By Max Reed.
The Election Ahead
The 2024 Election is looking to be a full-on slugfest. The Democrats, after experiencing two center-left primary challengers in 2016 and 2020, have decided to abandon all notions of democracy within the Democratic Party. Joe Biden, although in questionable health and massively unpopular with Democratic voters and the American people at large, has been anointed to the position of the Democratic candidate by several primary states like North Carolina and Florida. These actions are despite the existing opposition candidates of Dean Philips and Cenk Uygur. The center-left Marianne Williamson whom “progressives” rallied behind has dropped out of the race conceding defeat after her dismal campaign performance. Given the openly rigged primaries and reactionary nature of this Party, “progressives” who remain in this organization are either aloof of or in denial of the nature of this anti-working-class nature of the Democratic Party.
The only open primary is oddly enough within the Republican Party. Multiple charlatans have thrown their hat in the smoldering ring of the Republican contest. Former US President Trump is running again and being opposed by one Nikki Haley, a neocon out of the Bush tradition. From an anti-imperialist standpoint, Nikki Haley and Joe Biden represent the worst and most dangerous candidates in the 2024 election. Other candidates in the Republican Party have floundered, and the threat of a successful DeSantis has subsided since he dropped out after the New Hampshire primary. Mike Pence, given his limited appeal to fundamentalists and his falling out with Trump, will not be nominated either.
Remembering the Past Two Decades
It would do the American people and anti-imperialists good to remember the presidency of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. During this time, Baathist Iraq was destroyed via invasion, millions of Arab people were murdered throughout the Middle East, and the civil liberties of Americans were curtailed. The last thing we want as Communists is a competent, united, and effective imperialist government. If Nikki Haley becomes President, her administration will be a repeat of the Bush years with predictable consequences. The Joe Biden administration receiving a second term will likewise be very negative for anti-imperialists. Biden has backed the fascist regime in Kiev and has escalated the war against the peoples of the Donbas and Russia. Biden has also supported the genocidal apartheid regime of Israel in its war of annihilation against the people of Palestine in the Gaza Strip. Recently, Biden has brought the war to another front, that being Yemen against the Ansar Allah Movement. Biden’s presidency domestically has also seen a decline in civil liberties and increased repression of anti-imperialists such as the Uhuru Movement and social media censorship.
The 2024 elections will be a disaster for the American people regardless of which agent of the ruling class manages to lie, cheat, and steal their way into office. The foreign policy of the Trump presidency also had many negative aspects, and similar results can be expected if he is re-elected. In Latin America, Trump reintroduced draconian sanctions on Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Trump attempted multiple times to overthrow the Bolivarian government of Venezuela via US proxy Juan Guido. In the Middle East, Trump sucked up to the far right in Israel and moved the US embassy to Jerusalem. In Europe, Trump continued the Obama/Biden policy of continued weapons support for fascist Ukraine. The main difference between Trump and Biden is that Trump and his entourage are ineffective managers of the American empire. Under Trump, Russia, Iran, and China became closer, BRICS’s influence expanded, and NATO’s unity was rattled.
Mistakes of the Left in the 2010s
Communists see no difference between Biden and Trump. The liberal hysteria surrounding Trump’s election in 2016 did nothing good for the anti-imperialist left who opportunistically tailed this false Democratic-controlled momentum in the hope of renewed relevancy. This tactical alignment has had predictable results within the following decade. In a vain hope to ride the coattails of the anti-trump movement of the NGOs, academia, and the professional-managerial class, the so-called left submerged itself fully into the Democratic Party instead of building independent political power. This unfortunate process had one massive defining event, the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign.
Bernie Sanders and his campaigns of 2016 and 2020 mark an interesting point of shift within the Democratic Party. In the past, progressive insurgents within the Democratic Party primary process were completely normal and acceptable, they never won, as even pro-imperialist social democracy is unacceptable to the American ruling class but had a place within the Democratic Party. Examples of this trend are Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Jessie Jackson, John Edwards, Howard Dean, Mike Gravel, and Bernie Sanders. However, unlike the following figures, Sanders came close twice to winning the nomination.
If not for the rigging of the Democratic Party primary by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz in 2016 and Barack Obama in 2020 it is likely that Bernie Sanders could have won the party nomination. Regardless of these defeats, the Sanders campaigns provided a political awakening of a new generation of American youth and almost singlehandedly revived the word socialism in American political discourse. This impact will have consequences for years to come, as most Gen Z Communists and anti-imperialists at one point or another can trace their ideological roots to the Bernie Sanders campaigns.
The left has both gained from the Bernie Sanders campaign and likewise failed. The successes include the revival of the words “socialism” amongst young Americans and an increasing dissatisfaction with the establishment which may prove critical for a future revolutionary socialist movement in the United States. However, the failure of the Bernie movement rests in its lack of contingency and infrastructure beyond the primary process. This failure has led to fragmentation, a lack of a clear direction, and a missed opportunity for the American left. However, in 2024, there is vast dissatisfaction with the two-party paradigm, especially Joe Biden. Many young voters are refusing to vote for Biden due to his government’s support of Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. In Michigan, 100,000 voters voted “uncommitted”, far more than enough to be a voting bloc that could cost Joe Biden the entire state. This dissatisfaction is crucial kindling for Communists in America and must be taken advantage of to bring more young Americans to a class position.
Conclusion
Communists in the US and what remains of the anti-imperialist anti-war movement must learn from the mistakes of the past decade and find an independent space in American politics. Unfortunately, we are not in the era of FDR and the New Deal, or the Cold War. We are in a new political ballpark and face unique conditions. It is not acceptable or advantageous for Communists to align with any of the two political parties in the 2024 election. For these reasons, Communists shouldn’t fear whatever comes of the 2024 elections but rather have a cold, serious, and Bolshevik determination to build a party of the working class and progressive mass organizations. For Communists, our task is to build an anti-monopoly coalition as advocated by William Z Foster and Gus Hall as a new popular front against monopoly capitalism and fascism. The age of tailing the Democrats and “lesser evilism” must be buried without a second look or thought.