Fellow leftists, please vote for Kamala
In honour of Biden’s call for national unity following Trump’s ear injury, here’s some left-on-far-left violence
Twitter leftists have a new definition for “electoralism”: to engage in the American political system by voting. It’s used to ridicule the behaviour of those who would prefer to hold their nose and vote for Democrats rather than heighten the contradictions of capitalism and imperialism to bring about the socialist revolution by abstaining.
Some anti-electoralism arguments are very unsophisticated: Biden supports Israel, therefore don’t vote for him. (The obvious retort being that Trump has shown himself to be far cozier with Bibi than Biden). Or there’s the classic “Democrats and Republicans are all the same,” best encapsulated by a meme (because when you attempt to convey it with words, you realize how stupid it is):
Granted, the Twitter leftists—let’s call them burn-it-all-down (BIAD) leftists—often have a point. US imperialism sucks. And both the Republicans and Democrats participate in it. The US has CIA blacksites all around the world that did terrible things banned by the Geneva Conventions. We know Obama assassinated American citizens abroad via drone, and we know he’ll never see his day in court. Brown University’s Watson Institute published a study called the Costs of War that estimates that the American post-9/11 wars (in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, etc.) displaced 38 million people; involved military operations in 78 countries (none of which were authorized by the United Nations Security Council)1; cost US taxpayers eight trillion dollars (meanwhile they lack universal healthcare, unlike in every other developed country); directly killed between 905,000 and 940,000 people; and indirectly resulted in the deaths of 4.5 to 4.7 million people. This makes the US War on Terror probably one of the greatest crimes ever committed by man. Not enough Americans are willing to admit this let alone are aware of the extent of America’s wrongdoing.
US imperialism has probably been worse than Chinese and Russian imperialism.2 Russia has a more legitimate justification3 for invading Ukraine than George Bush had for invading Iraq (which is to say, basically no justification). China seems mostly concerned with its immediate surroundings, in particular Taiwan, whereas the US has tried to export its ideology and influence (via wars and coups) to Argentina, Palestine, Vietnam, and beyond—every corner of the earth. Perhaps if Russia and China had as much wealth and power as the US they’d be doing the same—that wouldn’t surprise me. But that doesn’t justify American interventionism abroad.
Time for a revolution
BIAD leftists—best embodied by my communist, Putin-supporting former classmate Calla Walsh—see all this injustice and decide we need a revolution.
They often also have class-related motivations that I also have much sympathy for. In America—a country of extravagant wealth—why can’t we just redistribute it to the needy? Could we maybe have a wealth tax? Does anyone actually need 230 billion dollars? Isn’t it obviously immoral to let some people die of hunger while others buy yachts, mansions, and islands?
If the BIAD leftists were actually organizing for a revolution, they might pique my interest.4 But they seem far more concerned with roasting libs on Twitter and posting edgy, overdone memes on Instagram. And the only “direct action” they seem to want to do is vandalism.
Not very appealing. But they need to understand that revolution—whatever that entails—is unlikely to lead to a socialist paradise. Throughout human history, most violent political revolts that overthrew the social order did not end well, even those that were socialist in inclination. BIAD leftists should also consider that the one political team that seems most primed for political violence is the alt-right groyper types—they’re the only group that has tried to stop the certification of a democratic election through violence. Why wouldn’t these guys co-opt the socialist revolution? They’ll pounce on any instance of political discontent and discord to try to win the culture war—by force.
Also, if these people—Proud Boys et al.—get involved in the revolution (or civil war, or whatever it is), they’re probably going to win. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans have a gun in the household; 25% of Democrats do.5 I don’t like those odds.
Violence is usually bad
But more importantly, I don’t like violence. I don’t think a civil war or revolution would be good for the proletariat or for the climate or for Palestinians or for women. Political violence and instability often leads to a rally-around-the-flag effect for the regime, lending it more power, and most Americans will not be down for the communist revolution. Political instability also serves as a great distraction for leaders to consolidate power. If most Americans fear that their town will be burnt to the ground by a bunch of burn-it-all-down leftists, they probably won’t mind the NSA, FBI, and police expanding their power to “protect them”—and they probably will forget about climate change and wealth inequality while they focus on not dying. Habeas corpus only got suspended once, and it was during the civil war. Also: political violence is highly correlated with intimate-partner violence. And: when something crazy goes down in America, Israel is far more likely to attack Palestinians. Plus: war is awful for the climate.
So the revolution will be terrible for the groups the left wants to help and will harm all the causes we care about. And it might get co-opted by the far right. And it will likely be won by the people with the most weapons, not by the people who’ve read the most Marx and Fanon.
So if revolution isn’t a good option, what about voting?
The wonders of the two-party system
In US elections, there are only two choices, Democrats and Republicans. Third-party candidates always lose and often spoil the election. In the 2024 race, either Trump or Harris will win. You can abstain, vote for Harris, or vote for Trump. This choice carries vast implications for the health, prosperity, and happiness of millions, perhaps billions, of people. To make the wrong choice would be detrimental.
Even if you think both the Republicans and Democrats are fascist, surely you’d prefer to live under the fascists that renegotiated the Iran nuclear deal and let women get abortions, right?
Democrats aim to raise taxes on the wealthy to be spent on things like education and socialized health care. Republicans lower taxes for corporations and the richest Americans. Democrats invest in green energy and seek to curb carbon emissions. Republicans pretend climate change isn’t real. Democrats seek to protect abortion rights and gay rights. Republicans try as hard as possible to do the opposite. Republicans spout nativist rhetoric and scape-goat immigrants for the economic problems their policies create. While Republicans support unconditionally giving aid and selling arms to the Israeli military, a growing number of Democratic lawmakers have stood against the US’s steadfast support for Israel. Thanks to Republican lawmakers, while unions are supported by 71% of Americans (and a majority of Republicans!), 60 million workers in 2023 wanted to join a union but couldn’t.
Under Biden, unemployment is at a 50-year low. Workers’ wages adjusted for inflation are higher than they were pre-pandemic. Biden expanded the child tax credit, giving out monthly checks to low-income families. This halved child poverty, bringing it to an all-time low. Republicans then voted against reupping this program, pushing five million more kids into poverty. Five million poor kids being pulled out of poverty is not small potatoes.
Marx predicted this
There’s clearly an overlap between leftists who want to burn it all down and wealthy urbanites who don’t actually care what happens to the poor. Their leftism doesn’t come from a place of compassion for the down-trodden but from violent hatred of every person in the world who doesn’t agree with them 100%. Their ideology is just as reactionary as the dribble you get from Jordan Peterson and Tucker Carlson.
Elite universities like those in the Ivy League are the hotbed of burn-it-all-down-ism and the exact type of leftist who refuses to have a political conversation with a liberal let alone vote for one. I can’t stand MAGA, but the people who anger me the most are wealthy, urban leftists who decry imperialism and capitalism while refusing to vote against the Republican candidates who are imperialism and market fundamentalism’s biggest champions.
The ruling class—which includes most Ivy-League-educated BIAD leftists—stands to benefit from promoting abstention from elections. Since these people, who are generally on the left, would otherwise vote for Democrats, they’re helping Republicans. By distracting everyone from real-world issues like climate change and worker exploitation they’re intensifying the culture war and providing fodder for right-wing media.
BIAD leftists are so effective at advancing right-wing talking points and undermining the left—which benefits them as members of the ruling class—that they ironically fit perfectly into Marx’s superstructure: the political, legal, cultural norms and ideas created by the economic structure of society which reflect and perpetuate the interests of the ruling class.
The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure, and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life.6
Gramsci said that the superstructure helps preserve the supremacy of the ruling class through political society—the organizer of force—and civil society—the organizer of consensus. BIAD leftists seem to fit into some new aspect of the superstructure: they serve as the strawman version of the left, which the right can use to win in politics and reinforce the class structure.
These BIAD leftists are wealthy enough that they won’t be harmed when Republicans slash healthcare and welfare. They won’t be harmed when Republicans sell bombs to Saudi Arabia to be dropped on Yemeni civilians. They’ll judge everyone else, citing Lenin and Angela Davis, as conservatives deregulate oil companies and the banks. They’ll abstain from the election to preserve their own sense of self-righteousness, while millions of asylum seekers are turned away at the US’s southern border and the climate crisis worsens. They’ll waste their education, wealth, and social capital while the most vulnerable people on our planet get screwed. Don’t be a BIAD leftist. Vote.
Except perhaps Libya. But the NATO bombing operation quickly went beyond the text of the security council resolution by morphing into a regime-change operation.
Notice how I can make this claim without justifying the horrific domestic policies of the authoritarian Russian and Chinese governments.
Neither war is justified. The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a morally heinous and illegal crime under international law. But there’s a Mearsheimerian part of me that thinks Russia generally has legitimate national security concerns and that having NATO troops hanging out in Ukraine is somewhat provocative (given that NATO is not purely defensive).
Not really, lol.
It would be very hard for the socialist revolution to succeed if it can’t get a good number of Democrats on board.
Marx’s Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, 1859