Keeping Our Feet on the Ground
by Gabe Ignetti
We have just passed through one of the most crucial elections in US history which resulted in the re-election of a serial rapist and convicted felon, and fascist back into the Presidency. To make matters worse the Trump Supreme Court has given him the power to commit illegal acts. It has been described as an IQ test that the American flunked but, in the larger scheme of things, that’s what elections are. They are like the final exam that determines whether we pass or fail in moving society forward.
Clearly, this is a time for reflection. While it is easy to blame the Democrats and that claim is not without merit, we have to recognize that the Democrats, being a corporate party, will always look out for corporate interests. Nonetheless it is important that we recognize that the corporate system is not monolithic. There is a built in necessity of occasionally giving in to popular pressure in order to keep business as usual flowing and to protect the illusion of “democracy” so as not to disrupt business as usual. The election of Trump has upended all of that. It is an all around disaster that will negatively affect everyone from the corporate boardrooms to the streets with we the people getting the brunt of it.
While there is some truth in blaming the Democrats it is really a half truth and it doesn’t tell the full story. The people could have filled the Congress chock full of new squad members but they didn’t and they voted for a two bit hustler who shouldn’t be able to win a race for dog catcher in any sane world instead. We like to make claims that the American people are way out in front of our elected officials but when we look at the actual data it tells us a far different story. The greater share of registered voters actually say they are both
ideologically conservative. Most U.S. adults including close to half of Democrats say they support mass deportations of immigrants living in the country illegally. They overwhelmingly oppose Critical Race Theory. A majority of the public views capitalism favorably, oppose defunding the police and want more spending for policing. Even Blue collar workers and indigenous population have voted majority Republican. This is where the American electorate is right now and this is largely why we have President Trump.
Given these hard facts it makes no sense to ignore the real threat to over a century of political progress in favor of making protest votes that are barely a blip on the radar. The reality is that this last election offered us only two choices which always happens in Presidential elections when you don’t have majority rule. The “choice” we had was literally prison or the firing squad. In essence,
we all are political prisoners, but we can’t let our person aversion of what is lead us into making personal statements with our votes instead of facing hard truths and making hard tactical decisions.
The hard truth is that, given our present predicament, Third party Presidential illusions and even abstention is simply not an option. Our plurality system is mostly why the Green Party has utterly failed to get one candidate into office for over 40 years since it’s inception. Bernie Sanders has been the only exception and the hard political calculus of American Power has made any overt opposition to the Democratic Party next to impossible. Even if he or Jill Stein had succeeded in taking control of the White House there would still be a Congress of Republicans and Corporate Democrats that would reduce the possibility for change back down to the same old incrementalism that previous Presidents have faced.
The proposition presented by Third Party supporter that there really was a choice has only played into the illusion that we really have a democracy and we don’t. Our first past the post plurality is a big phony flim-flam operation calling itself “democracy” which objectively derails third parties because efforts create outcomes contradictory to their goals in direct proportion to their political success. The game is set up against you from the get go in a dozen different directions
The only possible way that a Progressive Party could take power is because there is a power vacuum caused by the cratering of one of the two existing parties. If that is the GOP then you’re next in line but that can only happen if the Democratic Party overwhelmingly and consistently wins. Conversely, every time the GOP wins their extremist ideology becomes normalized moving more and more into the mainstream and shifting the entire electorate further and further to the Right as things go from bad to worse. Avoiding these outcomes requires the Left to support the Democrats in contested areas of this country.
Our task long term must be to level the playing field starting with getting big money out of politics and followed by enshrining the right to vote and instituting majority rule. Achieving that and all of our other goals will require the building of a strong united grassroots independent movement with a clear understanding of present political situation and with its feet on the ground in both our thinking and our actions. The time to act is now!
Keeping Our Feet on the Ground
Posted in Pulse Line 1.