a link please
On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 9:03 AM Anthony Boynton via groups.io <[email protected]> wrote: > As usual, John falsifies his opponents positions and then argues against > the invented position. Below is the article I wrote most recently that was > published in New Politics. It reflects my views prior to the election. I > will post something about the election results soon, but one thing is > clear: Trump did not win the election, the Democrats lost the election. > Trump received about two million votes less than he did in 2020 while > Harris received about 14,000,000 votes less than Biden did in 2020. The > strong implication of this loss of voter support by both capitalist parties > is that the time is past due for the left to break away from the Democrats > and launch an independent party to fight for the support of the working > class and oppressed. > > > *The Great Fear in the face of a Historic Opportunity* > > *The 2024 elections are another missed opportunity for the left in the > United States* > > > > Every day we receive new confirmation that the two party political regime > of US imperialism is crumbling. Donald Trump, his minions, their Project > 2025 and their Supreme Court herald the end of times. > > > > Yet, many have hope that there is a savior for the wonderful two party > system: Kamala Harris. She has done what Biden and Bernie Sanders could not > do: rallied the Democrats and raised the nearly dead party from the grave > it was marching into. Harris is going to win the popular vote, and may even > lead the Democrats to taking control of both houses of congress. > > > > Nevertheless, Harris cannot heal the ruptured political system. It is on > its last legs and will be replaced. The MAGA GOP sees an authoritarian one > party GOP system as its only way out of its long term crisis while the > Democrats may end up imposing its own one party system when it fails to > save the dead bipartisan system. Another possibility also exists: a crisis > ridden multiparty system like the one that Colombia now has after it > ditched its two party system. > > > > What happens will determine the future. So far, most of the left in the > United States is acting out of fear rather than recognizing the historic > opportunity presented in this crisis. > > > > *Why not dump lesser-evilism?* > > > > In moral terms, lesser-evilism means supporting evil. To get around this > uncomfortable truth, DSA and other leftists who support the Democratic > Party talk about the catastrophic consequences of a Trump presidency, just > as their grandparents talked about the catastrophic consequences of a > Goldwater or Nixon victory. > > > > In 1964, the Students for a Democratic Society supported Lyndon Baines > Johnson for President. Johnson’s slogan was “All of the way with LBJ”. The > SDS came up with “Half of the way with LBJ.” They meant they supported > Johnson’s domestic agenda and opposed his immoral, barbaric, colonial war > against Vietnam. Following LBJ’s election, the antiwar movement became > massive, the ghetto rebellions exploded, SDS splintered, and a leftist > third party movement grew. > > > > “Half of the way with LBJ” was morally bankrupt. Today, support for Kamala > Harris is just as morally bankrupt. > > > > Just as the left should have been 100% against LBJ and his criminal war in > Vietnam, today, we must be unequivocally on the side of Ukraine, and > unequivocally on the side of Palestine. These are the Vietnam Wars of our > time. > > > > Practically speaking, support for the Democrats demobilizes mass > struggles. In contrast, a working class party independent of the Democrats > could use election campaigns to boost the struggle in the streets rather > than demobilize it. > > > > *The Political Regime of the United States* > > > > The USA’s political regime was the result of four great events in human > history: the Glorious Revolution of England in 1688, the American > Revolution in 1776, and the American Civil War in the 1860’s, and the USA’s > permanent genocidal war against Native America. > > > > Even today, when the armies have drones that use AI, this bourgeois > political regime exists to mobilize the common citizenry for warfare based > on masses of rifle bearing foot soldiers. > > > > With malice aforethought, the “Founding Fathers” excluded five groups > from democratic full rights and participation in the state: indigenous > people, enslaved people, all women, all children, and white men without > property. These exclusions, essential to the new state, were “natural” to > the founding fathers whose power was based on the principle of divide and > rule. > > > > The famous Constitutional “balance of powers” was predicated on divide and > conquer, political exclusions, and the peculiar social regime of Great > Britain’s North American colonies. > > > > Their corollary was the unwritten 17th century social contract that > promised “free” white men a share of the land expropriated from Native > Americans in return for service in the colonial militias fighting the > permanent offensive against Native America. > > > > The original Jacksonian system that collapsed in the US Civil War was > restored as today’s two party system in the compromise of 1877. It ended > reconstruction, instituted the rule of Jim Crow, and put Rutherford B. > Hayes, the Republican’s candidate in the White House. Southern white > vigilantes had used widespread terror to suppress the votes of black > freedmen, drive black Republicans out of local government offices and > Congress, and tilt the 1876 presidential elections towards the Democratic > Party candidate. With the Electoral College unable to come a decision, the > election was thrown into the House of Representatives. > > > > This later became the model for Trump’s attempted coup in 2020, a model > that is likely to be used again this year. > > > > The compromise of 1877 restored the system of apartheid minus legal > chattel slavery, and put Hayes in the White House where he predictably and > reliably, called out the army to break the Great Railroad strike of 1877. > > > > > In other words, the current two party system was established through Jim > Crow in the South and the suppression of unions in the north and the West. > It precluded the very notion of any sort of mass working class party. > > > > *The struggle for the right to vote* > > > > Nevertheless, the exclusionary bases of the political regime have been > steadily undermined by struggles for democratic and social rights. > > > > Women finally gained the right to vote nationwide after the First World > War. Black voting rights, guaranteed in word by Reconstruction era > Amendments to the Constitution, were finally realized by the civil rights > struggles and ghetto rebellions of the 1960’s. > > > > Still, around 45 million people are excluded partially or completely from > voting in the United States: 6 million Americans with felony and > misdemeanor convictions; 3.5 million US citizens in the District of > Columbia, Puerto Rico and other US colonies, 23 million documented and > undocumented immigrants, and all politically active people under the age of > 18 years. > > > > Hard won voting rights gains have deep social consequences: they > contribute to the breakdown of racial and gender barriers within the > working class and undermine divide and rule, and political exclusion of the > oppressed. > > > > *The extra-constitutional edifice* > > > > The two party system functions through state and federal law, the rules of > the two parties themselves, and de facto agreements within the ruling class > to deny real ballot access to any other political party. Five basic > mechanisms prevent the rise of third parties: an expensive and Byzantine > bureaucracy that would-be parties must successfully thread to gain and > maintain ballot status; a winner take all system of geographic districts > and states; a mass media monopoly by the bourgeoisie; simple repression; > and cooptation. > > > > Both parties are cross-class alliances. Sectors of the working class and > petty bourgeoisie, the masses of voters, are tied to coalitions of > fractions of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeois coalitions set the policies and > the rules of the game, and the working class and petty bourgeois voters are > then allowed a choice of poisons. > > > > The capitalist coalitions at the top provide the lion’s share of the money > that pays the salaries of the parties’ professional cadre, choose the > candidates, and have an outsized voice on platform and policy. Connecting > those coalitions to their mass voter bases are thousands of party cadre > including elected office holders, paid party officials, and the personnel > of various think tanks and PACs. > > > > From the earliest days, the heart of the Democratic Party has been > merchants and bankers. They were the link for Southern slave agricultural > exports to Europe and continued to be the link between the United States > and Europe after the US Civil War temporarily disrupted that relation. > > > > The Democrat’s added two mass voter bases: racist white southern small > landowners and mostly Catholic Irish immigrants in New York and other > antebellum cities. Their northern mass voter base later expanded to include > most other Catholic immigrants and most Jewish and Eastern Orthodox > immigrants. > > > > As the USA grew through warfare and conquest, a new capitalist coalition > became the heart of the new Republican Party: construction and operation of > railroads in the newly conquered west, the new steel industry, and the part > of finance capital based on western land speculation. Its mass voter > base consisted of land hungry small settler farmers who wanted to expand > into the great plains west of the Mississippi River and on to the Pacific. > The great majority were Protestants immigrants or descendants of Protestant > immigrants from Northern Europe. > > > > The Republican Party, correctly so, called itself the party of business. > > > > In 1860, the election of Abraham Lincoln on a platform of outlawing > slavery in any new states admitted to the union blew the system up. The two > party system failed, and the Civil War began. > > > > Since restoration in 1877, the two cross-class coalitions survived > remarkably well. > > > > One major change set the system onto the path towards the crisis it is now > in. In the 1960s, the Democratic Party under John Kennedy and Lyndon > Johnson betrayed southern white racists by making an alliance with the > Civil Rights movement. By 1972, the almost the entirety of the Southern > Democratic Party machine had moved into the GOP. > > > > Die-hard white racist Democrats suddenly became the most vociferous > Republican voters. > > > > The Great Switch meant that the Republicans alone had both mass bases of > reaction, and that the Democrats had almost the whole of the working class > voter base: black, white, Asian, and Latino. > > > > *The Gender Gap, Farmers, and Science* > > > > Both coalitions have also undergone major cumulative impacts that > contribute to the political regime’s current crisis. > > > > In 1920, the first presidential election in which women could vote, most > women voted Republican. From 1932 to 1992, women slowly moved into the > Democratic Party. Since that year, more women have voted for the Democratic > candidate than the Republican candidate in every election. From 1980 to > 2020, the majority of male voters have voted for the Republican candidate > in every election except for two: those in 1992 and 2008. > > > > As of this writing, Harris has a 21% advantage over Trump among likely > women voters in the latest poll, while Trump has a 12 point advantage over > Harris among likely male voters. > > > > This change mirrors the decline of the patriarchal family system: more and > more women work outside of the family household, more and more women > exercise their right to divorce, and - with safe birth control and the > right to choose an abortion - women gained control over their own bodies > that had never before been experienced. > > > > It also reflects a change in Republican political strategy. The extreme > right wing of the Republican Party’s successful mobilization against the > Equal Rights Amendment led to the 1979 foundation of the “Moral > Majority” against women’s rights. Its appeal to Christian fundamentalism > mobilized rightwing Protestant votes while splitting the Democrat’s > Catholic voting block. > > > > Its success put Ronald Reagan into the White House. > > > > Currently, the gender gap is wider than at any time in recent history: 48% > of women voters intend to vote for Harris while only 35% intend to vote for > Trump, but 47% of male voters intend to vote for Trump while only 39% > intend to vote for Harris. > > > > Republican decline is also due to a decrease in the number of small farms > to less than two million, and to the drift of the technical, professional, > and scientific sectors of the working class and petty away from the > Republicans, a result of the GOP’s turn to Christian fundamentalism and > against science > > > > The post WWII offensive against unions and the consequent decline of the > post-WWII labor aristocracy undermined the Democrat’s mass voter base. It > was intertwined with the movement of industrial capital out of heavily > unionized US regions which, together with the container revolution and > the computer revolution, has lately been dubbed *globalization*. > > > > The results include a decline in unions’ bargaining power and union > membership, and a decline in the standards of living of many sectors of the > working class, especially the mostly white and male labor aristocracy. > > > > Disaffection in the Democratic Party’s mass voter base led to the failed > U.S. Labor Party project in the 1990s and then to Donald Trump’s experiment > to mobilize these voters behind the GOP, a project that has had small but > significant success. > > > > *Social Classes in the United States* > > > > If we define social class by relationships to social production and > reproduction, it is evident that there are three main classes in the United > States: the working class, the petty bourgeoisie, and the big bourgeoisie. > Each is divided into various fractions and strata. > > > > The big bourgeoisie consists of about four million households (owners of > the top 10% of small businesses plus owners of the 20,000 largest > businesses plus a factor for wealth). The main part of the petty > bourgeoisie consists of the 29,500,000 small businesses owners and their > families. > > > > The heart of the working class is the 78.7 million workers who are paid > hourly wages. The 70,274,000 people classified as professionals occupy the > gray zone where the working class overlaps with the petty bourgeoisie. They > include many union members in education and healthcare but also managers, > business owners, and lawyers. > > > > Another intermediate layer consists of workers who are homeowners, > landlords, and/or small business owners. > > > > Today, at the end of 2024, the working class of the United States > *appears* to have almost no class consciousness. Our class identifies > struggles as women’s struggles, immigrant struggles, black struggles, trade > union struggles, student struggles, solidarity struggles, but it is not > conscious of itself as one social class fighting on all of these fronts. > Therefore, it sees no reason to form a socialist or working class party. > > > > Nevertheless, *appearances *can be deceiving. Slowly, the struggles of > black people, women, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people for equal rights have > changed the whole working class. Today a black man, a white woman, and > their child can go shopping without fear in Arlington, Texas. Today, two > men can walk down the street holding hands without fear in many, but not > all, parts of the United States. > > > > The new working class of the United States is young, multiracial, > multicultural and includes almost equal numbers of men and women. Today, > unions reflect this, and new struggles to organize the unorganized reflect > this even more. > > > > *The deeper problems of capitalist society* > > > > During the 20th century, capitalism produced two World Wars, a plethora > of smaller but very deadly wars, one Great Depression and many social > revolutions, the two most noteworthy of which occurred in the Russian > Empire and China. Today, the very idea of independent “national” economies > has become surreal, and arguments about “socialism in one country” have > faded into the past: not only is socialism impossible in one country, > capitalism has become impossible in one country. > > > > Globalization has turned everything upside down everywhere, but on top of > those changes, > > capitalism has created an even greater threat to human society: global > warming. Not surprisingly, the capitalist classes of the world have failed > to seriously address our planet’s life threatening condition. > > > > *Today’s two party system* > > > > The Democratic Party has been loath to actively work for any kinds of > serious reforms in the system that would alter capitalist relations of > production and social reproduction to the benefit of its working class > voter base. They have been able to maintain their appearance as the > lesser evil mostly by appearing to defend the status quo of reforms won by > the mass movements of the 1930’s to the 1970’s. > > > > On the other hand, the Republican Party faces a serious and intractable > long term problem: “the party of business” can never be a majority party in > a modern capitalist economy. They have two possible solutions to this > permanent problem: disenfranchisement of working class voters or enticement > of sufficient numbers of working class voters to choose the GOP as the > lesser evil instead of the Democrats. > > > > The Republicans have tried both. > > > > The GOP tries to attract the most backward and reactionary working class > voters to replace and enhance the stagnant, dying GOP voter base of farmers > and small business owners. Their efforts have produced a reactionary and > rotten salad of racists, religious fundamentalists, misogynists, > anti-vaxxers, gun lovers, neo-fascists and conspiracy theorists. > > > > By the 21st century, it was ripe for the eating by a reactionary > demagogue. Several contenders appeared, but Trump was hired. He then pulled > the GOP’s voter base out from under the feet of the traditional Republican > Party business establishment. Later the voters fired him. > > > > Now, older and even more reactionary, his comeback try is backed by an > important minority of the wealthiest capitalists and large numbers of > smaller capitalists. > > > > Trump’s shrill appeals to the rotten salad are well known. Nevertheless, > even the addition of rotten pieces of society has not stopped the decline > of the GOP’s mass voter base. > > > > A large majority of eligible voters are workers, and their great majority > are young, women, and people of color. Past struggles broke down barriers > of race, gender and ethnicity to the point that they are weaker now than > they have ever been before, especially among younger workers. > > > > Consequently, MAGA’s efforts to resurrect those barriers have failed, so > it is desperately trying to restrict voting rights and steal this year’s > election. > > > > *The crisis of lesser evilism* > > > > The Democratic Party’s quandary mirrors that of the Republican Party. > > > > To maintain its mass voter base, the Democratic Party promises it will > protect reforms won in the past, and that it will occasionally do something > new to improve people’s lives. However, to keep its capitalist core happy, > the Democrats have to chip away at the gains of the past, and rarely come > through on promised new reforms. > > > > The Democrats are able to get away with their ruse by blaming every attack > on past gains and every failure of new reforms on Republican opposition. > > > > In other words, the Democrats’ existence as the lesser evil party has > always depended on having a nearly equal *greater evil party*: the > Republicans. Without the GOP, the Democrats will simply become *the evil > party*. > > > > Now, the GOP’s abandonment of bipartisanship has set the USA on the path > toward an even less democratic political regime. If successful, it will > reduce the Democratic Party to a permanent national minority party through > voter suppression and other undemocratic measures, and impose even greater > barriers on the path to the formation of new political parties. > > > > This is an existential crisis for the Democratic Party whose replacement > of Biden with Harris shows that they have finally noticed. Still, they have > no strategy to resolve the crisis. If Harris wins, it will continue. > > > > *The Party of No and the Excluded* > > > > In the United States, more eligible voters do not vote than vote for > either of the two capitalist parties. Most of these nonvoters are young, > working class, and not well educated. More often than not, they see the > system as a powerful enemy whose representatives are the are well-armed and > dangerous cops. > > > > Potentially this sector of the working class could be mobilized in the > class struggle, including its electoral front. > > > > The Democratic Party fears mobilization of these masses of people as much > as it fears MAGA. Nevertheless, this year, the Democrats have fearfully > played with fire by trying to mobilize some of these voters. Needless to > say, the Democrats are even more afraid of mobilizing the 45 million > excluded to fight for themselves. > > > > When non-voters and the excluded come into struggle in the streets, as in > the mass immigrant rights movement and Black Lives Matter, the Democratic > Party works overtime to repress them and/or coopt their leaders, channel > movement remnants into elections, and then leave them with no significant > reforms or changes. > > > > A working class party, independent of the Democrats, could offer something > the Democrats cannot: *using elections to boost the struggle in the > streets rather than demobilize it*. > > > > *The Great Fear * > > > > Large doses of fear to motivate voters have been used since elections > began: fear of the Indians, fear of the slaves, fear of the British, fear > of immigrants, fear of the coming Martian invasion. Trump’s entire campaign > is just a reprise of old American fear mongering. > > > > Fear is the bourgeoisie’s first choice because use of the carrot may > require making good on promises. > > > > The flip side of GOP fear mongering is the fear peddled by the Democratic > Party. Overtime the Democrats have been afraid of slave revolts, slaves in > general, Indians, Lindbergh’s America Firsters, Japanese Americans, > McCarthyism, the John Birch Society, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Ronald > Reagan, the Bushes, the Tea Party, and now MAGA. > > > > Long before Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, the left had been > gripped by fear of what another term of Trump in the White House might > portend, so in this year’s election, fear mongering by Democrats is > supposed to keep progressives and the left working in the Democrats’ > barnyard. > > > > Sometimes, fears are neither delusional nor misplaced. Fear of Trump is > not unfounded, but it has been exaggerated. The idea that Trump can be > fought in the streets and courts with or without the Democratic Party has > been swept under the rug by Democratic vote herders. > > > > The Democratic Party itself seems to be remarkably unafraid of Trump. > Kamala Harris acts like she will win, and she has excellent reasons for her > optimism. Her lead in the polls is growing, and even Republican states like > Texas and Florida may be in play this year. All the results of early voting > point to a Harris victory with massive turnouts of key working class voter > bases and especially of young women and people of color. > > > > *Scenarios* > > > > If they return to power, Trump and the MAGA GOP will try to reverse many > reforms won in the past and establish a racist, misogynist, one-party > system. Will they succeed? There are major reasons to believe that they > will not. > > > > 1. The working class and the oppressed of the United States have > gained strength and confidence from their low point of consciousness and > organization around the turn of the century. The struggle against > Trump will return to the streets. > > > > 2. Trump’s agenda does not have the support of most of the bourgeoisie > which is clearly fighting itself within its two parties and outside of > them. > > > > 3. Government employees, among Trump’s main intended victims, will > resist. > 4. Democratic Party controlled state and local governments will resist. > 5. Institutions like the State Department, the miliary and remnants of > the old GOP will resist. > > > > The outcome will be uncertain, as all such struggles have been throughout > history. > > > > The left’s fear of a second Trump term in the White House is > understandable, but *campaigning for the Democrats is wrong because it > defends the current genocidal regime of US imperialism*. > > > > *The Left in the United States* > > > > Most of the organized left in the United States resides in and around the > Democratic Party and are objects of the fear peddled by that party. > > > > The Democratic Party is the largest single imperialist political party on > the planet, yet the left in the United States mostly sees itself as > anti-imperialist. The center of this left is the Democratic Socialists of > America (DSA). It claims to have over 92,000 members and chapters in all > 50 states, and it boasts members of Congress and many lesser elected > officials among its members. > > > > Outside of the Democratic Party are various left groups ranging from the > more or less ecosocialist Green Party, the largest ballot qualified party > outside of the Democrats and Republicans, to the neo-Stalinist Party of > Socialism and Liberation (PSL). > > > > How many left activists there are in the United States? 50,000 is a > conservative estimate, but if you count up the activists of the movement in > Solidarity with Palestine, the womens’, LGBTQ+, immigrant rights, and Black > Lives Matter movements, and then add in a significant minority of union > activists, the number is probably much larger. > > > > Most of the left hopes the Democratic Party ship will not sink, but what > if it does not? Will President Harris continue to arm Israel’s genocidal > war against Palestine? Will she crack down on the border? Will she make > good on her promises? > > > > The left should finally break with the most important party of imperialism > in the world. If it does, history and current circumstances tell us that it > can rapidly become a mass party of the working class and oppressed. > > > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#33390): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33390 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/109434402/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
