literal and pejorative senses. They are literally elite in the sense that they have the greatest power and influence over the party and I also regard them with contempt.)
And this student debt issue is the Grand Canyon of gaps in world view between people like me and people like U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), probably the most outspoken advocate of debt forgiveness.
Here are what I see as the most fundamental philosophical differences between moderates like me and liberals like Warren.
Progressivism. I call “progressives” the “hard-left” because I don’t see them as very progressive at all. What is progressive about a $10,000 handout to college graduates who will make on average almost twice as much as people without a degree? President Joe Biden, who to his credit was never excited about any of this to begin with, tried to make it all just a little more fair by imposing income limits of $125,000 for a single person and $250,000 for a household — not exactly poverty wages in themselves. The White House background paper claims that 90 percent of the benefits will go to people earning less than $75,000. But that’s just a snapshot in time. A young lawyer might not be making six figures today, but she soon will and, over time, she might not have had any trouble at all paying back her loan. Biden also would give another $10,000 in relief to anyone who got a Pell Grant. But those grants are available to low-income parents of students. Pell Grant eligibility says nothing about the circumstances or prospects of the graduate.
So, under this plan it’s possible that someone earning $124,000 with prospects to make a lot more, and who had every intention and plenty of capability to pay back their loan, will get $20,000 in forgiveness. This is progressive?
The Democratic Party, my party, used to be a home for the working class. But what’s fair about people who never went to college, or people who did and who dutifully paid back their loans, paying off the loans of college grads who didn’t make the same sacrifices or who weren’t as responsible? And why does it make sense to pay off all or big parts of the loans of people who could and would pay it all back? Isn’t that a waste of taxpayer dollars that could be better targeted at people who really need the help?
Personal responsibility. It seems to me that when a student takes out a loan he should know what the repayment schedule would look like. Then when he picks a major he should have some rough idea of what he can expect to earn. Then, after considering those things, he should not take it lightly when he signs a contract to pay the money back. College is more expensive now. I get it. But that doesn’t excuse a person from running the numbers. If you have to delay going to college or you have to go to community college first or you have to live with your parents while you commute to school or you can’t afford the college you want or you have to choose a major that’s more lucrative…well, welcome to adulthood. Life is filled with compromises, disappointments and hard choices. You can’t expect the rest of society to hand you everything you want. Supporters of this plan will also point out that a high percentage of borrowers never got a degree. Hard-left Democrats will say that’s the system’s fault. I see it as a personal failing.
Individualism. The hard-left views people not so much as individuals with unique talents and histories, but as members of groups, who are either privileged or oppressed, regardless of the particular circumstances of the person. So, in this case, the hard-left wants blanket forgiveness, without looking at personal circumstances. Along those lines, they point out that a disproportionate amount of the forgiveness will go to Black people. To the hard-left, obsessed with identity politics, that alone is enough to justify the policy. But this means that Black taxpayers who didn’t go to college — only 14 percent of Black adults have a degree as opposed to 30 percent of all adults — will subsidize those who did. How is that just?
Educational snobbery. My party is rapidly becoming the party of the college educated and with that comes an unfortunate sense of superiority. How many times have you heard a fellow liberal say that Trump voters are “voting against their own interest”? How many times have you said it yourself? Blue collar voters can feel that condescension. And, as a practical matter, college grads are outnumbered, as two-thirds of American adults don’t have a four year degree. The Democrats simply cannot be successful in the long run without winning back at least some blue collar voters because of their numbers and because of the way they are spread out on the landscape. A party of college grads living in dense urban areas cannot succeed both because there aren’t enough of us and because we make it easy to form lots of Republican-leaning legislative and congressional districts.
But even in statewide races, where redistricting isn’t an issue, the hard-left may have just pushed the Democrats into the minority in the Senate. Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan and Sens. Michael Bennet of Montana and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, all moderate Democrats in close races, quickly distanced themselves from Biden’s plan. And this won’t help Democrat Mandela Barnes here in Wisconsin. Barnes is a strong proponent of loan forgiveness, but Wisconsin is a state with a higher-than-average blue collar population. In a close race, this issue could tip the balance to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson.
Look, I am not suggesting that college debt isn’t a problem, though I wouldn’t call it a crisis. The price of cars has gone up at roughly the same rate as college and the overall debt amount is in the same ballpark, but we don’t talk about an auto loan crisis. In fact, the average student debt is about $28,000 while the average price of a new car is $48,000. The car starts depreciating the moment you drive it off the lot, while the college degree gets you, on average, about $1.2 million in additional earnings over your career. A pretty good investment.
Still, there is a coherent moderate response to the rising cost of college. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) has a comprehensive plan that deals with the underlying problems. It’s worth a look.
The moderate Klobuchar has the details, but in general terms, I’d suggest four things.
First, we should allow student debt to be considered when declaring bankruptcy, something that isn’t allowed under current law. I like this answer because bankruptcy is about personal circumstances and it requires the individual to take personal responsibility. It’s not blanket forgiveness based on group status.
Second, we should dramatically expand Pell Grants, as Klobuchar proposed during her presidential campaign.
Third, we should launch a study and initiative to get at the high cost of college. We should look at the burgeoning number of administrators and the proliferation of unnecessary amenities, and we should look for efficiencies within regions so that not every public school needs to duplicate the same programs.
Fourth, we should work to reduce the prerequisite for college degrees for millions of jobs that don’t really require them. That may happen naturally as the free market grapples with a labor shortage.
But none of that will satisfy the hard-left, which thinks that even Biden’s plan doesn’t go far enough. They are absolutely passionate in their support for student loan forgiveness just as I am absolutely passionate in my opposition to it because this issue goes to deeply felt, fundamental values. Sen. Warren has said that she’ll keep fighting for even more loan forgiveness because “it’s the right thing to do.” I think it is absolutely the wrong thing to do on every level. We couldn’t be further apart.
And of course, all of this may be for naught as Biden’s legal rationale for his program will come under assault. If it ends up in the Supreme Court, you can’t like his chances.
As a moderate Democrat I’m trapped in my party. I will not vote for a Republican or sit out a general election because the GOP has become the de facto fascist party of America. Whatever disagreements I have with the elites in my own party, I will do nothing to help the other guys gain power.
And yet, the party of Elizabeth Warren is not my party either. I have deep and fundamental disagreements with how the hard-left views the world and the college debt relief plan is just one stark example of that.
I’ll stick with the Democrats because I have no real choice. But I’m keeping my options open. I’m closely watching the new Forward Party. Given a responsible opportunity to bolt from the Democrats in a way that didn’t help the other guys, I’d do it in a minute.
Dave Cieslewicz is a Madison- and Upper Peninsula-based writer who served as mayor of Madison from 2003 to 2011. Both his reporting and his opinion writing have been recognized by the Milwaukee Press Club. You can read more of his work at Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos. He’s the author of Light Blue: How center-left moderates can build an enduring Democratic majority.
