The Left Is Losing Because We’re Not Confrontational Enough ❧ Current Affairs
Many of the points raised in this article chimed with me, particularly the differences between progressive Democrats and the Democratic establishment.
So, in a nutshell, the progressive left is losing because it's sucking up the establishment. I've noticed that for quite a long time now.
The article outlines a possible solution, since progressives don't have the protection of corporate backing which Sinema, Manchin, Pelosi, Schumer, and other establishment Democrats have. Someone like Sanders could organize a grassroots movement of progressives to double down and push harder on the progressive agenda. Among other things, it would simply call upon the Biden Administration to carry out his campaign promises.
The main trouble seems to emanate from the party leadership, which is trying to get progressives like AOC and Sanders to tone things down and play at being friendly and cooperative with the establishment. Predictably, this has been a failure for the progressive left and has seen a concurrent rise of the extreme right.
So, in a nutshell, the optimal strategy for defeating the right would be for the left to become more aggressively anti-establishment, something they're clearly afraid of doing. That's how they end up losing the hearts and minds of so many who would otherwise support them.
The article cites an example of a progressive politician which has successfully used the confrontational approach against establishment-level Democrats: Kshama Sawant, a Seattle City Council member and a member of the Marxist party, Socialist Alternative.
She successfully pushed through an increase in minimum wage and the Amazon tax, targeting Seattle's wealthiest business.
Naturally, big business (especially Amazon) threw a lot of money to try to unseat Sawant, but to no avail.
The article stresses grassroots, popular movements, as opposed to backroom deals or playing nice with the corporate suck-ups.
This article echoes something I've been saying for years now. The left will not defeat the right by sucking up to Corporate America.
Many of the points raised in this article chimed with me, particularly the differences between progressive Democrats and the Democratic establishment.
So, why are we losing? Why has even a moderately progressive agenda failed to pass? The electoral left is losing because it is pursuing the hopeless strategy of confining itself to indoor, backroom deal negotiations while remaining friendly and accommodating to the Democratic establishment in public. Progressives in D.C. are losing because they refuse to strongly and persistently call out the corruption of their Democratic colleagues, they refuse to draw red lines for their votes (and stick to them), and most importantly, they refuse to mobilize their base.
Let us look at the two most important fights during the Biden Administration. The $15 minimum wage should have been an easy victory. Biden and the Democratic Party claim to support it, and it is popular among the public. The policy was included in the very popular COVID relief package from the early days of the Biden Administration until the Democrats came up with a clever excuse to take it out, proclaiming that the Senate Parliamentarian—an unelected advisor with no actual power—ruled it could not be in the bill. How did progressives respond? Along with a few Tweets, they publicly wrote one letter to president Biden kindly asking him, with no red lines or threats, to override the Parliamentarian and keep the $15 minimum wage in the bill. As you might expect, this did absolutely nothing, and the federal minimum wage sits appallingly at $7.25 per hour and $2.13 per hour for tipped workers for the foreseeable future. Without living wages, millions of real human beings go hungry in America and countless Americans are forced to sleep out in the streets because, in part, of the cowardly inaction by progressives.
So, in a nutshell, the progressive left is losing because it's sucking up the establishment. I've noticed that for quite a long time now.
The article outlines a possible solution, since progressives don't have the protection of corporate backing which Sinema, Manchin, Pelosi, Schumer, and other establishment Democrats have. Someone like Sanders could organize a grassroots movement of progressives to double down and push harder on the progressive agenda. Among other things, it would simply call upon the Biden Administration to carry out his campaign promises.
Imagine if, throughout this past year of the Democratic trifecta government, the progressive politicians in D.C. worked alongside left social movements and organized labor to stubbornly, persistently, and combatively, rally hundreds of thousands, even millions of people, day after day, week after week, month after month, with either our own core progressive demands of Medicare for All, free college and student debt cancellation, and a Green New Deal, or even the more moderate demand: “Joe Biden, follow through on your campaign promises! Enact a $15 minimum wage, free community college, and a healthcare public option!”
The main trouble seems to emanate from the party leadership, which is trying to get progressives like AOC and Sanders to tone things down and play at being friendly and cooperative with the establishment. Predictably, this has been a failure for the progressive left and has seen a concurrent rise of the extreme right.
Under pressure from party leadership, they have succumbed to the “tyranny of decorum” that prioritizes public politeness over open criticism of the corporate Democrats who stand in the way of the policies we need. AOC seems to have abandoned the combative movement politics of her Pelosi sit-in in favor of what she erroneously calls more “sophisticated” methods, and Bernie Sanders has always refused to be more than mildly critical of Joe Biden, who he consistently maintains is his “friend.” How many people have to die without healthcare, sleep on the streets without a living wage, and have their futures torn away by the climate apocalypse for these crises to take precedence over the friendships and polite relations of politicians?
So, in a nutshell, the optimal strategy for defeating the right would be for the left to become more aggressively anti-establishment, something they're clearly afraid of doing. That's how they end up losing the hearts and minds of so many who would otherwise support them.
The article cites an example of a progressive politician which has successfully used the confrontational approach against establishment-level Democrats: Kshama Sawant, a Seattle City Council member and a member of the Marxist party, Socialist Alternative.
What is the solution to this pressure towards conformity? Is conformity unavoidable? Is the alternative, more combative approach even possible in reality? In fact, the alternative is not only realistic, but it has been accomplished—just not in D.C. On November 15, 2013, a socialist economist named Kshama Sawant was elected to the Seattle City Council not as a Democrat but as a member of the Marxist party Socialist Alternative. Having operated under a very different political strategy than progressives in D.C., Kshama Sawant and the Socialist Alternative movement represent exactly how the left can effectively use elected office to deliver substantive results for the working class.
She successfully pushed through an increase in minimum wage and the Amazon tax, targeting Seattle's wealthiest business.
When Sawant was elected on the promise of passing a $15 minimum wage, every other member of the City Council opposed it. Instead of writing a polite letter to her colleagues pleading with them to support it and then giving up when that failed, Sawant and Socialist Alternative created a campaign called 15 Now:
Naturally, big business (especially Amazon) threw a lot of money to try to unseat Sawant, but to no avail.
The article stresses grassroots, popular movements, as opposed to backroom deals or playing nice with the corporate suck-ups.
The left will never win through backroom-deal politics. That’s the establishment’s turf. We will only win with grassroots social movements and organized labor working alongside our allies in office to mobilize their base. The choice should never be between a defeatist withdrawal from any kind of electoral politics and trusting that “our” elected officials will get the job done. Serious progressive change in this country—from the New Deal to the Civil Rights Act—has never come from either avenue alone, but only from tremendous grassroots mobilization (especially labor power) alongside some relatively sympathetic allies in office.
Progressive lawmakers must be part of, accountable to, and in daily dialogue with radical grassroots social movements. They must be willing to have an “open clash,” in Sawant’s words, with the Democratic establishment. They must understand that the left’s power comes from mobilizing and organizing, not private pleading and friendly negotiation. There are millions of unorganized but dedicated leftists in this country, and a large majority of Americans support core left policies. We have masses of people on our side, we have politicians in power, and we have social movement organizations. Though we certainly must expand the scale of all three of these, we will not win the policies we desperately need unless we connect the three along the lines of a mobilizing, fighting approach. It will not be easy. It will require serious strategizing, will entail the hard work of building grassroots organizations and labor power, and will create new political questions that will have to be navigated. But we have no choice. We must begin this project now. We have a world to win.
This article echoes something I've been saying for years now. The left will not defeat the right by sucking up to Corporate America.