Peace! 
I'm not going to endorse anyone in the presidential race, but here's the closest you'll get from me, with North Carolina primaries two days away. Anyway, if you read it let me know what you think:
In early voting, I cast my vote for Bernie. Not under the presumption that his election could bring about any political revolution. Bernie's imaginary is sorely limited: he falls short on justice for Palestine, his economics are social democratic at best and prioritize the 'American worker' in a way not compatible with any proletarian internationalism, his anti-racism is always secondary or tertiary, never prioritized. And as much as Bernie's socialism is inadequate on the issues themselves, he also lacks strategy; this was made abundantly clear by his decision to run in the capitalist Democratic Party in the first place. The Democrats offer no future for any challenge to capitalism in the United States; one need not look any further than the mobilization of the Party behind its inevitable nominee in Clinton, anti-democratic superdelegates, and general history of social movements to see that the Democratic Party is a well-maintained fortress against any kind of movement from below.
My previous party, Socialist Alternative, has enthusiastically tried to keep one foot in the door of the Sanders campaign, with the Sanders campaign keeping one foot in the door of the Democratic Party. I had a lot of reasons for leaving Socialist Alternative [unfortunately I don't have the space in this piece to list all my grievances with that organization] but two of the number of reasons I had for disaffiliating were a general platform of social democracy - limited vision - and a political strategy of electoralism - which I interpret as failed from the start. I love the people I met in Seattle with Socialist Alternative, and I hope they're successful in building socialist society by their means. But I don't think they will be. Bourgeois elections are not democracy. Bourgeois elections are a tool by which the bourgeoisie is able to maintain the fa?ade of choice, and make autocratic rule by the bourgeoisie appear popular. Remember Lucy Parsons: "Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth." It isn't that the vote is just 'not enough'; it's that the vote in the American political system is explicitly designed to insulate a pro-capitalist, political elite.
If I'm this disillusioned about the electoral process, then, why did I vote, and why did I vote for Bernie? His invocation of Sandra Bland and Laquan McDonald, and his lending of his voice to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has really been something I've never seen in American electoral politics at the presidential level. His calling for a $15/hr minimum wage is the minimum wage that fast-food workers have themselves struggled for, and I think it goes to show the guy really tries to listen to people doing the real work, the real organizing. His campaign has talked to First Nations leaders and activists and is the only campaign to unequivocally oppose fracking. Considering the campaign against Margaret Spellings and the neoliberal privatization tactics of the UNC Board of Governors, I won't lie and say that Bernie's plan to cut from the Pentagon, tax Wall Street, and use that revenue to fully pay tuition at public universities hasn't certainly turned out many of his supporters to our walkout a few weeks ago, and idealistic Bernie supporters will likely be at our protest again on Tuesday. In short, it's exciting to see people shutting down Trump rallies and getting involved in #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations and showing up to campus protests, and his political imaginary - while sorely limited - is far broader than any candidate in a very long time.
But that's still not why I voted for him. I voted for Bernie because the way I see it, capitalism is in crisis in the United States, and two paths exist out of the crisis. The Democratic and Republican establishment have traditionally obscured the power structure of capitalism, inventing an ideological divide where none materially existed. The Democrats and the GOP have invested heavily in this ideological divide of liberalism and conservatism, with hot-button discourses emerging and disappearing with frequency. Never has either party taken shots at American or global capitalism, and neither ever will. But the obscurantism of such a system - of Clinton, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich - really loses its power in times of crisis. I voted for Bernie because the way I see it, there are two candidates living in the actual world, listening to the people themselves: Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. The former is - despite serious flaws - presenting a way out of crisis that emphasizes unity and collective welfare; the latter is presenting a way out of crisis that requires an 'other' to persecute. Sanders and Trump both at least understand that the American public is suffering. The other Republican candidates and Clinton do not understand that; that's why Clinton has repeatedly insisted in response to Trump's slogan that "America never stopped being great."
America never stopped being great, Hillary? When was America ever great? Trump's "make America great again" at least understands that America is presently pretty awful. Bernie's "a future to believe in" understands, also, that America is presently pretty awful; the implication is that there is no present to believe in. That's why so much of the American working class has found itself caught in thrall by the anti-establishment campaigns of Sanders and Trump. Both understand that America is presently awful for a lot of people; the difference is the present different paths forward. Trump tells his supporters that the only way to make America great again is to scapegoat Muslims and Latinx immigrants and Black people and China. Bernie's future to believe in suggests that through social-democratic reform and a sort of new New Deal, we can escape this capitalist crisis.
Socialists and communists know that the crisis of capitalism can't be healed with the band-aid. It has to come with the working class taking the means of production, with internationalist, anti-racist, feminist, anti-homophobic and anti-transphobic mass movement. Bernie is not America's savior, nor should he be; revolution has to sever with the settler-colonialist and capitalist project of the United States. But I voted for Bernie because I believe - as I type this - lines are being drawn in the sand, and the election in November is only the beginning of a long and painful struggle against fascist Trumpism and centrist, liberal, or conservative capitalism. I voted for Bernie not to endorse Bernie the candidate, but to demonstrate where I stand in relation to that line in the sand, between Marxists on one side and the Trumpists on the other.
If St. Louis, Chicago, Kansas City, and even Concord, North Carolina are any indication, the future lies in the hands of the Trumpets, or in the hands of an organized, internationalist, working-class Left. The times of the obscurantist Democrats and Republicans are behind us, we can only look forward, build, and fight for the communist society which we know is the only resolution to the crisis at hand.
I'm not going to endorse anyone in the presidential race, but here's the closest you'll get from me, with North Carolina primaries two days away. Anyway, if you read it let me know what you think:
In early voting, I cast my vote for Bernie. Not under the presumption that his election could bring about any political revolution. Bernie's imaginary is sorely limited: he falls short on justice for Palestine, his economics are social democratic at best and prioritize the 'American worker' in a way not compatible with any proletarian internationalism, his anti-racism is always secondary or tertiary, never prioritized. And as much as Bernie's socialism is inadequate on the issues themselves, he also lacks strategy; this was made abundantly clear by his decision to run in the capitalist Democratic Party in the first place. The Democrats offer no future for any challenge to capitalism in the United States; one need not look any further than the mobilization of the Party behind its inevitable nominee in Clinton, anti-democratic superdelegates, and general history of social movements to see that the Democratic Party is a well-maintained fortress against any kind of movement from below.
My previous party, Socialist Alternative, has enthusiastically tried to keep one foot in the door of the Sanders campaign, with the Sanders campaign keeping one foot in the door of the Democratic Party. I had a lot of reasons for leaving Socialist Alternative [unfortunately I don't have the space in this piece to list all my grievances with that organization] but two of the number of reasons I had for disaffiliating were a general platform of social democracy - limited vision - and a political strategy of electoralism - which I interpret as failed from the start. I love the people I met in Seattle with Socialist Alternative, and I hope they're successful in building socialist society by their means. But I don't think they will be. Bourgeois elections are not democracy. Bourgeois elections are a tool by which the bourgeoisie is able to maintain the fa?ade of choice, and make autocratic rule by the bourgeoisie appear popular. Remember Lucy Parsons: "Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth." It isn't that the vote is just 'not enough'; it's that the vote in the American political system is explicitly designed to insulate a pro-capitalist, political elite.
If I'm this disillusioned about the electoral process, then, why did I vote, and why did I vote for Bernie? His invocation of Sandra Bland and Laquan McDonald, and his lending of his voice to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has really been something I've never seen in American electoral politics at the presidential level. His calling for a $15/hr minimum wage is the minimum wage that fast-food workers have themselves struggled for, and I think it goes to show the guy really tries to listen to people doing the real work, the real organizing. His campaign has talked to First Nations leaders and activists and is the only campaign to unequivocally oppose fracking. Considering the campaign against Margaret Spellings and the neoliberal privatization tactics of the UNC Board of Governors, I won't lie and say that Bernie's plan to cut from the Pentagon, tax Wall Street, and use that revenue to fully pay tuition at public universities hasn't certainly turned out many of his supporters to our walkout a few weeks ago, and idealistic Bernie supporters will likely be at our protest again on Tuesday. In short, it's exciting to see people shutting down Trump rallies and getting involved in #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations and showing up to campus protests, and his political imaginary - while sorely limited - is far broader than any candidate in a very long time.
But that's still not why I voted for him. I voted for Bernie because the way I see it, capitalism is in crisis in the United States, and two paths exist out of the crisis. The Democratic and Republican establishment have traditionally obscured the power structure of capitalism, inventing an ideological divide where none materially existed. The Democrats and the GOP have invested heavily in this ideological divide of liberalism and conservatism, with hot-button discourses emerging and disappearing with frequency. Never has either party taken shots at American or global capitalism, and neither ever will. But the obscurantism of such a system - of Clinton, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich - really loses its power in times of crisis. I voted for Bernie because the way I see it, there are two candidates living in the actual world, listening to the people themselves: Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. The former is - despite serious flaws - presenting a way out of crisis that emphasizes unity and collective welfare; the latter is presenting a way out of crisis that requires an 'other' to persecute. Sanders and Trump both at least understand that the American public is suffering. The other Republican candidates and Clinton do not understand that; that's why Clinton has repeatedly insisted in response to Trump's slogan that "America never stopped being great."
America never stopped being great, Hillary? When was America ever great? Trump's "make America great again" at least understands that America is presently pretty awful. Bernie's "a future to believe in" understands, also, that America is presently pretty awful; the implication is that there is no present to believe in. That's why so much of the American working class has found itself caught in thrall by the anti-establishment campaigns of Sanders and Trump. Both understand that America is presently awful for a lot of people; the difference is the present different paths forward. Trump tells his supporters that the only way to make America great again is to scapegoat Muslims and Latinx immigrants and Black people and China. Bernie's future to believe in suggests that through social-democratic reform and a sort of new New Deal, we can escape this capitalist crisis.
Socialists and communists know that the crisis of capitalism can't be healed with the band-aid. It has to come with the working class taking the means of production, with internationalist, anti-racist, feminist, anti-homophobic and anti-transphobic mass movement. Bernie is not America's savior, nor should he be; revolution has to sever with the settler-colonialist and capitalist project of the United States. But I voted for Bernie because I believe - as I type this - lines are being drawn in the sand, and the election in November is only the beginning of a long and painful struggle against fascist Trumpism and centrist, liberal, or conservative capitalism. I voted for Bernie not to endorse Bernie the candidate, but to demonstrate where I stand in relation to that line in the sand, between Marxists on one side and the Trumpists on the other.
If St. Louis, Chicago, Kansas City, and even Concord, North Carolina are any indication, the future lies in the hands of the Trumpets, or in the hands of an organized, internationalist, working-class Left. The times of the obscurantist Democrats and Republicans are behind us, we can only look forward, build, and fight for the communist society which we know is the only resolution to the crisis at hand.
