Spring of discontent: Biden's victory and the coming wave of leftist radicalization
Photo Credit: (Vox/Google Images)
Written by: Daniel Xie
The democratic party would like for everyone to believe that with Bernie’s most likely final defeat, the leftist insurgency within the democratic party has been effectively crushed. In their dream world, the establishment, under Obama VP Joe Biden, has finally triumphed over insurgent progressives. Yet what Bernie’s defeat has more likely done is usher in a spring of discontent and further radicalize his base away from electoral and social democratic parties. This has potentially laid the groundwork for a left wing mass movement in the coming years, if not months.
Refusal to bow to Biden
In response to Biden’s victory, various Bernie affiliated movements, along with the Democratic Socialists of America, all have refused to endorse Biden. The refusal to endorse Biden came not only from the DSA’s main twitter account, but also from various DSA affiliated chapters across the United States. This was followed by various tweets from organizations affiliated with the Sanders campaign also not endorsing Biden.
Bernie Campaign staffer Briahna Joy Gray has joined in on the opposition to Biden’s coronation by Bernie supporters, by stating that she herself will not endorse Biden in the general election. In response, supporters of the democratic establishment are mocking her choice online and trolling her by making demeaning unemployment jokes against her. This in turn demonstrates the hypocrisy of the establishment with regards to “Berniebros”, in the sense that they condemn Bernie Bros as racist and sexist keyboard warriors, but they themselves are perfectly willing to engage in demeaning trolling against progressives not willing to toe the line.
Some elements of the Bernie supporting crowd have even turned against Bernie in their process of radicalization, viewing him as weak in dealing too lightly against Biden. This is exemplified by Jimmy Dore, who has constantly decried Bernie Sanders and Alexandra-Ocasio Cortez for being too soft on the elements of the establishment blocking their way in effecting genuine sociopolitical change (Biden and Pelosi respectively). As well as their lack of resistance towards the massive corporate handouts provided by the CARES act; similar remarks were also made by Breadtuber(left wing Youtuber) BadEmpanda, whom humously took jabs at Bernie’s endorsement while telling people not to vote for Biden in a short 45 second video.
It seems that while Bernie and AOC may have played an important role in raising awareness of leftist politics from 2016 to the present day, the endorsement of Biden and providing weak resistance to the CARES act seems to be a breaking point for American social democracy. Social democrats-represented by Bernie and AOC-have demonstrated their self-limiting goals in being reliant on electoralism and seeking to reform capitalism from within rather than overthrow it. This in turn opens up the most disappointed elements of the social democratic base to more radical ideologies such as more anti-establishment and grassroots-oriented forms of democratic socialism, anarchism and marxism.
Not only have Bernie supporters and the DSA been unwilling to follow Bernie in supporting Biden, various feminists and feminist allies have expressed unease with regards to supporting Biden in any capacity and are even advocating not supporting him at all. This is due to Biden’s history of sexual assault as exposed by Tara Reade. Progressives such as AOC feel that these allegations must be addressed and that to silence these allegations is tantamount to gaslighting.
They have said that allegations have been ignored by liberal news sites such as MSNBC, along with pro-Biden celebrities such as Alyssa Milano despite earlier promises to follow through on the principles espoused by the #MeToo movement. This demonstrates that the American liberal establishment, despite supporting women’s rights, would throw them under the bus when one of their own that they want to see in power gets accused of rape allegations. In betraying the #MeToo movement through propelling a rapist with a history of backing segregation during the civil rights era into the position of presumptive nominee, the democrats have ultimately alienated a large segment of the populace that sees them as upholding the rights of the marginalized communities. This guarantees very little enthusiasm for the presumptive nominee.
False Equivalencies
This wave of increasing radicalism, it should be unfortunately noted, is not universal. Pro-electoralist and “lesser evil” thinking is still being championed by a vocal element of the left despite the fact that Biden is all set to lose to Trump given his current policy positions combined with his history of sexual violence against women. In an interview with the Intercept, Noam Chomsky championed voting for Joe Biden in swing states, comparing erroneously the Bernie or Busters with the “social fascist” tactics of the German Communist party in the 1930s that supposedly prevented a united Communist-Social Democrat Front against Nazism.
In reality, a more apt comparison in this situation would be to the victory of Hindenburg in the 1933 elections against Hitler. In the sense that, rather than getting a candidate willing to stop the far-right, we’re getting a right leaning candidate that would rather capitulate to the far right rather than make any meaningful change. Much like how Hindenburg ultimately capitulated to Hitler by making him Chancellor following Von Papen’s advice. Breadtubers Vaush and Xanderhal have both echoed these sentiments as well.
Democratic party shenanigans radicalize leftists
Perhaps seeing where the wind is blowing, the democratic establishment, along with their allies in social media such as Twitter and Facebook, have been trying their best to weaken even further any influence Bernie might wield in the Convention, as well as shut off any possible alternatives to the democratic party in order to perhaps corral people into seeing Biden as the only alternative. New York Democrats are already planning to remove Bernie from the ballot, perhaps to ensure his delegates don’t even get to influence any policy during the convention or to ensure that Biden’s coronation is not upsetted by Bernie somehow winning by virtue of still being on the ballot.
At the same time, Twitter has deleted the twitter account of Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins’s campaign page. This is despite continuing to a platform to various far right political activists and organizations such as Ben Shapiro, PragerU, Jordan Peterson, Steven Crowder, Rebel Media among many others, as well as alt-right “Gamergate” and “Fandom Menace”. All referenced are “culture warriors” who blame any shortcomings within modern media solely on women and minority representation. It seems that pro-establishment elements of social media and the democratic party would rather leave the door open to far-right radicalization even as they shut down every single left wing alternative within and outside the democratic party.
Ultimately, the end of Sanders campaign was not a triumph for the establishment. Rather, as pointed out by leftist sources such as Black Agenda Report, the potential seeds for a mass independent left has been planted by Bernie’s final defeat. In surrendering to Joe Biden even as the Coronavirus crisis demonstrated why America needs Bernie’s policies more than ever. Bernie, and by extension AOC, have demonstrated the shortcomings of social democracy at a time when his base is demanding fundamental change and calling for knockout punches to be delivered against a fundamentally reactionary candidate with little interest in winning over Bernie’s base.
Yet in order to mount a knockout punch, Bernie would’ve needed to think beyond the social democratic and respectability-oriented paradigm that he operates in and go beyond the limits of capitalist discourse, which he did not do. By ending his campaign on a sour note, with even less resistance than in 2016, Bernie has once again turned prospective leftists against the democratic party as he did at that time even as he once again endorses the presumptive nominee.
With a large voting base now alienated from the party they sought to take over, it is up to activists and organizers willing to fight for change beyond two party duopolies and bourgeois electoralism. They must reach out to the disenchanted Bernie supporters, and lay the groundwork for a mass socialist organization capable of ensuring transformative change in the United States.
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