Biden’s win is the triumph not of democracy but of an oligarchic status quo.
Category: Electoral Politics
The 2020 Elections in the United States: A Socialist View From Afar
Many of us watching with envy from afar—“envy” because the destruction of democratic institutions has gone much further in our countries—have nothing but admiration for the way in which a would-be dictator has been peacefully overthrown.
Bolivia’s Elections
The Return of Democracy and an Uncertain Future
Bolivia has given the world an impressive lesson in democracy, but reactionary sectors of the country are once again revealing their anti-democratic impulse.
In Puerto Rico, the 2019 Uprising Produces an Electoral Opening Toward the Left
As the eyes of the world were fixated on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico produced a more satisfying and historic outcome for the left after its local election on Nov. 3, 2020.
Auditing U.S. Democracy
Classical Liberalism, Contemporary America, the Trump Years, and Beyond
The Trump years were deeply undemocratic, but they did not mark an abandonment of a previously rich democratic politics
Desperado in the White House: Coup Fails, Trump Faces Impeachment
We have to call this a failed coup because the intent was to overturn the election of Joseph Biden by forcing vice-president Mike Pence and the Congress to declare Trump the president. It was an attempt to overthrow the incoming elected government by force.
In Defense of Kshama Sawant
The attempt to remove Kshama Sawant from her seat on Seattle’s City Council through a recall petition is a blatant attack on the democratic rights of constituents — and on the emergence of a new socialist left as a current in American politics.
Venezuela
How did Chavismo win 92% of the National Assembly?
The high abstention indicates that the working majority understood the irrelevance of the election. Voting could not have any impact on the disastrous national situation because the parliament had been de facto deprived of all its functions for several years.
Biden’s pick for Secretary of Education: What to expect from Cardona?
We should let Miguel Cardona know we have his back if he defends what schools, teachers, students really need – while we simultaneously prepare for his not doing so.
Is socialism winning?
Though Trump lost the election, his base has been strengthened over the course of it. To say now that the Left is winning downplays—perhaps unintentionally—the growing relevance and threat of the Right.
As Biden Restores A Malignant “Normalcy,” It’s High Time The Left Declared Its Independence From The Democrats
It is misleading to see the election as a victory of democracy over authoritarianism. Biden’s win is the triumph not of democracy but of an oligarchic status quo, itself an increasingly authoritarian system.
The 2020 Elections in the United States: A Socialist View from Afar
Many of us watching with envy from afar—“envy” because the destruction of democratic institutions has gone much further in our countries—have nothing but admiration for the way in which a would-be dictator has been peacefully overthrown.
Trump Leaves Biden Foreign Policy Problems; How Will the Left React?
Biden is committed to U.S. domination of world affairs and the wars necessary to ensure that. The left will have to rebuild an anti-war movement to resist Biden and to fight against U.S. imperialism, militarism and war when it erupts.
Biden Chooses His Cabinet; the Left Sees its New Adversary
Already it is clear that progressives have had little impact on Biden and the far left will have to organize to confront a government incapable of passing any major reforms.
Movement Alders Flip to Pass Austerity Budget
In the most contentious Chicago budget vote in a generation, four “progressive” alderpeople buckled to Lightfoot’s pressure and allowed an antiworker austerity city budget to pass for 2021.
Thanksgiving Approaches: Trump, the Virus, the Crisis
With the virus rampant, once again schools and businesses are closing, and more workers being laid off. We now have 20 million jobless, with ten million receiving federal unemployment benefits that will end with the New Year, as will protection for 30 million who face eviction. Not a happy Thanksgiving.
The radical right after Trump
An atomized, racially fragmented, demoralized working class will always be prone to Trumpism. If Biden and the Democrats stick to the policies they have implemented and backed ever since the late 1970s, disorganized workers will either further shift to Trumpism or (as is more likely with Blacks) simply abstain.
The Peru Power Grab
In Peru, democracy has been usurped. A political bloc made up of the most conservative and grotesque elements of traditional politics has in a completely capricious manner carried out the impeachment of the person who was only a few days go president of the republic: Martín Vizcarra.
Puerto Rico elections 2020
After 2019 uprising, a new socialist formation and new political party, change the electoral game
Any attempt to address the electoral issue in Puerto Rico from a socialist perspective must begin by pointing out the limits of the electoral process in the island.
Trump Lost the Election, But What is the Future of Trump and Trumpism?
Having lost the election, what is Trump’s future? At the top of his agenda is arranging a pardon for himself, for crimes of which he has not been convicted. He might try to use the presidential pardon to pardon himself, which would almost surely end up in the Supreme Court.
Assessing the 2020 election: Where do we go from here?
A satirical headline from the day the presidential election was called, captures the feeling of much of the Left: “Jubilant Reaction to Trump’s Defeat Quickly Soured by News of Biden Win.”
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