Flouting The Establishment

POSTSCRIPT:

Requiem For A Quixotic Endeavor

It is a lamentable truth that the United States has a very powerful right-wing party.  It’s called the Democratic party.  The only other major party is a proto-fascist cult (which currently enjoys even more power).  In a political arena where campaigns are hype-generation competitions (fueled by corporate cash), such exigencies do not bode well for the prospects of structural reform. 

Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla put it well: “Elections can be moments in which power inverts–times when large swathes of the population, heretofore invisible, are cast into voting blocs that politicians take seriously.  To ask voters to pledge their vote before being won over takes away this bargaining power–and, in turn, radically changes the electoral game.  It is the candidates’ job to win voters over, not voters’ to submit to a choice between two evils.  So if you feel like shaming someone into voting for a candidate who actively disregards their demands, consider who [and what] you’re really asking; and what’s really at stake: Of all the unwanted jobs shouldered by marginalized communities, this should not be one of them.”

To give in to the “lesser of two evils” ultimatum is to empower those who benefit most from that ultimatum.  This is Machiavellian-ism 101: Those in power will do whatever they are able to get away with.  Concession is used as further leverage for a perpetuation of the status quo.  Due to the gigantic power asymmetries, this isn’t about consensus, mutual cooperation, and (judicious) compromise; it is about those in a disadvantageous position ceding power to those with the most power, so that they can further consolidate that power.

Think of it this way: What does it say about a party that allows fascistic organizations like the DMFI and AIPAC to hold sway? Or a party that is run by a cabal of unabashed corporatists (the DLC)? Behold a party in which genuine Progressives are chronically pleading for concessions—almost always in vain.  Indeed, the corporate Democrats are more concerned with appeasing the G.O.P. than being even remotely Progressive.  Why?  Because they are–effectively–just a watered-down, less brash version of the G.O.P.  (It’s why the most prominent backers would rather support Trump than see Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee.)

Those in the privileged position–be they Republicans or corporate Democrats–FEIGN compromise with Progressives.  Their conciliatory gestures is nothing more than posturing.  Any purported “concessions” are a RUSE–employed to maintain the incumbent power structures under the pretense of “doing what we can”.  Such “compromise” on the part of those holding all the cards is a FEINT; used to placate anyone who challenges them.  Meanwhile, voters are expected to marshall their voting power ONLY for damage-mitigation.  (Support whoever will do the least harm…out of the choices put forth by the Establishment.)  Anything else is a “wasted” vote.  This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Participants are reduced to a cadre of intellectually-castrated sycophants, who are content to croon about how “Progressive” they are even as they fail to promote any policies that are ACTUALLY Progressive.

It is up to the electorate to refuse to play this game–to say: “Enough’s enough.”  Only then will the perpetuation of this charade be brought to a halt.

When legislation is sold to the highest bidder, democracy itself becomes an illusion.  As long as policy is bought and paid for by moneyed interests, little will be done to abet the commonweal.  And as long as the government serves only those with financial power, things will continue in the same manner: an orgy of deferred quid pro quos for corporate lackeys–having served their paymasters–enjoying lucrative gigs promptly after leaving office.  Careerism and public service are mutually exclusive.  Insofar as a politician stands to personally benefit financially for supporting certain legislation, the U.S. will continue as a de facto plutocracy.

This is not so much an obituary for Progressive ideals as it is an elegy for the prospects of the Democratic Party as a dependable vessel for Progressivism.  For too long, American Progressives have thought it reasonable to work with those who were nothing but contemptuous of everything they stood for…who mocked them and scoffed at them…who did everything possible to marginalize them.

Memo to Progressives: The Democratic machine DOESN’T LIKE YOU.  In fact, it despises you.  Why?  Because it is a corporatist party to its core.  Its ramshackle “tent” is only (begrudgingly) accommodating to a Progressive caucus because the party’s mendacious leaders know that Progressives will feel obliged to go along with dubious agendas…simply to have a seat at the table.

In the current scheme, Progressives have nowhere else to go (as the only alternative is even farther to the right).  The corporate impresarios of the DNC, DLC, and DCCC are fully aware of this.  Hence the Democratic party ends up being Progressives’ go-to party BY DEFAULT…only to be blithely dismissed in the rare event they are admitted into the fold.  So long as Progressives keep capitulating to corporate Democrats, corporate Democrats will continue to be corporatists.  It’s very simple: “We don’t need to acquiesce to Progressive demands, because–at the end of the day–they’re going to vote for us anyway.”  Why?  “Just to keep the Republicans at bay.”

The Democratic Party is a place where Progressive aspirations go to die.

Enough’s enough.  It’s time that the U.S. finally–at long last–has a genuinely Progressive political party: a place that Progressives can call home.  Whether it’s called the CSP (Civil Society Party) or perhaps even the SDP (Social Democracy Party) or something else is beside the point.  For now, snazzy labels are the least of our concerns.  What the country desperately needs is an alternative to business-as-usual–that is: an alternative to parties that continue to be (inextricably) governed by corporate interests.

The moment is primed for another major political party in the United States.  Progressives should take heart; for this is a pivotal juncture–a chance for the nation’s Progressives to mobilize.  The time is ripe to create a political mechanism for galvanizing and empowering Progressives so that they will never again be forced to operate within a revanchist political machine that has no respect for them.

In a tournament governed by horse-trading in back rooms, those without the horses will not fare well.  By always putting principle over pragmatism, Progressives end up being poorly-positioned in the merciless gauntlet of endless dark money and odious power-brokers.  The solution is not remain in this predicament; it’s to refuse to play by the dubious rules that have been assigned by those who stand to benefit from the incumbent order.

As Progressives, we are hoping to triumph in a game that is rigged against us.  This is a fool’s errand.  Paying lip service is good for optics; but it only serves to FETTER Progress.

Make no mistake: optics matter.  It’s why, when looking for an iconic figure for the civil rights movement, the ACLU went with Rosa Parks instead of the pregnant teenager, Claudette Colvin.  It’s why Reagan’s “It’s morning in America” shtick worked so well, even as the sun was setting on democratic policies.  And it’s why people actually thought Rudy Giuliani was anything but a blithering idiot for a brief moment after September 11, 2001.

Perception is everything in politics.  Hence: The victor is not who has the most credibility; it’s who leaves the best impression.  It is no secret that American elections are more about brands than policies.  Rarely do voters make decisions based on what candidates will ACTUALLY DO.

Optics are especially important when it comes to American swing voters, who are mercurial and fickle.  Most base their choices on IMAGE.  Politics is perception; which is why appearances matter more than substance.  The average voter is swayed by captivating stories rather than thinking about policy (in any meticulous / serious way).  In other words, most voters are highly subject to SENTIMENT sans cognition.

Trump, like Supreme or Oprah or Goop, is just a brand.  And like ANY branding scheme, it is a manufactured aura that determines how well it fairs in an interminably fickle marketplace–a marketplace in which superficiality reigns (while merit is largely beside the point).  The illusion of participatory democracy is sustained even as participatory mechanisms are dismantled.  This amounts to political theater; wherein the APPEARANCE of deliberative democracy is upheld even as it is rendered inert.  The polis is not a civically-engaged Demos; it is little more than a constantly amused AUDIENCE.  Hence the point is not to SERVE the citizenry; it is to PLACATE the citizenry.

Meanwhile, shorn of their support from the Left, corporate Democrats can migrate to the place where they truly belong: in cahoots with their brethren in the G.O.P.  Let the Democratic party disintegrate.  And with a truly Progressive party, there will be no more need for a Green party or a Working Families party or a party for democratic socialists.  There would be no more need for a black caucus or Latino caucus…or, for that matter, ANY caucus that feels the need to exist simply to uphold civil rights for this or that marginalized community.  We have learned over and over again, mere caucusing is not enough in an environment where gargantuan party machines have all the leverage.

As things now stand, the Democratic party is a place for those who are not racist or homophobic or misogynistic, yet are nevertheless fiscally conservative and kow-tow to corporate interests at every turn.  It is no surprise, then, that party managers routinely neglect to put forth bold policies that would ACTUALLY help the people they purport to represent.  If you want no substantive change yet enjoy tweaking things at the fringes, and you sometimes like to pay lip-service to Progressive ideals, then the Democratic party is a marvelous fit.  But is that where our highest aspirations should end?  When the mildly liberal Barack Obama is considered magnificently Progressive, we might suspect that something is amiss.

There must be a political party that is dedicated to healthcare as a public service; to a Green New Deal; to publicly-funded elections; to the elimination of the revolving door between public office and lucrative corporate gigs; to dismantling the obscenely bloated military-industrial complex; to truly progressive taxation; to reigning in of the financial services industry; and to implementing DEMAND-side economic policy–which means robust investment in basic public infrastructure and in vital social services.  There must be a party dedicated to upholding human rights around the world–from Palestine and Kurdistan to Xin-jiang and Tibet.  It would give voice to these positions, forcing the corporate (a.k.a. “mainstream”) media to pay attention in a way that the Democratic party never would.

No more pandering to corporate interests, to religious fundamentalists, to the gun lobby, to Agri-business, to Wall Street, or to those who want to privatize everything under the sun.  It’s high time we bring an end to money in politics; and stymie the more flagrant dysfunctions of unbridled capitalism.  After all, the systemic dysfunction we endure comes primarily from conflicts-of-interest–a racket that is enabled by a consecrated system of legalized graft.  The country desperately needs a party that is categorically immune to this on-going political sham.

The CSP will unabashedly promote Progressive ideals.  It will champion Progressive causes irrespective of how politically inconvenient that might be.  It will unwaveringly support Progressive candidates, and ONLY Progressive candidates, regardless of how much push-back it gets.  It will do so consistently and effectively; and without apologizing.  It will be dauntless rather than craven.  It will not shy away from insolence.  It will not cower and dissemble in the face of corporate power.

The CSP won’t railroad people like Al Franken out of Congress.  It won’t deride the likes of Zephyr Teachout, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Kshama Sawant, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, Jessica Cisneros, Cori Bush, Mckayla Wilkes, Shahid Buttar, Marie Newman, Jamaal Bowman, Mike Gravel, Kshama Sawant, Shahid Buttar, Alexandra Rojas, Jamie Raskin, Charles Booker, Marquita Bradshaw, or former Georgia Representative, Cynthia Ann McKinney…while singing the praises of Henry Kissinger.  It will be more aligned with Progressive advisors like Nina Turner, Briahna Joy Gray, Nazita LaJevardi, and David Sirota; or Progressive commentators like Kyle Kulinsky, Krystal Ball, and Cenk Uygur.  It will honor the likes of Bernie Sanders rather than deride him at every turn. In other words: It will be a party for GENUINE PROGRESSIVES.

It won’t castigate those who eschew AIPAC and participate in BDS.  It won’t staff cabinets with lackeys from the boardroom of Goldman Sachs.  Instead, it will harken back to 20th-century Progressives like, say, Iowa’s Henry Wallace.  It will honor the vision of Martin Luther King Jr. and Noam Chomsky…and Naomi Klein and Chris Hedges.  It will operate in the tradition of, say, Ralph Nader rather than engage in the “triangulation” of Bill / Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

The (rare) victory of Progressive Illinois congresswoman, Marie Newman in March 2020 was–unfortunately–an anomaly.  She won not BECAUSE OF the Democratic machine, but IN SPITE OF it.  That fact alone speaks volumes.  In a truly Progressive party, she would be the norm, not the occasional felicitous aberration.

A truly Progressive party would not be off-putting to wayward swing-voters in America’s hinterland in the way that the Democratic party so often is.  It would not chastise the non-urbane for not being politically correct; or turn its nose up at the working class for being insufficiently “woke”…or make the white working class feel guilty for not having been born into the right demographic.  The credibility of any given figure will be determined exclusively by their policy positions.

Progressives don’t need a party that will be congenial and deferential; they need a party that will be irascible and indomitable.  Propriety is no surrogate for probity.  Progressives need a party that will go to bat for them; and play hardball.  But a party truly dedicated to the commonweal will not just go to bat for its supporters; it will go to bat for the rank and file: for everyone who is not a plutocrat.

It’s high time to re-envision Progressivism in the vain of Thomas Paine, Eleanor Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, Bayard Rustin, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, and Bernie Sanders. A genuinely Progressive party would operate in the tradition of Robert La Follette of Wisconsin and Fiorello La Guardia of New York City (or, looking to England: the legacy of Ralph Miliband and Stuart Hall).

Are there formidable barriers-to-entry for a third party?  Of course.  It is well-known that even the stupendously popular Teddy Roosevelt couldn’t achieve the feat with the Bull Moose party.  But that was over a century ago.  It’s the 21st century now; and the possibilities are limited solely by the magnitude of our determination.  As the older generation passes on, a new generation is rising.  We can only be thwarted by the dearth of our own resolve.

The American political system is broken, but it doesn’t need to be.  In 2024, the presidential election needs to have a viable THIRD choice: a non-right-wing alternative that is impossible for the Establishment to ignore.  Then, and ONLY then, will Progressives hold sway in the halls of power.  2020 was not a death-knell; it was a wake-up call.