The Democratic Party holds a gun to America’s head every presidential election. It tells Americans on the left that they have two choices: they can either conform and support the neoliberal, establishment candidate, or they can use their vote as a protest against the moderate candidate and America is shot with fascism.
The Democratic Party put Leftists in this conundrum during the 2016 and 2020 elections. Either Leftists vote for the neoliberal moderates, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, or Donald Trump wins the elections. Both of these cases were evident in the last two presidential elections. In 2016, Leftists decided that Hillary Clinton was an inadequate nominee that frankly did not represent them; Donald Trump was elected. In 2020, Leftists accepted that a neoliberal establishment candidate was acceptable if it meant Donald Trump would not be reelected; Donald Trump lost his reelection. The seemingly obvious conclusion that should be drawn here is that these Leftists settled for inadequacy because the fascism of the modern Party of Trump was much more dangerous than a politician that was a little too close to the center for their tastes. The situation is not that simple. The moderates of both parties are what made the fascism crisis possible. Moderates passed neoliberal policies that screwed everyday Americans in exchange for supporting the interests of large corporations. These pro-business policies gave birth to the current fascist crisis. The Democratic Party abandoned the Working-class to compete with the Republican Party for who would win the support of large corporations. This left millions of Americans with no one fighting on their behalf. President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton, the recent Democrat presidents, were not drastically different fiscally from the recent Republican presidents, President George Bush Jr., President George Bush Sr., or President Ronald Reagan when it came to protecting working-class Americans from the abuses of the private sector.
The failures of moderate Democrats and Republicans to protect an economic system that values working-class Americans over the large corporations and the rich explains how America came to be in the midst of a crisis that solutions appear to be complacency while the rot slowly grows bigger or burning it all down with the blazing fires of American’s take on fascism. When the moderates of both parties failed to care about the everyday American; the everyday American started to look in other places for solutions. The populist movements of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump do not happen in an economically stable and happy America. America’s working-class went to the extremes of the political spectrum because of desperation. Leftist and The Far-Right differ on everything besides the reason why they have become radicalized.
The Tea Party and The Occupy Wall Street movements, during the Pres. Obama Administrations, are both examples of the radicalization of working-class Americans. Both were movements of ordinary Americans that were radicalized because they believed that politics by ordinary means would not work. Yes, there were bigots in the Tea Party movement but most of the people in the movement were desperate Americans looking for a solution out of destitution. Occupy Wall Street was a leftist movement during Pres. Obama’s Administration filled with radicalized Liberals that felt the moderate Democratic President failed to hold Corporate America accountable for hurting the working-class Americans. Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party were both foreshadows of the politics of today.
Today’s Alt-Right and Far Leftist movements and candidates carry the same feelings of dissatisfaction with establishment politics. The Black Lives Matter movement was birthed by black citizens’ feeling that the criminal justice system does not serve them. The Alt-Right’s protests were conservative white people who felt the government forgot about them. The Wall Street Bets movement was Millenials and Gen-Z who wanted to fight back against Wall Street. Steve Bannon is a prime example of the rise of dissatisfaction inside both political parties. Bannon created a cult following in the Republican Party by calling the economy “Socialism for the very wealthy” and by proposing a 44% tax on the rich. In a similar vein, Pres. Trump won over millions of Americans by claiming he will clean up the corporate corruption in politics. Those types of policies seem closer to Bernie Sanders’s policies than they do Mike Pence’s. Banon, Trump, or Sanders would not find a following in a healthy society but the working-class understands that establishment politicians no longer represent them, so they have to go to the extremes.
The only way to fix this radicalization is by Democrats or Republicans becoming the party of the working-class. If citizens felt there was a party fighting for their economic interest then they would not have to go to the extremes to find representation. Establishment Republicans do not seem interested in moving away from big corporations. It is dangerous for society if millions of Americans are radicalized into the Alt-Right where there are true white supremacists and bigots. This means it is on the Left to pressure the Democratic Party to become the working-class party. Moderate Democrats switching to Leftist economic policies that defend the working-class is the only option to protect America from radicalization.
The problem with Leftists complying with the demands of the Democratic Party and electing another neo-liberal, moderate Democrat is that this only makes the fascist problem worse. This is the same lunacy of drinking alcohol to forget having liver failure. The other option is gambling on a potential fascist ability to scare Democrats into truly addressing the issues of the Working-Class. Either way, Leftists and Democrats must find some way to convince the Working-Class from turning towards the Alt-Right for solutions to their problems, or the election of 2024 will be far worse than 2016.
couldn’t agree more. brillant article