How "Defeating Trump" Saves Capitalism

the presidential election in the United States is just around the corner and the Democratic primaries are in full swing the relative success of Bernie Sanders campaign has pulled the Democratic Party into a state of open antagonism the contradiction between the image the party has projected and its actual actions has now been made readily apparent the party has marketed itself as the party of the people championing the rights of minorities and workers alike of course it should come as no surprise that the party's true allegiance has never been to the people supporting popular policies has only ever been on the agenda for political expedience and it has always been abundantly clear that at best the Democrats have been a centrist mediator between public demands and private interests the contradiction between the party's image and its actions have come to the forefront of the political arena in the recent primaries the party has demonstrated its unwillingness to go any further left than the center with many party elites carefully asserting gradualism over revolution the fact that Sanders revolution is not revolutionary or radical at all only helps to demonstrate just how deeply mired in conservatism the Democratic establishment really is when Joe Biden said that people don't want revolution they want results he spoke for the party as a whole what Biden said indicates a contrast between revolution and results that revolution is somehow antithetical to results results are therefore according to Biden and company achievable through some form of cautious gradualism but even the guarantee of change through reform is predicated on a continued commitment to progress a visualized end goal that is arrived at by inching the country slowly in that direction unfortunately we have no reason to believe that the Democratic Party has any such commitment and for that reason we should not take any argument of reform over revolution at face value in other instances the party elite have made it more than clear the Democratic Party is capitalist at its core Nancy Pelosi phrased it precisely in that manner when asked by a young New York University student where the party stands it should not be a shock that a major political party in a capitalist country largely identifies itself with capitalism a pertinent question may instead be how capitalist is the Democratic Party the answer is laid bare in the democratic establishments response to the rising Sanders campaign Mr Sanders has proposed a number of so-called radical policies and has labeled himself as a socialist Sanders and his campaign have on numerous occasions insisted that their platform is not radical at all that many of the world's developed economies have long since implemented similar programs for the Sanders campaign this appealed to the pristine Nordic social democracy is a PR move and perhaps a valuable one given that any mention of similar programs unless ideologically sanitized countries like Cuba would evoke a negative reaction from the public even this tame version of social democracy put forward by the Sanders campaign has proven to be too radical to the Democratic Party for the party universal education and health care represents nothing short of a revolution in other words the Democrats have no intention of ever venturing beyond the fundamental paradigms of capitalism in response to comrade Sanders revolutionary movement the Democrats have called upon the most powerful ideological tools to stem the bleeding of the party between the tried and true McCarthyism and the carefully cultivated demonization of change let alone revolution the Democrats are doing everything they can to pull this course towards the right we should give credit to the party for noticing this moment of crisis especially in the concerted effort of many leaders and candidates to endorse Biden just in time to tip the balance to the right but perhaps the most pernicious of all the ideological tools is the immortal slogan of defeating Trump sometimes voiced as vote blue no matter who it is nevertheless useful to critical observers who can see in these slogans the transparent structures of liberal ideology defeating Donald Trump implies the following assumptions individual agency is more important than the broad structures of political economy the primary cause of the problems in the status quo according to the Democrats is Trump and his administration thus the primary political goal should be defeating Trump even it means compromising on policy issues defeating Trump is more important than addressing systemic inadequacies the latter are secondary and not the appropriate basis for your vote this suggests in some part that the Trop era is substantially different from the era that preceded it it is uniquely brutal and conflictual which is why it is a priority to remove Trump and his crew from office removing Trump is marketed as a correction of the current slide away from democracy crumbling democratic institutions are a product of Trump and not the other way around ensuring the survival of the Democratic establishment is preferable to voting on critical issues the Democrats are asking their constituencies to set aside its differences and vote for them regardless of what their candidate proposes the Democrats are not ready to admit that worsening economic inequality in accessible healthcare student debt and rising education costs xenophobia offshoring and outsourcing imperialism and the many other problems plaguing American society existed well before Trump those that accept the existence of these problems before the Trump era still hold that trump's administration is exceptional in its proliferation of these issues this is part of a broader ideological perspective that views the present as a deviation from normal something is wrong now things are not as they are supposed to be we just need to move back on the right track and everything will be good again this is a familiar line of thought because we all heard it in 2016 make America great again what would we be returning to the Obama era of mass deportations of immigrants and bombings of sovereign states the Bush years of rising inequalities and declining educational standards no point in the recent or distant past presents itself as a utopia what's more the conditions of the present were set up by the developments of the past we are told again and again that the system just went off the rails and needs to be set back but doing so would evoke the famous definition of insanity repeating the same thing and expecting different results out of the competitive markets arose winners of the competition capital continue to concentrate into the fewer and fewer hands not by chance or instances of personal greed but because competition produces winners and losers there for the winners is a larger share of the markets more wealth and thus greater influence over society as a whole before you know it you have a large corporation dictating politics through regulatory capture lobbying and campaign financing all those unjust rules put in place by the government were bought fair and square by agents of the market the Democrats have it exactly backwards Trump did not produce the crisis in democracy he was born in it but even this situates the problem incorrectly the question is not so much about the health of the democracy in the United States as it is about the rise of populism as a challenge to the existing political machine which is far from receptive to actual popular participation either way Trump is the symptom not the cause it is absolutely crucial for the Democrats to pose these issues in the status quo as functions of individual differences and as isolated instances instead of historical developments they need to be able to convince the public that the status quo is damaged particularly by Trump and therefore that the only viable solution is to go back to the Democrats who will replace Trump with a good guy this legitimizes the relevance of the Democrats and helps the party distance itself from any kind of blame moreover it keeps people in the political center even if for purely practical reasons if people are made aware of the systemic problems and their historical context it would become all too apparent that the Democrats good guy couldn't solve anything even if you wanted to the election season is normally the time and space where the parties have the opportunities to consolidate and reproduce all these ideological elements which is all the more reason why the Democrats became alarmed when Bernie opened the door to actual political discourse Bernie draws attention precisely to the point that the Democrats hope to obscure convulsing as if being fed bitter medicine the Democrats begrudgingly engaged in real discussions about systemic issues nothing speaks to their reluctance to continue this debate more than their constant reference to electability and party unity this narrative helps preserve faith in capitalism as a system it distracts from any serious condemnation of the structures of capitalism and reproduces the belief that voting for the good guy is the best thing a conscientious citizen can do to improve their life but the Democrats should be particularly worried about is the losses they incurred among the young population in the United States while the older generation are still swayed by the powerful tools of McCarthyism and manufactured caution towards change the young are not as convinced even as the party successfully manages to snuff out Sanders campaign it is failing to convince the generations of the future to believe its age-old facade [Music]

Channel: The Marxist Project

Views: 8,364

Rating: 4.8786345 out of 5

Keywords: politics, economics, political economy, voting, democratic primary, bernie sanders, joe biden, democrats, republicans, trump, obama, capitalism, marxism, democrat, republican, primaries, socialism, bernie, biden, elections, presidential election, presidential election 2020, 2020, ideology

Id: qvpGiepiBWs

Length: 9min 40sec (580 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/thewintermood]

I watched the whole thing. While Bernie or Buster's grievances are valid, being a Bernie or Buster is definitely NOT a reasonable or valid position.

This video gets into a lot of details but you don't need to get into details to make an informed voting decision. The question is this: Is the country better off with Trump or Biden?

The answer to me is very obvious. If it isn't obvious to you then you haven't been paying attention.