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("We may not like him, but we don't want him to lose". Gus Hall couldn't
have put it better.)
NY Times Op-Ed,
May 28, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET
You’ve Probably Heard Socialists Won’t Vote for Biden
Don’t listen to that. We may not like him, but we don’t want him to lose.
By Bhaskar Sunkara
Mr. Sunkara is the editor of Jacobin and the author of “The Socialist
Manifesto.”
It’s not easy being an American socialist these days — despite the fact
that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont built a movement of millions
behind ideas we have long supported, we’re now being called out as
potential spoilers in the November elections.
Longtime progressives, including more than 60 veterans of the 1960s
radical organization Students for a Democratic Society, describe
socialists — young socialists in particular — as a privileged few who
not only reject Joe Biden but are even keen to see him lose, unconcerned
and likely to be unaffected by another four years of President Donald Trump.
In the most generous of these narratives, we’re well-meaning naïfs,
having failed to temper our radical visions to the pragmatic necessities
of achieving change in the United States. This is a timeless narrative
of youthful impetuousness. It is also a skewed portrayal of what most
democratic socialists are doing today.
The small but resurgent socialist movement in this country is developing
a political approach that can speak to millions of alienated Americans.
Like center-left liberals and progressives, during the coming
presidential election and beyond we aim to defeat right-wing populism.
The difference is that we refuse to do so on the centrist terms that we
believe helped create it in the first place.
Balancing these imperatives will be tricky. Michael Harrington, the
founder of the Democratic Socialists of America, used to say that
radicals had to walk a perilous tightrope — they risked teetering off
into the abyss of conventional politics on the one side or falling to
sectarian irrelevance on the other.
Neither appeared to be a danger a few months ago. A democratic socialist
carrying both a radical spirit and legions of supporters seemed to be
headed for the White House. The Bernie Sanders campaign scored early
successes in the Democratic primary season and signaled the arrival of a
new coalition in American politics — young, working class and committed
to egalitarian policies like Medicare for All, higher taxes on the
wealthy and free child care.
“After the Nevada Blowout, It’s Bernie’s Party Now,” read a headline I
wrote for Jacobin, the magazine I edit, after he won that state’s caucus
in February. We all know what happened next. Centrist leaders within the
Democratic Party, along with millions of ordinary voters, rallied behind
Joe Biden.
Many parts of the Sanders agenda had the support of a majority of
Americans, but the coalition around the campaign was narrower than we
thought. Despite the Vermont senator’s strong showing, it’s still
President Barack Obama’s party. For now, at least.
Last month, Mr. Sanders dropped out of the race and endorsed Mr. Biden.
For democratic socialists, what for a moment looked like an expressway
to power has morphed back into that familiar tightrope.
According to some progressive observers, our next steps should be
simple. Donald Trump is a fundamental threat to America, and anyone
refusing to vote for Mr. Biden must be indifferent to the suffering of
millions. A socialist left cannot isolate itself from a broader
progressive movement, the argument goes, and contending for power in a
Democratic primary means respecting the results of that primary, much as
Mr. Sanders has.
Most Berniecrats agree with this logic: 88 percent of those who voted
for Mr. Sanders in 2016 ended up voting for the Democratic nominee,
Hillary Clinton, in the general election, and there’s no reason the same
won’t happen this fall. But leftists in organizations like the
Democratic Socialists of America face a more difficult dilemma. They are
not merely figuring out how to vote as individuals — they are weighing
how to use finite institutional resources to build the political
alternatives of the future.
Most socialists are cleareyed about Mr. Trump as a threat to most
Americans, sowing divisions among working people and marrying populist
rhetoric to policies that only further enrich his powerful friends. Nor
is it uncommon to hear young leftists denounce the Republican Party as
the greatest threat to progress in the United States.
I share the belief that having Joe Biden in the White House would be far
less damaging to most workers than another four years of Donald Trump.
Mr. Biden is at odds with the progressive, labor-oriented wing of his
party, but every poor and working person in America, along with every
socialist, would be better off butting heads with a White House filled
with centrist Democrats than one filled with Trump appointees.
But that doesn’t mean socialists must fall in line behind Mr. Biden.
There is an anti-establishment mood growing in this country, and not
only among socialists; millions of voters are distrustful of mainstream
politicians and sick of choosing between two parties captured by the
corporate elite. Bernie Sanders represented a real alternative to many
of them, and Joe Biden does not. And they are frustrated by the lack of
recognition: In both 2016 and 2020, the runner-up in the Democratic
primary has been a democratic socialist, but you wouldn’t guess that by
the lack of concessions to his base.
The former vice president promises billionaires that “nothing will
fundamentally change” and appears to be under the assumption that
forcefully standing for as little as possible is the best way to unite
the anti-Trump vote. Following the Democratic Party’s guiding strategy
since 2016, Mr. Biden wants to win over moderate professional-class
voters in affluent suburbs; he seems much less interested in reaching
workers whose living standards have declined for decades.
That might be fine as an electoral calculation against an unpopular
president, but it sits awkwardly alongside the chorus of pundits who are
now trying to rally a 60,000-strong socialist organization behind a
lackluster centrist campaign. Mr. Biden’s emissaries to the left come
with few carrots, and we all know what sort of sticks will follow. The
center is already constructing a convenient far-left scapegoat in case
Mr. Biden fails. We’re simultaneously too marginal to bring to the table
and so powerful that we can swing a presidential election.
Such noise distracts attention from the real work that Democratic
Socialists of America chapters across the country are doing this
election cycle. Contrary to stereotypes, we are not pushing a third
candidate or eager to see Mr. Trump’s re-election. Instead we are
campaigning for core demands like Medicare for All, saving the U.S.
Postal Service from bipartisan destruction, organizing essential workers
to fight for better pay and conditions throughout the coronavirus crisis
and backing downballot candidates, mostly running on the Democratic
ballot line.
This is the type of activity that if successful will bolster voter
turnout and remind millions that politics can improve their lives. Far
from unhinged sectarianism, this is a pragmatic strategy. The United
States has a political system rigged against third parties, so groups
like the D.S.A. aren’t trying to build an independent ballot line in vain.
At the same time, we recognize just how unpopular both parties are.
Rather than play spoiler on the one hand, or let mass anger at the
political establishment be monopolized by the populist right on the
other, socialists are patiently building a base for the pro-worker
reforms this country badly needs.
That’s what walking a tightrope, and making sure it actually goes
somewhere, means today.
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