The Republicans seem to be good at bridging gaps between them and
the Democrats too. That leads to an authoritarian monopoly. A monopoly?
How can it be called a monopoly when it's two parties? Well, they both
serve the same interests. And I don't think the Greens, as a party, has
denounced capitalism yet either.
___
Carl Sagan
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind
and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says
everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the
fallibility of all the human beings involved?”
― Carl Sagan
On 12/12/2019 12:59 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
I don't think that the Greens are a Capitalist party. They may not be a Communist party, , but
they're hardly Capitalist. One of the problems with the communist parties (which call themselves
"socialist" parties, is that they derogate any leftist party that doesn't fit neatly into
their definition of a party that will serve working and poor people. It's a very authoritarian
position. It's why the Left never wins. Everyone is a purist so its fragmented. The Republicans, on
the other hand, managed to bridge gaps between their Libertarians, "Never Trumpers",
Evangelicals, and traditional Republicans and with their majority and some trickery, they win
majorities in state houses, and the Senate, and they gave the Presidency to a maniac.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted
sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2019 12:29 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Democrats’ drive to oust Trump targets working class
https://themilitant.com/2019/12/07/democrats-drive-to-oust-trump-targets-working-class/
Democrats’ drive to oust Trump targets working class
By Terry Evans
Vol. 83/No. 46
December 16, 2019
The Democratic Party is sharply divided, with its leaders panicking that their
drive to impeach and indict President Donald Trump — which began the day he
took office and has continued ever since — is failing to win support. They fret
that none of their myriad of presidential hopefuls can defeat the president in
2020.
One of their responses is to step up efforts to keep working-class and other
third parties off the ballot, dealing blows to the political rights of working
people.
The ruling U.S. capitalist families maintain their hold on power through their
two-party system, convincing workers and others to vote for the “lesser evil”
of a Democrat or Republican, back and forth, in each election. The fraying of
this operation is one of the key things revealed by the Trump victory in both
the 2016 Republican primaries and against Hillary Clinton in the presidential
race.
Three smaller capitalist parties — Greens, Libertarian and Constitution —
“played a spoiler role in crucial states such as Wisconsin and Michigan” in
2016, Michael Scherer claimed in the Washington Post Nov. 27.
Desperate to put the Clinton family back in the White House that year, the New
York Times ran an op-ed shortly before the vote urging its readers not to vote
for Alyson Kennedy, presidential candidate of the Socialist Workers Party — a
party the Times otherwise studiously refuses to mention.
The Democrats’ solution? Make it even harder for other parties to run.
This fall New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo tasked the state’s nonelected
public financing commission with hiking petitioning requirements for parties
other than the Democrats and Republicans to get on the ballot. The commission
obliged Nov. 25, tripling the number of signatures. And, if some third party
manages to make it — like the Working Families Party — the commission more than
doubled the number of votes they would have to get to stay on the ballot for
the next election.
The Working Families Party was originally set up to corral workers frustrated
with the Democrats to vote for their candidates anyway by putting them on an
“independent” ballot line. But in the last couple elections its leaders have
occasionally chosen more radical-sounding Democrats to run, including against
the regular party leadership’s offerings.
In the long run, the Democrats’ goal is to keep working-class parties like the
Socialist Workers Party from using ballot status to present an independent
revolutionary program of struggle, a road to fight for workers and farmers to
take political power into their own hands.
While the Democrats unanimously back trying to get Trump ousted — and have a
House Judiciary Committee hearing on Dec. 4 to consider articles of impeachment
— they fear they will not be able to get him. So far working people have
responded to their carefully stage-managed witch hunt with growing disinterest.
In fact, recent polls show opposition to Trump’s ouster is growing.
Democratic Party crisis deepens
In response, the Democrats are split between one wing that believes they have
to find a way to win back workers who voted for former President Barack Obama
in 2008 and 2012 and then switched to Trump in 2016, all in search of some
“change,” and another wing that writes off such workers as reactionary and
“irredeemable.” This wing’s strategy for 2020 is to ignore the working class
and try to seize the presidency by appealing to a new “base” — Blacks, Latinos,
women, immigrants and sophisticated professional layers in the country’s
metropolises.
Both wings of the Democratic Party, like other meritocrats and the capitalist
rulers they serve, fear the working class, sensing the crisis of capitalism
impacting on the livelihoods of working people will lead to rising struggles.
On his side, Trump is campaigning for reelection by pointing to the fact there
are more jobs today, which gives workers more confidence to fight for better
wages and working conditions.
But the real beneficiary of the stock market boom today is the capitalist
class, whose growing wealth stands in stark contrast to what workers face.
The crisis of the capitalist system continues to deepen — regardless of modest
cyclical ups and downs. Workers’ life expectancy is falling, the U.S. rulers’
wars go on and on, bosses from Asarco copper mining to Walmart are pushing for
speedup with more hours and less safety, and household debt is exploding.
Trump also brags he has “Made America Great Again” worldwide by rebuilding
Washington’s military might without committing more troops to ground combat.
The president flew to Afghanistan Nov. 28 and announced his administration
intends to reduce U.S. troop numbers there from
14,000 to 8,600 and resume talks with the Taliban. He said U.S. forces would
remain until “we have a deal or we have total victory.” Last year Washington
launched more airstrikes against the Afghan people than at any time since the
war began 18 years ago.
The reality is that the U.S. rulers’ strategy today is no different than that
under Obama. The best they hope for is to preserve the weak Afghan government
and contain the Taliban.
Both Republicans and Democrats — Trump, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe
Biden, etc. — seek to protect the interests of the capitalist ruling class.
Not one Democrat vying for the party’s presidential nomination proposes U.S.
forces get out of Afghanistan now.
In contrast to both the Democratic and Republican wings of the capitalist
two-party system, the Socialist Workers Party candidates in
2020 “demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S.
troops from Afghanistan and the Mideast,” Alyson Kennedy, the party’s candidate
for president in 2016, told the Militant Dec. 1.
“Washington’s wars abroad,” Kennedy said, “are fought in the interest of the
same capitalists who have for years held down wages and worsened the conditions
of working people at home.
“Party members organize together with co-workers and others to fight the
bosses’ attacks, build solidarity with workers’ battles from Asarco to the
Canadian National rail workers fighting for safety,” Kennedy said.
“We call for building a labor party based on these struggles — a party that
advances a break from the Democrats and Republicans and the fight to establish
a workers and farmers government.”
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Copper strikers fight Asarco union busting •All out in
solidarity with striking copper workers!
•Democrats’ drive to oust Trump targets working class •SWP drive expands reach
of ‘Militant,’ books, fund •Protests in Chile demand end to attacks by gov’t,
capitalist rulers •Communist League in UK: ‘Jew-hatred is deadly threat to the
working class’
•CN rail workers ‘strike for safety’ won broad backing
Feature Articles •French rulers expand military intervention into West Africa
Also In This Issue •Australia: Women make gains in right to choose abortion
•‘The making of a union bureaucrat’
•Over 10,000 farmers in Germany protest against gov’t restrictions •Iraq
upsurge continues, prime minister to resign •Socialist Workers Party Fund Drive
Oct. 5 - Dec. 10 (Week 8) •Fall Campaign to sell Militant subscriptions and
books Oct. 5 - Dec. 10 (Week 8)
On the Picket Line •New York labor rally supports Amazon warehouse workers
•Senior residence workers in Quebec strike for higher pay
Books of the Month •‘Peoples of Cuba and the US are fraternal and
invincible’
© Copyright 2019 The Militant - 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor - New
York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxxx
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