I have spent the last three quarters of a century in and out of the United States and lived though tumultuous chapters of our national history that have often been measured in wars of choice and countless instances of undermining other people’s democracies. Now things have come full circle; it is our own democracy that we’ve decided to torch.
If authoritarianism — or let’s just call it by its proper name, fascism — seems like a new choice, Americans have always had a rather low opinion of actual democracy. This is why we purge voter rolls and disenfranchise ex-felons. This is why we give cops carte blanche to murder civilians without consequence. This is why the majority of our national treasure is spent on destruction instead of lifting up the people who pay the freight. This is why the building blocks of our democracy, like the electoral college and the Senate, were designed to be inherently undemocratic. This is why we have a Supreme Court that gives lie to what you learned in social studies — that it is held in check by two other branches of government. Clearly it no longer is.
Americans could care less about democracy. We worship at the altar of raw power and we sneer at equality, justice, civic virtue and social cohesiveness. We are not all in this together. It’s every man for himself, and that’s just the way the capitalists like it.
There is so much in Trump’s win that boggles the mind, from his obvious dementia — if not outright insanity — to his incessant lying, the multiple felonies, the sleaze and corruption, and the fascist toadies and evangelicals who have sidled up to him. But the greatest insanity is the expectation that a corrupt billionaire and a coterie of other corrupt billionaires will somehow make things right for the common man — instead of simply lining their own pockets. What moron would believe such nonsense?
It turns out that the 74 million Americans who voted for Trump are not morons. While they may not have been voting in their own long-term self-interest, and many no doubt disapproved of Trump’s countless moral, intellectual, and mental failings, they were not voting for a man but for a Führer who will dictate and decree the kind of country they have always wanted — dominant Christian and White-controlled. If there are any doubts about this, Trump’s cabinet appointments make it abundantly clear.
Emergent fascism is scary enough, but what was equally shocking about this election was how fluidly the Democratic Party moved from years of denying that its incumbent president was cognitively impaired to fielding a new one — all without the inconvenience of a primary. How easily the party machine raised billions from mega donors while continuing to gaslight voters about the benefits (it turns out, mainly to Wall Street) of Bidenomics. How easily, barely raising any alarms, the Democratic Party moved significantly to the right on immigration, war, military spending, foreign policy, and even social issues. How coldly the party provided “ironclad” and excessive support for Israel’s genocidal slaughter of Palestinians. And refused to change course, even with a new candidate.
Democrats of every stripe behaved badly in this election, from Blue Dog Democrats to Democratic Socialists. From Congressman Bill Keating, who cheer-led the Gaza war while profiting from his Boeing investments — to good old Bernie Sanders and [former?] Democratic Socialist spitfire Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who both shepherded progressives, herding them into line to stick with an administration that was illegally funding the genocide of Palestinians even as they both supported performative legislation to stop it.
The Democratic Party is finished. Or it should be. Like a trojan virus in an operating system, unless thoroughly rooted out, the Democratic leadership will continue to advance the neoliberal policies and losing strategies that have had it on the ropes for decades and are its hallmark. Like a trojan or root virus, the most reliable solution is to start all over again, installing a new OS on the bare metal.
The Left has always argued for a new party of working people. Now liberal Democrats are slowly discovering they need one too.
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