Workers know they have to fight for what they need. Capitalism can’t provide what’s needed and that’s why we must go on to fight for a society that can.
In the United States, the anybody-but-Trump are selling out the activists who want a real end to the deepening attacks on the people, here and abroad. Trump is a neo-fascist so how can you not support Biden to block such an reactionary? For sure, Trump is a racist and a demagogue but Biden is no alternative. Liberal presidents, as well as dictatorial ones, engage in repressive acts. It is part of the job description. When progressives claim that threatening to violate democratic norms makes Trump a fascist you are deluding people: real fascism would mean far worse subjugation of Muslims and immigrants—plus the crushing of the unions and the termination of all rights to free speech. The pro-Biden media is trying to panic people into voting for him out of fear.
The Democrats and Biden are a lesser evil only rhetorically. No Democratic president is going to stop the profit-gouging drive against working people abroad or at home. By backing a “lesser evil” rather than fighting for a real change, all you are doing is enabling the next war and all the future wars after that. And ensuring that someone just like you will then again say, “Okay, but let’s vote for the Democrat now to end this war, and then tomorrow…”
We aren’t arguing that they are exactly the same, that they are identical but just that the Democrats are no answer to the Republicans. Both parties are inextricably tied to the capitalist system and must defend it at home and abroad but in different ways: good cop and bad cop. Biden’s softer, liberal approach is to pretend he is on your side and will make some concessions. These are meant to contain and detour workers, not at all to meet their increasingly desperate needs. Capitalism has not escaped a fundamental world economic crisis created by the pandemic and so the system can not so easily offer sops and all the evidence is that Biden, any Democratic administration, is going to roll back past gains just like the Republicans. Given that these policies will come from the actions of “friends of the workers” can we blame it when many fellow-workers become more and more frustrated, more and more cynical and see no way to fight back. Arguing that the Sanders grassroots are not blind followers of the Democratic machine and will ensure that Biden abides by his election pledges is all rhetoric. We know it takes mass mobilizations to stop the corporate assault. The old-line Democratic apparatus hated Sanders because he put together an opposition that threatened to turn the Democratic Party into the party of the social movements. But now he is defeated the DNC party operatives are ensuring it will now be the “graveyard” for the progressive resistance. What they want is good citizens passively voting to get Biden elected. Their function is to disarm dissent within the Democratic Party, not encourage it.
With the Sanders camp now on-side, the next strategy is to reassure the traditional Republican voter, that all is safe in Biden’s hands with reassurances of his conservative values. The “anybody-but-Trump” faction having selected the moderate, “electable,” Democrat as its candidate calculated to win over swing voters. Party leaders want to discourage militancy, mass protests and strikes. Those radical activists outside the Establishment who seek to ensure such an opposition to capitalism are being told by Sanders that they should wait well after the election. Stay passive, make sure “our” side wins in November. If you want the Democrats to win at all costs, then you had damned well better keep the people submissive. Reformists are Judas Goats, helping to lead the working class to the slaughterhouse. “Socialists” who advocate a vote for Joe Biden have defiled the fundamental principle of socialism, that the independent working class must emancipate itself and end class collaboration. "Fair” elections don't occur under capitalism. All political parties which have leaders can be ruled out. True, in the US there is one-person-one-vote, but it's not an informed vote. Workers only get to hear the case for continuing to support capitalism. Our socialist voice is swamped out. While the socialist voice remains a small one, workers will continue to support capitalism.
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