By Zach Medeiros
The jig is up. Caught between the pincers of a corporate media and the Democratic establishment, and hopelessly hamstrung by his own unwillingness to launch full-frontal attacks on the system, Bernie Sanders has been defeated again. As in 2016, the individuals and classes who run the Democratic Party, along with those who lick their boots and deposit their checks, have chosen to lose to Donald Trump again rather than tolerate the most lukewarm form of “socialism” imaginable. They did everything in their power to convince voters that Bernie Sanders was less electable than a racist rapist fossil who can barely string a coherent thought together, a man who is intimately involved in some of the most destructive domestic and foreign policy decisions undertaken by the United States in recent generations. Joe Biden is a step down from Hilary “Super Predator” Clinton, if such a thing seems possible.
The callousness of this decision is matched only by its stupidity. If Bernie Sanders had managed to win the presidency, the kinds of reforms he champions would probably give the shambling corpse that is US capitalism and imperialism a much needed shot in the arm, while distracting those who might otherwise join an actual revolutionary movement. Alternatively, the right-wingers in the courts and Congress could have squashed any changes a Sanders administration tried to get through. They had many options, but they decided to go with Joe Biden. Think about that for a moment, and let the horror that passes for democracy in this empire wash over you.
Now, I'm not going to gloat about Bernie dropping out. I’ve written about Bernie’s profoundly flawed ideology elsewhere, and the threat he didn’t pose to this monstrous system. There are far too many good, decent, struggling people out there who backed Sanders for understandable reasons for me to drive the knife in deeper. In Bernard Sanders, millions of people, particularly young people, saw something and someone different than the usual filth that characterizes Amerikan politics. While there are some who only backed him because they wanted some decent health care on top of the usual imperialist, colonialist pie, there were and are many others who saw in a Sanders presidency the possibility for transformative change that would make a meaningful difference in their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Many of these supporters are working class or precariously positioned colonized people, with real reason to fear a second Trump term but sick to death of the Bidens of the world.
Intellectually, US Americans are trained to be passive, idealist, and hyper-individualistic in our understanding of politics. We’re taught to look to pro-capitalist politicians, and particularly presidents, as almost magical saviors able and willing to vanquish all of our designated enemies and cure all our ills, real and imagined. Voting them into office is supposedly our highest political duty, and when they fail or disappoint, we must only use the systems, tactics, and strategies the ruling class allows to “hold their feet to the fire,” or some other such nonsense. This is how most of us, including the most diehard revolutionaries, are raised from birth, and it would be hypocritical to play the enlightened ones and chastise those outside the radical Left who believed in Sanders now. Politics are about nothing if not education, and we must be mindful of everyone’s capacity to develop.
All of that said, we need to recognize what actual socialists and other revolutionaries, above all colonized people, have been saying for years: you cannot and will not build past-its-prime social democracy, let alone real socialism, from inside the Democratic Party. You cannot and will not win power except through the mass leadership of the most oppressed and marginalized people in this society. You cannot and will not save Amerika from itself, and it does not deserve to be saved. Bernie Sanders has lost two presidential elections in a row now. There have been many before him who tried to push this country to the left from within the Democratic Party and failed. It is no shame to make a mistake; the shame lies in repeating it again and again. If you ever had a shred of hope in the Sanders campaign, refocus that. Multiply it a thousand fold, and put it into action building and supporting genuine revolutionary movements. Destroy imperialism. Smash colonialism. Grind capitalism into dust. Fight for the liberation and emancipation of the millions and billions of human beings kept down by every form of chauvinism and exploitation.
As Mariame Kaba said, let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.
