A: We all do and so does the planet
Where politics are concerned a lot of our fellow-workers have stopped listening. They no longer believe any more in what politicians say or do. That's quite understandable after all the times they've been fooled and duped by phony campaign promises and let down by reforms guaranteed as sure cures for steadily worsening social problems.
Some though haven’t totally turned their backs on politics yet. They're watching the present Presidential campaign. They still believe that hearing and weighing up what the two candidates propose can enable them to elect who will get this country's problems solved. The "believers" still hope to find the "right” person to put America's house in order. The "non-believers" have come to doubt that such people exist.
Socialists offer a third view -- a view which, besides agreeing that no "right” politician is available, goes further by denying that our country's desperate problems have been caused by "wrong” leader chosen to run government in the past. Instead of blaming political officeholders, this view claims that the real cause of our social problems lies partly in the form of government we have and mainly in the capitalist system on which the government rests. It therefore also claims that the ballot should be used to fundamentally change both.
“Lesser evilism,” of course, suits the capitalist class just fine. It means that the exploited basically accept their miserable existence to perhaps a lesser degree. The rulers are happy that the working class doesn’t yet see the possibility of a new socialist society, where every single human being would be guaranteed a decent life. Electoral activity is an essential spur to class struggle, a valuable part of the arsenal of resistance in a war where every means necessary must be employed. The Democratic Party is dominant not because it is controlled by the capitalists. Its strength comes from the support received from a combination of working class forces – the unions, the unemployed, the great majority of black people. Without the African-American vote, the Democrats will have great difficulties in winning national elections and control of the White House.
Candidates for political office are but manifestations of class interests. Politicians are managerial strata who defend the status quo and are acting as its enforcers. Few doubt that Joe Biden is the ruling class/Wall Street candidate who has in the past dutifully served the capitalist class and who in the future will continue his service to the oligarchs and the plutocrats.Biden has supported every key ruling-class policy during his political career in the service of capitalist America. He is and has always been compliant to the ruling-class. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the darlings of the liberal apologists for capitalism ceased their criticism of Biden as Wall Street’s nominee.
Trump is not a new phenomenon within the American society. The history of American politics is littered with demagogue populism. Some commentators would like that Trump is depicted as an aberration, even a fascist. There is little if any difference either between Biden and Trump.
Trump is a “greater evil” only by overlooking American history for a few centuries. Trump does what Biden did. The question becomes to whom is then the ‘greater’ or ‘lesser’ evil’? Let’s be absolutely clear, should Trump be re-elected, he can be expected to continue to be the same servile tool of the American capitalists who decide how best to advance their interests.
Biden presents himself as the liberal contestant for the presidency, nevertheless, he is still beholden to the Wall Street tycoons. They haven't contributed millions of dollars to his campaign for nothing in return. Republican and Democrats is just the same dog wearing different collars, they are interchangeable. Joe Biden would be the ideal Republican Party candidate and indeed many in the GOP such as the Lincoln Project say so. By criticizing Biden we are in no way expressing sympathy for Trump who made all his wealth from the sweat of the working class. He gained popularity based on the false dreams of millions of workers.
The main problem of the US is not to defeat Donald Trump, the main essential problem is capitalism. Whoever wins the presidential election will become the captain of the battleship and the representative of the capitalist economy.
As socialists, we are opposed to choosing between politicians who are pledged to administrate the affairs of the capitalist system. Why? Because no form of capitalism is worth voting for. Neither Trump nor Biden has any intention of making fundamental changes to society to benefit workers, nor could they without a mandate to do so from the American working class. Both seek to maintain a society that causes war, global warming, racism, societal breakdown, job insecurity, and poverty. Biden may do a little bit better than Trump, but as socialists, we don't care about a little bit better, but a whole lot better, which won't happen until a fundamental change is made in society. A change that will eliminate the above social evils – a change called socialism.
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