Electoral Politics: A Dictatorship of the Capitalist Class
Read the full Fall 2024 SCDS Dis-Orientation Guide here.
It has all but officially been decided that Kamala Harris will be the heir to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign to face Donald Trump in the 2024 election, one that some cry out is vital to save our democracy. But if American democracy is so fragile that a single election could end it forever, is it not necessary to seek something better? Or if the Democratic Party really does believe in democracy, why would they not let the people vote for who they want to represent them, instead of pushing the deeply unpopular Biden and then, when it was clear he could no longer function, they hand selected their own candidate? The answer to this is that the Democratic Party fundamentally has interests that are opposed to those of the average person living in the United States, especially workers, Black, Indigenous, LGBT+, disabled and all other oppressed peoples.
This is not any sort of new development; this has been the case for the entire history of the United States, which was not established as a democracy as is taught in school, but a state that facilitated the rule of landed white men. And even the question of voting for the so called “lesser evil” has been discussed for nearly a century, where in W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1956 article titled “I Won’t Vote” he states “I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no “two evils” exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say.” And of course this is still true to this day, both the Democratic and Republican parties are entirely subservient to the wealthy and powerful, just slightly differing factions of this single group. This is very easily seen when so many Democratic Party members decry political violence in the wake of the shooting of Donald Trump, but also welcome with open arms (along with Republicans) Benjamin Netanyahu, the representative of the Zionist political project that is currently waging a genocide war leaving what is likely over a 6 digit number of Palestinians killed in Gaza. This system is corrupt to its core and this cannot be meaningfully changed with simply an adjustment of who the “democratically elected” representative head of this system is.
And arguably most young people do implicitly understand this, as in 2022 only 23% of young people voted (1); an overwhelming majority did not find it worth their time for various reasons. Our response to this should not be to encourage more people to vote, but instead have people understand that their feelings on the futility of this system are not misguided and that there is an alternative to pursue progressive change. Many of the greatest progressive changes in this country were achieved completely separately from electoral processes. Black rebellion and a civil war abolished slavery. Radical and union organizing won the 8-hour work day. Rights for prisoners were won in an uprising at Attica. And many more people have struggled and rebelled against oppression in these lands with no pretenses of the faux democratic processes of the United States government, like the many Indigenous people fighting against the US military, or the queer patrons of Stonewall rising up against police terror.
With the struggles in the street sometimes there are corresponding reforms in the government, but those reforms are never permanent and are always in danger of being revoked. It is in fact privileged to believe that voting affects real change for oppressed groups and that to be an ally to these groups all one must do is “vote blue.” Roe v. Wade was overturned under the Biden presidency, and in the over two years since, there has been nothing that guarantees abortions for everyone in the United States despite Democrat promises. At the same time, trans people, especially trans children, have been continually under attack in many states, including several bans on gender affirming care for minors, with the same story as the right to abortion: no fight back at all from the ruling party, but rhetoric painting themselves as the ones to solve these issues.
Still the dominating narrative being forced upon us is that it is necessary to vote if you want to see any change at all. It is viewed as the only pragmatic option for progress. But there must be a complete rejection of that claim. The goal of these narratives is to reify the system and to funnel people away from imagining and fighting for a just system without any of the shackles that electoralists cry out as inevitable. “Progress” gained through elections often only serves the most privileged in the US and neglects the suffering of millions of people oppressed at home and abroad. Real and lasting progress cannot be achieved or guaranteed through elections. We urge you to look beyond the narrow confines presented to you your entire life and to struggle against it. Join the Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity, People’s Defense Front, or other organizations fighting for change and see what moving past the capitalist system’s rules looks like. Reject electoral illusions, organize for liberation!
Read the full Fall 2024 SCDS Dis-Orientation Guide here.
Sources
- The Youth Vote in 2022:
https://circle.tufts.edu/2022-election-center
