Should Radicals Vote for Hillary?
Parallax News presents big debates broken down into multiple perspectives.
Most polls show that Hillary Clinton is favored to win the White House. That victory, however, may depend on whether radicals and progressives turn out to vote for her. One of Hillary Clinton’s biggest challenges since the primaries has been appealing to those who flocked to Bernie Sanders. Many of them doubt Clinton’s commitment to the progressive agenda, seeing her as an elite whose real aim is to defend the status quo.
I. Bernie Sanders
Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized Clinton in the primary for her hawkish foreign policy and Wall Street ties. Now, he has urged the far-left to rally behind the former state secretary, touting her progressivism on many issues and the need to stop Trump’s far-right movement. Sanders says Clinton is a champion of civil rights, for example, while her opponent is seeking to remake the U.S. into a “bigoted society.” “[W]e have come too far, too many people have gone to jail, and too many have died in the struggle for equal rights,” the senator pleaded, pointing with alarm to Trump’s rhetoric about Muslims and undocumented immigrants. Sanders also sees Clinton as dedicated to stopping climate change, which most progressives think is necessary to save the future of mankind. Trump, meanwhile, touts fossil fuels and has tweeted that climate change is a hoax.
II. Cornel West
Cornel West, a Princeton professor and leading progressive thinker, refuses to back Clinton. He calls her a “neoliberal disaster” and an unacceptable alternative to Trump’s “neo-fascism.” West believes Clinton represents corporations and banks to the detriment of the global working-class. He accuses her of destabilizing the Middle East and going to the brink of war with economic rivals like Russia and Iran. West has chosen to support Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee, whom he believes to be the only real progressive candidate. He notes that Stein is pursuing longtime radical goals such as releasing non-violent offenders from prison and providing reparations for descendants of slaves. If the far-left rallies behind Stein, West argues it won’t be throwing away its votes, but rather ending the current, two-party duopoly that limits political change.
III. Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek, the famous Marxist philosopher, has not only declined to support Clinton but offered an endorsement for Trump. The Slovenian acknowledges a Trump presidency could be disastrous, noting the businessman’s support among white nationalists and his promises to appoint right-wing judges. On the other hand, Žižek says a Trumpian shake-up could cause an “awakening” and destroy the prevailing system of consensus that prevents radical change. The philosopher points to Bernie Sanders’ reversal on Clinton as evidence that progressive politics, as it now operates in the U.S., is a charade designed to serve the Democratic establishment. Trump, meanwhile, has already decimated the neoconservative Republican establishment. Žižek notes approvingly that Trump’s passionate base is working-class. The philosopher suggests that, if a genuine radical left is to emerge, it will likely involve many of the poor who have been energized by Trump.
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Further Reading: New Yorker / Democracy Now / YouTube
This brief was written by Jared Metzker.
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