Winning the Election While Building a Movement
The U.S. presidential election comes at a pivotal juncture in history. I think it could be decisive in determining the future direction of our society. Defeating Trump is critical. At the same time, the real enemy is the system of capitalism that led to Trump. If we don’t address that, we will only create more Trumps.
Without a movement applying pressure on it, a Biden administration [Joe Biden is the Democratic Party candidate for U.S. president] would not resolve the many crises we face. The Democratic Party is not going to build the movement we need, so how we organize to defeat Trump is important. We need to participate in a united front with Democrats to defeat Trump while at the same time building independent organizations that can advance our longer-term goal of building a just society. Co-Counselors could play important roles in this.
To advance human liberation while also attending to the present situation we need short-term goals tied to a longer-term strategy. Some people feel like we have to beat Trump first and then worry about what comes next. That would be a big mistake. This election creates an opportunity to organize people. We can either spend our time organizing them into mainstream Democratic Party organizations that don’t share our long-term goals, or we can organize them into organizations that are working to defeat Trump while also engaging in longer-term organizing for real liberation.
There are real dangers if Trump wins another term. The impact on climate change would be catastrophic. I think it is likely he would try to change the rules of our democracy to support an apartheid-like form of white minority rule and use police and the military to weaken movements against him. We have to defeat him—but how we do it matters.
CAPITALISM IS THE ENEMY; TRUMP IS A RESULT
Many liberals and mainstream Democrats think that if we just get rid of Trump and get the Democrats in power, we can get back to normal. This is a serious mistake. First, there is no going back to normal (not that “nomal” was ever good enough for most people). Capitalism is an unstable system facing a crisis. The mainstream Democrats would like to save it, but given the magnitude of the current crisis, I don’t think that would work. Second, that approach ignores the fact that the failure of mainstream Democrats to create real change in working people’s lives contributed to the rise of Trump.
Trump’s rise to power is not some aberration but rather an outgrowth of the current stage of capitalism. The U.S. and world economy experienced a major crisis in 2008. After that, Republicans and Democrats [the two main U.S. political parties] worked together just enough to bail out the banks and keep the system functioning at the expense of working-class people. Since then, the economic situation for poor, working-, and middle-class people has continued to worsen while the leadership of both parties has focused on saving big businesses. As a result, many people have become disillusioned with traditional politicians and are looking for something new. In the midst of this crisis, Donald Trump ran for president trying to convince white people that immigrants, People of the Global Majority, and China were their real enemies and the cause of all difficulties. A Trump presidency was made possible by the failure of mainstream Democrats to actually help working people or tell a coherent story about how capitalism was creating the mess.
AVOIDING CO-OPTATION IS KEY
A significant bloc of the owning class opposes Trump and wants to replace him with a more stable leader. They talk about how terrible Trump is. But their goal is to save capitalism in order to keep making profits. We can work with them on our shared goal of defeating Trump, but joining their effort without building our own organizations that advance our goals would be a mistake. Throughout history, efforts at real transformation have been blocked by attempts to change the system just enough to keep it going. These attempts have often seemed to be aligned with us, but in fact their goals are completely different. One of the most important tasks in this period is to not be co-opted by such attempts and to build organizations that are truly focused on liberation.
WITHOUT OUTSIDE PRESSURE, A BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WOULDN'T CHANGE MUCH
It is quite possible that Joe Biden could win this election. That would be a big blow to Trump and others like him. It might also buy us some time on climate change. But a Biden administration would not likely do much to address the huge crises we face without major pressure being put on it. Biden and the Democratic Party are deeply committed to capitalism, and a Biden administration would prioritize trying to patch up this system and make it work a little longer. Given the size of the crisis we face with COVID, climate change, and the economy, that would be unlikely to work. Most likely, conditions for most people would continue to worsen, with People of the Global Majority and working-class people being hit the hardest. The failure of a Biden administration to create real change could easily result in a return to a Trump-like leader.
WE NEED TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ORGANIZATIONS
So what do we do? A Trump re-election creates an existential threat, and a Biden administration is not a real solution. I think the answer is to work with Democrats to elect Biden while building independent organizations committed to more fundamental change. The good thing about a Biden administration is that it could be influenced to take more effective, progressive positions on climate change, the economy, racial justice, and more, if we build powerful enough movements. The Democrats will spend millions of dollars to mobilize people to vote in this election, but after the election they will essentially disband that organization, just as they did after Obama won. If instead of organizing with the Democratic Party we organize with independent organizations that share our long-term vision for liberation and are willing to pressure Biden once he is in office, the story could be different.
I am not suggesting we support third political parties (at least not yet). Because of our electoral system, third parties are irrelevant in most places (until we change that). I am talking about supporting candidates that are running for office as Democrats while building separate organizations that advance economic, racial, and gender justice. Across the country a host of independent political organizations are working to defeat Trump while also engaging people in longer-term organizing for more fundamental change. Most are led by working-class people and People of the Global Majority. These organizations organize for elections but also develop leaders, participate in mass movements, and organize on issues year-round. Co-Counselors could play significant roles in supporting these organizations.
Another advantage of working with independent organizations is that they may be able to reach people the Democrats cannot. Many people don’t believe the Democratic Party talking points anymore. An independent local organization that sees the election as part of a longer-term strategy may be more credible to the many voters who decided not to vote last time. A lot has been said about reaching for Trump supporters. On principle, I agree. In this election, however, I think it’s more important to spend our time on the millions of people who weren’t inspired to vote at all but would likely vote for Biden if they saw their vote as part of a movement for more fundamental change.
WE CAN JOIN THE COALITION AS AN INDEPENDENT FORCE
Several people have written on this e-mail discussion list about the need to build a united front to defeat Trump. I agree that it’s important. But it’s also important to consider some historic lessons on united fronts. Over the last century, revolutionaries in many places have formed united fronts with others to advance common goals, including to defeat fascism. But while the united fronts worked together on their common demands, each group also remained an independent force pursuing its independent long-term goals. Being part of a united front in this election means joining the coalition as an independent force. Otherwise we will have simply joined the Democrats.
WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
The threat of Trump winning is scary. That can make us focus only on narrow short-term goals. But this moment requires so much more of us. We have to address the short-term threat, move a long-term strategy for liberation forward, and discharge any fear or discouragement that might stop us. Anything less will not solve the crises we face.
The good news is that it is possible to defeat Trump while building the movements we need for the long term. Movement organizations led by working-class people, People of the Global Majority, women, and LGBTQ folks have grown tremendously over the last few years. We recently saw the largest wave of protest the United States has ever seen in response to the police murders of Black people. If we get involved in the election while building these movement organizations, we could see some real change. There is so much we as RCers can bring to these organizations and so much we can learn by getting involved in this kind of organizing. I think this is a good challenge for us.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for USA political issues
(Present Time 201, October 2020)