There is a lot of despair on the American far left these days.
Between Joe Biden’s continued support of genocide in Gaza, the Supreme Court’s horribly cowardly decision to grant Donald Trump near-total legal immunity, and the chaotic aftermath of the first presidential debate, people who might have once voted for Bernie Sanders are left feeling little hopeful. As a result, more than a few on the left are considering stopping voting altogether. I watch the dire feelings of burn-it-all play out before my eyes all day, every day on my social feeds.
First of all, I get it.
Let’s say Biden remains the Democratic nominee. If the left sees their vote as a moral endorsement of a politician, their reason for abstaining is clear: They don’t want to empower Biden, who has been lukewarm (at best) on key left priorities like curbing state violence, defending abortion, respecting transgender rights, and, perhaps most importantly, stopping the genocide in Palestine. All of this was true even before Biden showed himself to be, perhaps dangerously, frail.
Leftists who don’t like Biden don’t want to see him in office again, so they don’t want to vote for him, or they want to hold off on voting until he changes course. Simple as that.
But that’s not how politics works.
The whole point of electoral politics is not to vote for your friends, but for your preferred enemies. You’ll never find a candidate who is morally pure, or whose positions are perfectly in line with your preferences, so you have to find candidates you can bully effectively.
It’s often said that wanting to be president is a mental illness, and that anyone who actually aspires to the office is disqualified. I agree. No one in the history of this country has ever had the desire to be president. Not yet “He has engaged in what the left considers an unforgivable crime. This is the nature of the president, and politicians in general. If you are on the far left like I am, you should never fully trust or believe in any elected official.”
But when we look at the Biden administration, we see a group of people who could be intimidated to move to the left on some policy priorities. They have sometimes responded to pressure from the left in Congress (such as the so-called Squad), and sometimes from labor unions and advocacy movements. They have already made great strides on climate change, brought anti-monopoly lawsuits, withdrawn from Afghanistan, and many other actions.
Admittedly, this is far less than is needed, but it is far more than would be obtained if the left did not cast a significant number of votes.
Whenever I discuss voting with a passionate friend, the conversation always turns tense as we get to this question: What happens if Biden loses in November?
Of course the answer is Trump Trump is back in office. Project 2025 is in effect. The country is maskless fascist. Trans people like me are illegal to even exist. Israel is “mission done” in Gaza with the encouragement of the White House. Trump can send his enemies to jail or worse with impunity. The world teeters on the brink. And so on.
Usually when I get to this point and vent with friends, they say they think it all happens whether they vote or not. They tend to say Biden is just as bad as Trump, or that Trump could stay in power even if Biden gets more votes. They have completely lost faith in the system.
Again, yes, the system is broken, yes, it always has been broken, but are we really going to argue that elections have no consequences?
When I was 14, I was a huge Ralph Nader fan. As a teenage anti-exploitation activist, I believed Nader was the only candidate in the 2000 presidential election who would speak the truth and champion my policy goals. I went to a Nader rally in my hometown of Chicago, where the great journalist Studs Terkel spoke. I’ll never forget what he said in his nasal voice: “Would you choose Gore or Bush? Would you choose the flu or pneumonia?”
It all sounds like nonsense now. Can anyone really claim today that the world was not dramatically changed by Gore’s defeat in 2000? Even if we don’t accept the claim that Nader’s candidacy was the cause of Gore’s election loss, can we claim that the world was not changed, at least 100%? a bit Wouldn’t it have been better if all of Nader’s votes had gone to Gore and the Democrats had won?
It’s hard to understand what non-voting leftists think they can accomplish as a result of Biden losing. Are they hoping that the worsening situation will bring about a revolution? Let’s think seriously. Where are the radical leftists who can make that happen? Where is the left base, unity, and discipline needed to prevail at the national level against communists, anarchists, and even socialists in America?
In Weimar-era Germany, the German Communist Party was much stronger and more prepared to fight in the streets, but the revolution-oriented strategy of letting a fascist victory create a sense of urgency and lead to a more sustained left-wing victory did not work. Notoriously, in the fateful early 1930s, the German Communist Party violently opposed the ruling center-left Social Democrats. They called the center-right “social fascists” and proclaimed that there was no real difference between liberalism and Nazism. They refused to ally with the center-right.
Communists were not the first to coin the oft-quoted phrase, “After Hitler comes us,” but that was exactly their policy. The belief was that Hitler might come to power, but Nazi misrule would only garner support for the Communists, leading to a glorious revolution.
Well, that didn’t happen, did it?
Instead of repeating the hard left of 1931, the American left should look to the French left of 2024. The world breathed a sigh of relief after Marine Le Pen’s far-right party’s shocking come-from-behind victory in France’s recent parliamentary elections. The key to this victory was a last-minute alliance forged between center-liberals and the radical left. And it worked.
With any luck, the French left will be able to use their parliamentary majority to blackmail the centrist president into reforming his government. It won’t be a revolution, but I would say it’s definitely better than Vichy 2.0. Let’s follow their example.
There is still time to avert the catastrophe of a fascist takeover of a nuclear-armed America. There is no need to play the hardest organizing games the left imagines if Trump wins. Trump wants to formally establish a Christian dictatorship, dismantle the very concept of federal regulation, make birth control illegal, round up and deport millions of immigrants, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg of hellish chaos.
The ballot box may not be enough, but we cannot abandon it out of depressing nihilism. We must build alternative political structures and pressure politicians every day, not just once every four years. But if Trump becomes president and makes such organizing illegal, we will never have the opportunity to do so.
Leon Trotsky himself urged German Communists to rethink their foolish self-pride in 1931. “When Fascism comes to power it will trample on your skulls and spines like a terrible tank,” he accurately declared. “Your salvation lies in relentless struggle, and only fighting unity with the Social Democratic workers can bring you victory. Hurry, Workers’ Communists, you have little time left!”
Once again, time is running out. This November, left-wing indifference can only bring disaster. Workers of the world, unite with the enemies of liberalism. If we do not, lose.
