The Election Won't Save Us. What Will?
Next steps for the American left.
Election Day is here. With it comes a bevy of emotions, none of them pleasant. If you’re like me, you’re probably worried about a second Trump term, dismayed by Harris’s boilerplate liberalism, and heartbroken there was no electoral means to stop the Gazan Genocide. For all the air America blows into the self-aggrandizing bubble that we’re the World’s Oldest Democracy (not true), reality punctures like a sharp nail: two-thirds of Americans want a ceasefire in Palestine,1 yet we’re forced to choose between a candidate who promised consistent slaughter and one who pledged to increase it. That will stoke anger and frustration, no matter which box you checked on your ballot.
However, I find one emotion has surpassed all my others: fear.
I am afraid. Not just because I fear the xenophobic, imperialist, and exploitative policies both candidates have promised but because we, the American people, are powerless. Americans have struggled, bled, and died for our right to vote. But despite those gains, we are witnessing first-hand that we are a long way from seeing the popular will manifest in national policy. It’s good we have a seat at the table. But it’s still only one seat, easily overpowered by the thousands of corporate and special interests that bribe politicians in broad daylight.
I reckon many of you feel this way, too. Regardless of how you voted, you were likely dismayed while casting your ballot. Whether you wrote in a third party, voted for Harris, or abstained, I’d wager none of these options gave you hope. And you’re right.
It’s a cliche, but electoralism will not save us. (At least modern American elections won’t.) Both capitalist parties know they don’t need to enact the people’s will to win. Republicans are fixated on hyper-online culture wars and speed-running 1930s Germany, meaning all Democrats have to do is say, “We’re normal, and we won’t outlaw abortion.” As recent elections have shown, it’s a winning strategy. Voting against GOP lunacy is a rational decision, but it doesn’t bring change. Every election leaves us in the limbo of late-stage capitalism, which only exacerbates the economic hardship rightist reactionaries grow upon. Without a progressive economic program that cuts MAGA off at the knees, the fascist threat will expand into a monstrosity like mold on forgotten food. Though revolting, hunger will drive some Americans to take a bite. (I apologize for the grotesque analogy, but it’s the only way to represent the Republican agenda.)
If we want things to change, we need power. And if we want power, we need to organize.
As a natural development of capitalism, the people have precisely one advantage over our rulers: numbers. As the interests of workers and capitalists are opposed (the more capitalists take from workers, the less workers have, and vice versa), the capitalists and their allies need to divide us. Otherwise, we’d unite and stick up for ourselves, which they wouldn’t like. So, they do what James Madison told them to do in Federalist #10: amplify bigotry, nationalism, and fear-mongering to breed factionalism and create false divisions among the working class.
Unfortunately, this has worked well for the American right. By telling us Mexicans are rapists, America is Jesus’ Favorite Country, and the woke communists will steal your gas stove, capitalists have kept the working-class Americans pitted against each other and divided. After hard work days, long commutes, and helping kids with their homework from an underfunded school, the typical American is too exhausted to even think about taking on the capitalist class. Toss in the billion-dollar union-busting industry, and it's no wonder why business interests dominate politics: the working class is too distracted and tired to oppose them.
So, if you’re feeling scared, vulnerable, or heartbroken right now, let’s take a single step to calm your nerves and give you some control in this chaotic world. As your frustration will last no matter which candidate wins, now is the perfect time to act. That’s why I’m challenging each of you to take a single step toward building a better world today. You don’t have to do everything. Just one thing. If this election has spiked your anxiety, then act. How you feel right now is a manifestation of all your problems with our society, from the mass slaughter of Palestinians, to enriching your do-nothing boss, to the false promise of bourgeoisie “democracy.” That unrest may reside as we put this hellish election in the rearview and the concerns of daily life take priority. But unless we act, our fear won’t die. It will remain with us, circling underneath like a shark in the deep. It will be passed down to your children and their children, and so on and so forth, until capitalism cooks the planet or the nukes rain down. If that sounds bad, take action.
A great place to start is your workplace. Unionize and fight for higher wages and better benefits (which will deter your coworkers’ fascist sympathies) and join the national movement of workers standing up for economic and social justice. Here’s a link to contact a volunteer organizer from the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), a nonprofit that helps people like you unionize. Or, perhaps, you’d like to organize your apartment into a tenant’s union to lower rent and improve living conditions. I suggest you start with the Tenant Union Federation, America’s first national effort at tenant organizing in over 40 years. In addition to the above, it’s great to join a political action group to learn and aid ongoing efforts such as labor movements, immigration justice, and anti-police initiatives. I highly suggest the Democratic Socialist of America, the country’s largest socialist organization.
Again, don’t try to do the whole thing. Just one step. Sign up for DSA and ask about the next meeting. Fill out the form to contact an EWOC organizer. (Who knows, it could be me!) Talk to your neighbor about a tenant union. Such tasks may seem trivial in the scope of a Presidential election or the colonization of Palestine. But that’s what the powerful want you to think: “You can’t change anything.” “Don’t waste your time.” “Just accept the shit we feed you,” they say.
Fuck that, and fuck them. They need us to be apathetic and divided so that in the next election, they can throw us scraps of self-preservation. I don’t want scraps, and I’m damn sure you don’t either. I want liberation. I want democracy. I want freedom. Not just for us, but for everyone.
We have a world to win. So, regardless of who is declared the victor, let us remember the last words of union activist Joe Hill.
“Waste no time mourning. Organize.”
I’ll be hosting an election live chat tonight, starting around 6:30 MST. Click below to join us.
As always, please like (click the ❤️), share, and subscribe. I’m sure you have loved ones troubled by the election, so don’t hesitate to send this article to them.
Take care of yourself, today and always. In Solidarity — Joe
https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2024/6/12/voters-support-proposed-ceasefire-deal-to-end-fighting-in-gaza
Joe, thank you for this long and detailed post. I know you said you didn’t want to know about Peanut the Squirrel, but you really should. This story exemplifies the incoherence of the Magats. Briefly,NY sent a SWAT team to confiscate a wildlife rehabbers pet squirrel and raccoon. The squirrel panicked, bit someone, and was put down. The raccoon cub was also killed. The rehabber was apparently in the process of getting the correct licenses when this happened.
It was awful, and I feel bad for all the innocents involved. But the Magats are screaming that it shows the danger of “big government” and that the democrats will invade our homes, kill our animals, destroy our freedoms, etc—while they, themselves, want the government to interfere in sensitive medical issues, deny women’s rights, and more. Absolutely incoherent.
Poor little Peanut’s death does not show the danger of “big government”, but the danger of militarizing the police—something the Magats are absolutely fine with when those police are turned against peaceful protesters and communities of color.
Great essay.
I was not personally dismayed about my vote for president, which was for Stein/Ware. I was happy to go on record opposing the duopoly in general and the Genocide in particular. Every vote against the Genocide is a message to the Palestinian people that some of us here stand with them.
I was also happy to vote for Gabe Vasquez for Congress here in NM, in what is the most competitive congressional district in the US. His opponent, Republican Yvette Herrell was the incumbent in 2022 and lost to Gabe by just 1305 votes out of 192,000 cast. Herrell is one of these dominionists who want to privatize all public lands, which would be a horrific disaster. With such a close margin, this really is a contest where every vote counts.
All that being said, my central focus is the environment, and I definitely have dismay about it regardless of whether Harris or Trump wins. Each presents different challenges. Trump and Project 2025 would seek to dismantle environmental regulations, which would be disastrous. But if the previous three Democratic administrations are any indication (Biden, Obama, Clinton), the challenge under Harris will be getting people to see that no, everything's not going to be fine now, and we must hold her administration's feet to the fire to make it do the right thing. I don't relish either outcome. We have an uphill battle either way.
One of my main priorities is protecting wildlife habitat from development and extraction (which is to say, from Capitalism, and also Patriarchy). Unfortunately, one of the biggest threats to ecosystems in the US West is "green energy" development, both from the destructive footprints of the projects themselves (land bulldozed for solar and wind farms, and for the long corridors needed for transmission lines) and the additional mining needed for the projects (lithium for batteries, copper for building out the grid, etc.). It's already a big challenge getting people to see that "green energy" has its own significant environmental costs--often in places like our deserts and steppe lands that up til now had so far managed to escape the worst of industrialism--and that we must take a different path: one of *reducing* our overall footprint of consumption rather than expanding it. We shouldn't even be maintaining it at current levels.
If Harris wins, I will be involved with campaigns pushing back on her administration's plans to destroy western ecosystems, which will mean trying to convince well-meaning liberal people who believe they care about the environment that opposing Harris is necessary. If Trump wins, it's ironic but such "green energy" projects will likely go ahead at about the same pace if his last administration is any measure, because this development isn't really about sustaining the environment, it's about sustaining Capital. Some of the aforementioned liberals will continue pushing for that development, and will cast me as a Trump supporter for opposing it.
So yeah, dismay is certainly a prominent emotion for me right now!!!!