Democrats are literally running on committing a transgender genocide, so I’m fucked either way. You can be silent now.

Hey, I appreciate what seems like a genuine question from you. I’m reading your message and I think that you’re talking about a couple different things. What I’m hearing from you is:

1. You’re asking if there is any value to electoralism within the US that only involves the Democratic and Republican Parties?
2. You think the US working class are worse off under republicans than democrats.
3. You think that under Trump, US foreign policy is more dangerous for those who live in the imperial periphery.
4. US propaganda has limited the potential of the US working class to revolutionize their society.

Let me know if you think I’ve incorrectly understood your message or if I’m off base. Also, I’m going to try to give my opinion on those 4 points but I’m not anyone special nor am I an expert in anything. I just study Marxist-Leninist theory and organize in my community. I most certainly have incorrect opinions about a lot of things and I have a lot to learn so take whatever I say with a grain of salt. Looking forward to yours and others’ thoughts as well.

My responses:

1. In the long run we as the working class and oppressed peoples of the world have a historical duty to overthrow the chains of capitalist-imperialism and usher in a new world utilizing the proven scientific socialist method. In the short term we must fight to secure better conditions for ourselves where we can. In the context of the US, there is no vanguard party. All working class and/or anti-colonial organizations are split into numerous different sects. If you’re asking whether or not there is value in voting for democrats as a lesser evil, then I can’t give you a straightforward answer other than they are no lesser evil for the vast majority of the world.

Personally, with regard to voting, I think that I align myself with Too Black’s position from the Black Myths Podcast which goes something like: In the abstract, I’m not against voting, even voting for the ‘lesser evil.’ If oppressed people of the US say to me that they are voting for a democrat because they believe that their material conditions will deteriorate less under a democrat government than a republican, then sure. There’s an argument to be made. But the issue is that the vast majority of people who make this argument see voting as a STRATEGY rather than a TACTIC. The vast majority who make this argument, and I believe this majority to be close to 99%, do not engage in politics at all beyond the voting booth. They do not undergo political struggle with their people. They do not physically or materially stand in solidarity with anyone. They believe that voting is a form of struggle by itself, it is not. Sure, you’re voting on election day, but what are you doing the other 1460 days? And the answer for 99% of people who argue for voting for the lesser evil is… Nothing. In this way they are not voting to do damage control while they struggle with their comrades to better their conditions themselves, they are voting to worsen the lives of themselves and their fellow people.

2. Just to put this out here first, for most white cis workers in the US, i.e. the top of the labor aristocracy, their material conditions have not changed significantly under trump. And for those white cis workers whose material conditions have changed for the worse, the majority support the policies and actions that worsen their own conditions because they believe those policies and actions hurt their perceived enemies even more. This of course doesn’t justify the suffering of people but it’s hard for me to feel empathy for white supremacist fascists voting against their own interests. For the rest of the workers, if they say that their material conditions have worsened under trump, which with all the cuts to food and medical assistance it seems like it has, I believe them. But I also believe that the austerity measures that impact the US working class are done so to benefit the capitalist class. Both the democrats and republicans are political parties organized to represent the interests of the different factions of capitalists manning the helm of world capitalist-imperialist hegemony. I think that no matter which capitalist factions run the tool of class oppression that is the state, they all want and benefit from the austerity and worsening conditions of the US working class. In short, if you look at the history of the democratic party and the policies they’ve passed and what they’ve done in power, they also want the same thing as the republicans.

3. There is no difference between Democratic and Republican foreign policy. The far right isn’t emboldened by trump. What we call ‘The Right’ just means people who support capitalism. The emboldening of the right, just like trump being voted into office, is a manifestation of the contradictions of capitalist-imperialist sharpening. Imperialism and the capitalist class, on a world scale is losing ground and being undermined by the development of the nations of the global periphery and is lashing out and trying to garner support in the face of that threat. Some of these lashes take place over the course of decades and some in the moment of a muzzle flash, the streak of a missile, or the speed of helicopters ferrying away kidnapped heads of state.

4. Ideology and the subjective experience of the individual is a material reality that is important. Both are a representation of the material conditions that one finds themselves in. The US is not just THE Imperialist hegemon of the world but is also a prison house of nation containing not only hundreds of indigenous nations but also the black nation. But the US also contains its settler population which makes up the majority of the working class. This is the basics of the domestic settler-colonial contradiction within the US. The settlers of this working class have a material interest in maintaining the settler-colonial relationship they benefit from. They also have a material interest in maintaining the Capitalist-Imperialist relationship the US has with the rest of the world because they benefit from it too. This is the economic base that holds up the ideological superstructure of the US, including the propaganda you receive. This is the real limit to revolutionary potential of the US working class. The white, settler working class of the US will never take up arms with you to fight and ‘get out’ from under the system. The majority of the US working class will not, as you put it, find its way out because they understand the situation they are in and choose the status quo because it benefits them materially. Propaganda is real. Ideological work is important. But brainwashing is not real. The revolutionary potential within the US lies with the fight for Indigenous, Black, and Trans Liberation.

I hope I answered your questions and I’m not coming across as patronizing. I’m trying to engage with you genuinely. I hope you have a good rest of your day

That’s a lot of words that do not address the criticism contained in the meme.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/dems-urged-leave-blank-stop-175507391.html

Lon Johnson, a former Michigan Democratic Party chair, and David Kramer, a longtime Democratic strategist who has previously helped elect Democrats to the Senate, are leading the effort. Both supported Rep. Haley Stevens over El-Sayed in the August Democratic primary.

“Supporting a candidate after a hard-fought primary is an act of party unity, not a surrender of principle,” the pair wrote in an op-ed for The Detroit News. “Democrats (who were) asked to set aside their differences for Abdul El-Sayed had every right to expect … a commitment to earn their trust, address their legitimate concerns and unite a party whose nomination he won with less than 50% of the vote.”

“He has failed that test.”

Johnson, in an interview and in the op-ed, said he and Kramer have been under pressure by Democrats who support Rogers to vote for the Republican. But they chose a different route, one they say keeps them true to their ideals.

“For many of us, there is dignity in leaving it blank,” they wrote.