Dear Bernie Supporters: Welcome to the Real Revolution
Dear Bernie Supporters,
I’m very sorry you’re going through this difficult moment. While we have had our differences in the past, I can understand the pain you’re feeling right now. You fought so hard, with so much passion and so much joy, with the belief that this time was different, that this time you might actually win this thing. But still you lost. Neither of us are wondering why. We both know exactly why. New York, California and Nevada tell us why. The DNC emails tell us why. The hobbling of your champion and his public humiliation of having to support everything that both you and he know is wrong with this country tells us why. The truth is he was right that the system is rigged, but his only error was in underestimating just how rigged it really is.
But now you know. The system will never let anyone like Bernie Sanders sit in the big chair. It could tolerate him so long as he sat down and shut up and rolled over like a good dog. But the minute he stepped out of line, the system fell upon him with all of its power and all of its fury until, finally, Sanders was reverted back to being its pet leftist, allowed to bark but never bite. You now see that this was fated the moment he announced his candidacy. He pissed on the DNC’s carpet and was swatted with the newspaper until sufficiently cowed.
The first time I tried to write this letter, it was filled with “I told you so” and “now do you believe me” but I stopped halfway and realized I don’t actually feel that way. The truth is, I’m sorry, genuinely sorry, that this is how you had to learn. After so much sweat, so much toil and, of course, so much money, to find out that it has all come to nothing, and that it will always come to nothing. To find that the U.S. will not, cannot, truly represent the people. To find that the system cannot be salvaged, and that what you want — what you need — is impossible so long as the system continues to exist. You have learned that to expect otherwise is to expect a hammer to turn a screw — it simply was not built for that. It’s a sad thing, but a true thing.
There will be a temptation to give up. To walk away. To sell your possessions and go live in a Yurt out in Mongolia. Please, for all our sake, do not. Do not give in to cynicism. Do not give in to despair. There is a term for that. It’s called being defeated. No matter how you may be feeling right now, know this: you are not defeated. Change is possible. Victory is possible. Another world is possible. You are becoming aware, now, of a larger fight. It is not between two different Democrats, or Republicans and Democrats, or even Greens and everyone else. It is between the rich and the poor, it is between the powerful and the powerless, it is between those who aim to control us and those who fight to be free. We need you for this fight. It is a fight that does not seek to conquer the system, because as you have learned, the system cannot be conquered. It can only, must only, be overthrown. It is a fight to create a new system, one that allows all of us to live lives of peace, freedom and dignity, one that dismantles the state and capitalist economic system and does away with all the racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and every other oppressive social hierarchy that erodes our will to live. This cannot be accomplished in the current framework of representative democracy — what’s needed is a whole new kind of politics, one that moves us into the next stage of political and social development. We must move past the nation state just as our ancestors moved past the divine right of kings.
It’s time to give up on politicians. To give up on elections. To give up on America. People cannot afford to wait around for President Godot. People are getting murdered by police at home, and by soldiers abroad. People are being forced into exploitative economic relations that deprive them of the means of life while enriching bloated plutocrats. People are getting cancer, asthma and any number of other ailments due to the despoliation of the environment. You know that these things will continue whether we have a President Clinton or a President Trump or a President Johnson or even a President Stein because no matter who sits in the Oval Office, the presidency has demands bigger than any one person. These things will continue so long as the current system continues to exist. You can put a living saint in the White House and by the end of their term they will have the blood of thousands of their hands.
The scales have fallen from your eyes and now you see that the nation state system will never be your friend, only your enemy. So long as this government and the capitalist system that supports it continues to exist, it will continue to grind us all into a slurry leisurely sipped on by the 1 percent. We will never have justice, never know peace, so long as this system remains. A government only has legitimacy due to the consent of the people. Knowing all this, it is time to withdraw that consent.
Rise! Throw off your chains! Reclaim your destiny, your dignity, your humanity and look to DC with fresh eyes and know that it aims to do you harm, no matter who leads it! Your feet are being lowered into a woodchipper right now, and all this election is about is who gets to press the on button. Join us in the real revolution, the actual, genuine revolution, the kind of revolution that doesn’t aim to change the system of executive, legislative and judicial powers but destroy them outright. It is a revolution that recognizes that the entire system is illegitimate and to engage with it in anything approaching good faith is to be infected with its derangement.
You want to change the world for the better. What you have learned is that this cannot be accomplished through traditional politics. It doesn’t work. What works is protecting undocumented immigrants from deportation. What works is creating schools and clinics and food programs and elder care programs. What works is building roads and bridges and other public infrastructure that isn’t being provided by the government. What works is blocking highways, ports and railways that carry the munitions used to murder children here and abroad. What works is building alternatives to the police that account for the common decency and humanity of all in our communities. What works is setting up local assemblies to coordinate all these efforts.
What works is dismantling the state and the capitalist system, because these are your true enemies.
Vote if you must, if it will make you feel better (though honestly, that’s all it will really do). But after, please, join us in the real revolution. We will welcome you with open arms because we know what you’re feeling. We’ve all been there. Over drinks we will tell you of the day we too realized that this is all a sham, that the system cannot be changed from within, and that only radical direct action can bring justice. We’ll commiserate with you over our shared experience of betrayal, and we’ll nod when you talk about your frustration. We will be proud to call you comrade. And then? Then we’ll get to work. This system ain’t gotta dismantle itself, after all. We’re very happy to have you on board.
