Even before coronavirus threw the Democratic primaries for the 2020 Presidential election into disarray, the contest was already marked by political upheaval. The Democratic Party has experienced turmoil as self-described ‘democratic socialist’ Bernie Sanders has been thrust to the forefront of the leadership campaign. Sanders is critical of the Democratic establishment, claiming that the party must ‘break loose from […] corporate establishment ties and, once again, become a grass-roots party of working people’. But the Democratic Party was never a party of the working class, and it is a mistake to think it could be.
Once ‘the Party of Slavery and the Party of the Klan’, the Democratic party has, through its history, made politically expedient moves to consume social movements. As with the Labour Party in Britain, the strategy remains one of co-opting working class movements to stop the growth of radical politics. The labour movement of the 1930s; the civil rights struggle of the 1960s; the anti-war movement in the 1970s, a few examples, were brought ‘out of the streets, into the suites’ and robbed of their potency by electoralism. The Democratic party can then pretend to be a ‘party of the people’ by claiming the victories of these movements.
Now the Democratic National Committee (DNC) fears a new movement developing parallel to Sanders’ primary campaign. As candidates have one-by-one pulled out of the race, the ruling class has consolidated its position, coming to terms with the threat a movement of working people could present. The DNC desperately seeks to prevent this, and they have closed ranks to prevent a Sanders victory, fearful of the working class movement he may accidentally unleash. Thus, ex-Vice-President Joe Biden has stumbled, bleary-eyed, into the role of the Democratic establishment’s nominee. With name recognition from his association with Barack Obama and his lack of any real principles, the Democratic establishment have rallied behind him, regardless of the fact that he is clearly unfit to run a presidential campaign and is showing signs of dementia. His campaign speeches are often incomprehensible and he routinely forgets himself mid-sentence. The DNC appear all-too aware of this, and are keeping him out of the spotlight where they can.
Biden worked with segregationist politicians in opposing school busing and played a pivotal part in orchestrating the 1994 Violent Crime Act, which codified mass incarceration. He bragged about incentivising states to construct more prisons; encouraging police officers to make drug-related arrests; and ushering in controversial “three-strikes” policies which make life sentences mandatory after three minor crimes. It is clear the DNC are more comfortable with a semi-incoherent right-wing racist (be it Trump or Biden) than with someone who might threaten the revenue streams of the ruling class.
At the time of writing, a Biden win is looking increasingly likely. He leads Sanders by 305 delegates. Sanders’ campaign has not been successful in drawing out the large numbers of young voters and nonvoters that they hoped would flock to his social-democratic platform, and his policies do not resonate with the middle-class voters of the Democratic base. Meanwhile, despite his glaring inadequacy, Biden has received support from large sections of the base, particularly black and middle class voters. It is precisely because of the Democrats’ history of co-opting mass movements that they are able to appeal to sections of the population in this way; the leashing of the unions and the civil rights movement has left no other choice.
Should Biden fail to secure a majority, the ‘superdelegates’ (775 unpledged delegates made up of the ‘distinguished political leaders’ of the party) at July’s Democratic Convention will no doubt restore order and hand him the nomination – that is, if the Convention is able to go ahead in some form, as Covid-19 has forced many states to postpone their primaries votes. On 25 March, Biden signalled that because he was ‘dealing with the crisis’ he had no intention of taking part in the 12th debate of the primaries: ‘I think we’ve had enough of debates. We should just get on with this.’
Sanders not the real threat
Despite his anti-war rhetoric, Sanders has consistently supported US warmongering, voting for increased military budgets between 2002-2008 during the Iraq war and for bombing campaigns in Kosovo in 1999. He has stated that military interventions and drone-strike programs would continue under his presidency, though ‘very selectively’. Despite not condoning the US coup against Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, Sanders has nevertheless parroted the US justification that Maduro’s purported ‘authoritarianism’ was the root of the crisis, and makes similar claims about Cuba. He voted for sanctions against Nicaragua in 2018. Though Sanders called Benjamin Netanyahu a ‘reactionary racist’ and has argued that the Palestinian people deserve rights, he has always caved to pressure when expedient, even justifying Israeli atrocities. Sanders does not even support the BDS movement, or the right of Palestinians to resist, claiming the correct approach to stopping genocide is an ‘even-handed’ legal process – overseen by the US. Sanders cannot stand up to imperialism, because his proposed social-democratic reforms rely on the continuation of US imperialism. He has even praised the British government’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic: ‘What is going on in the UK is the proper approach… that is the direction we should have gone here.’
Sanders’ role is to tie any movement of the working class to electoral politics, yet his talk of an extended welfare system and universal healthcare, paid for by higher taxes on the wealthy is too much of a risk for the Democratic establishment. They fear the independent movement of the working class which Sanders may accidentally unleash. Thus in the 2016 primary the DNC colluded to exclude Sanders in favour of warmongering Hillary Clinton. For all his talk of fighting ‘the entire political establishment’, Sanders dutifully withdrew from the primaries and campaigned for Clinton. Now, in 2020, Sanders has already capitulated, confirming he will support Biden should he win, adding sentimentally: ‘If I lose this thing, Joe, I will be there for you.’
Joe Tyler
