These are some discussion
points on the 2020 US Election. They are the views of the author, are not set in stone and comments
or constructive criticism is welcome.
Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
It is only natural the mass
media champions capitalism and the private sector. It’s not that it is fake
news, it has a class bias, it is an agency of class rule. The courts, the
universities, the means of producing the needs of a modern society, are all
owned by the capitalist class and function to advance the interests of that
class.
The US capitalist class is
the most powerful on the planet and the US working class is in the belly of
this beast. I often say that the first victims of US capitalism are the
millions of us within its national borders.
In many ways, due to the imposing power of its mass media and global
influence, the US population is kept isolated and apart from the rest of the
world. There can be huge social events in the rest of the world that go
virtually uncovered here in the mass media. Meanwhile. we are seeing in this
election an unprecedented political crisis as both parties of US capitalism
implode.
The Democratic Party has long
been considered the party of working people and the poor. The heads of
organized labor have traditionally supported it giving billions of dollars over
the decades as well as providing material support in the form of canvassers,
precinct walkers and so on. With no other viable choices, it has been home to various
marginalized sections of society, environmentalists, racial minorities, victims
of sex and gender oppression and so on. In the present period, this 2020
election and the rise of Trump has revealed just how worthless this party is
when it comes to the interests of workers and the poor.
I have always thought that surely it is partly a stroke of luck that this party was in power during the two greatest upsurges of the US working class of the 20th century, the rise of the CIO in the 1930’s and the Civil Rights movement or Black Revolt of the 50’s and 60’s. These two major social upheavals forced the US capitalist class to make some concessions through one of its two political parties and the Democratic Party's role has been to play the the good cop in the good cop bad cop political theater. I am sure there are those who may or may not agree with me on this.
I have always thought that surely it is partly a stroke of luck that this party was in power during the two greatest upsurges of the US working class of the 20th century, the rise of the CIO in the 1930’s and the Civil Rights movement or Black Revolt of the 50’s and 60’s. These two major social upheavals forced the US capitalist class to make some concessions through one of its two political parties and the Democratic Party's role has been to play the the good cop in the good cop bad cop political theater. I am sure there are those who may or may not agree with me on this.
But great events lay bare the
real nature of class society and we are seeing this with regards to the
Democratic Party unity that is in full force in an effort to deny Bernie
Sanders, essentially a Social Democrat, the party’s choice for president in
November.
It appears it
is not Donald Trump that is the major obstacle to the Sanders campaign, but the
power in the Democratic Party. The
decades long tolerance of a liberal non-threatening wing of mostly middle class lefties has reached its limits
in the present period and with the emergence of the Democratic Socialists of America,
once a minor element that has grown from about 6000 members to around 65,000. Sanders
has been around a long time and has tapped in to the increasing mood for change
in US society in response to decades of declining living standards and working
conditions.
The Democratic Party is in a
state of real crisis. We must not lose sight of the fact that it is a
capitalist party and a political party can only function for so long under
pressure from opposing class forces before they part company and the party
splits. The power in this party is willing to take a chance with Joe Biden
rather than risk strengthening Sanders’ forces and the very basic social
democratic demands that has popularized his campaign. Biden in my opinion will have a hard time
defeating Trump, and while I am not convinced Sanders can, I think he’s chances
are stronger.
The complete bankruptcy of
the Democratic Party as a vehicle for the working class is evident in this
process. It is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. If the Party power
decides to deny Sanders the nomination at the Convention in July, through the
super delegates and backroom deals, it will intensify the disgust most
Americans have with the corrupt and money based US political system. Let’s not
forget that close to 100 million eligible voters chose none of the above in
2016.
If Sanders gets the
nomination another crisis looms in that he will not be able to accomplish much.
He may get some things passed through Executive Order and so on but his
platform will not gain much traction. I’m open to other views but it seems to
me that the Democratic Party that was unable to get witnesses admitted to an
impeachment trial is hardly likely to get much of Sanders’ platform through the
swamp. And in this instance, there will be many Democrats that will join
Republicans in blocking Sanders’ program.
The fear of the US working class and the anger that exists beneath the surface of US society breaking out in to the open, is so great that any decision the Democratic Party leadership makes will be made with that fear hanging over them.
Sanders betrayed his
constituents by supporting Hilary Clinton in 2016 and with the support of the
leadership of DSA is once again leading many idealistic, more often than not,
middle class youth in to the Democratic Party, a right wing capitalist party
that cannot be reformed and that is not the vehicle through which real social
change can come.
So the revival of the corporate
candidate Joe Biden has begun with a successful Super Tuesday; “Biden Sweeps the South” many a headline
proclaims. Wall Street is feeling a little better now if they can forget the
Coronavirus for a moment. This euphoria won’t last long as the Convention in
July will not be a smooth one and no matter who is in the White House come
2020, the global capitalist crisis will have only worsened.
The economic crisis facing
the US is being made worse by the Coronavirus and it will be US workers and the
middle class that will pay. Bond and pension liabilities owed by 1000 US urban
centers rose 25% to $500 billion in 2018 according to a Wall Street Journal
report. “Roughly 50 million Americans
live in cities that are devoting at least a fifth of annual spending to debt.”
The same report says and the situation is even worse in rural areas.
In addition, the Trump administration
is considering using a government disaster program to pay hospitals and doctors
for caring for the uninsured who are infected with the Coronavirus. There are
27 million Americans without medical insurance. “We are going to look at the uninsured because they have a big
problem.”, the US President announced this week; they do indeed and it’s
the private health care system and the market. One estimate claimed that a
pandemic akin to the 1918 flu would cost the hospitals $3.9 billion. Michael
Bloomberg just spent half a billion in three months. That’s probably the Trump
tax break he got. When will Americans accept that accumulated capital is not
earned money; it is not Michael Bloomberg’s to waste.
So the private sector is very
efficient except in emergencies we are supposed to believe and then the state
can step in. Even that is a lie. But day in day out, market driven social
catastrophes are handled through the intervention of the public sector or
socialistic measures. Capitalism was dragged from the abyss by the US taxpayer
in 2007. In the mid 1990’s the taxpayer bailed out the Savings and Loan
Industry. The level and intensity of
natural disasters is not natural at all, it is the result of climate change and
the effects of industrial production and capitalism on a world scale.
Rather than the taxpayer
coughing up the costs for the 27 million uninsured who might be infected by the
Coronavirus virus, the health industry must be taken in to public ownership and
run on the basis of need not profits; and that includes the pharmaceutical companies.
Why is whether we get to see a doctor or not dependent on some insurance CEO and
his company’s balance sheet? The same with hospital care. Think of how much
Afghanistan and Iraq cost the taxpayer in dollars. And in Afghanistan, the US
is attempting to exit a very costly venture that has ended in defeat with very
little, if anything to show for it. We may never know the environmental and human
costs for the Afghani people. It is also important to remember that up until
1999 every Taliban official was on the payroll of the US government.
It’s hard to say what will
happen given the volatile period we find ourselves in. Maybe Trump will win
again, although what happens to the economy has a lot to do with that. One
thing certain is that no matter who it is, Biden, Sanders, Trump, it will be
the working class that is expected to pay for a crisis that is not of our own
making.
The heads of organized labor
are silent as usual and the force that has the resources to offer a real
political alternative in the form of an independent workers party has not yet
entered the scene in a major way. But this seemingly monolithic bureaucracy, the
dogs that never bark, will not survive the storms that lie ahead.
It is not unlikely that the
mass movement against this capitalist offensive, will arrive sooner than later
and the changes, as they usually do, will be brought about through the movement
in the streets, communities and workplaces of this country, the mass direct
action that has been the cause of all social change. While it doesn't seem likely the Democratic Party will split at this point is seems an inevitable development in the not so distant future.
Now that climate change and environmental catastrophe is clearly a key issue, the need for drastic action becomes more apparent. I wish it were smoother but it doesn’t look like it.
Now that climate change and environmental catastrophe is clearly a key issue, the need for drastic action becomes more apparent. I wish it were smoother but it doesn’t look like it.
As Marx pointed out, we have free will alright; but we do not get to choose the circumstances under which we exercise it.
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