Under pressure since the June 27 disastrous debate, the president exits the campaign creating more uncertainty on the political landscape.
President Joe Biden made the announcement on July 21 that he would not be the official nominee for the Democratic Party in the November 2024 elections.
Biden had been under extreme pressure from elements within the United States ruling class which funds the Democratic Party on a national level.
Although there have been concerns about the capacity of Biden to run a national campaign against Trump for many months, his performance at the Cable News Network (CNN) debate against former President Donald Trump on June 27 sealed his fate among key segments of the Democratic Party. An editorial published on June 28 in the New York Times signaled the efforts to remove him from the ticket.
On July 10, another opinion piece by actor and Democratic Party fundraiser George Clooney represented the determination to remove Biden as the presidential candidate. Clooney, although expressing admiration for Biden, noted that the stakes were so high in the upcoming race that a renewed leadership of the Democratic Party was necessary if there was any possibility of defeating Trump in November.
In various polls over the last year, Biden has been tied with or trailing Trump. Many factors are responsible for this situation. The failure of the Biden administration to deliver on its promises from the 2020 campaign has dampened enthusiasm for his reelection. There is the rise in inflation which has negatively impacted working and middle-class families along with a majority of African American and Latino people.
Demands put forward by the African American community in the aftermath of the police executions of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others in 2020 were never realized in the form of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. There was never the passage of a renewed Voting Rights Act even though during the first two years of the Biden White House the Democrats controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Also, the proxy war waged by the U.S. against the Russian Federation in Ukraine has lost support among the general population. Despite the efforts of the Biden administration to sell the war as a necessary effort to save democracy, the reality is that the government in Ukraine is functioning as a surrogate of Washington as well as its allies within the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The methodology utilized by the Biden White House and NATO was to weaken Moscow through arms shipments to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky along with the imposition of harsh and unprecedented draconian sanctions against the Russian Federation.
The arms transfer to Ukraine has failed to halt the advances of the Russian military. During 2023, the much talked about “spring, summer and fall offensives” on the part of the Ukraine military never materialized. At present the Russian economy has been strengthened due to its orientation towards the People’s Republic of China and other Asian states.
Another major weakness of a potential Kamala Harris presidential campaign is the situation in Palestine. Since October 7, the Israeli regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has engaged in an openly genocidal campaign against the people in Gaza. The official death toll in Gaza is approximately 186,000 with nearly 90,000 wounded and the entire population of 2.3 million displaced facing hunger, homelessness, and the lack of medicines and healthcare. Entire cities and villages have been destroyed in Gaza as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continues to bomb and shell Palestinian communities. The IDF is blocking the much-needed aid from entering Gaza as healthcare workers, educators, and small businesspersons, among others providing essential services, are being targeted by the Zionist state.
In response to the genocide in Gaza, the Palestine solidarity movement in North America, Europe and internationally has grown exponentially. Demonstrations have been held in the U.S. by hundreds of thousands of people. In Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom, some manifestations have mobilized over a million people in defense of the Palestinians.
However, the reaction to the Palestine solidarity movement by the White House has been extremely hostile. Solidarity encampments on many U.S. college and university campuses have been violently broken up by police. During the winter and spring, more than 3,000 students, faculty and staff members have been arrested with some activists charged with misdemeanors and felonies. Students have been expelled from their educational institutions, evicted from student housing and denied their earned degrees.
The electoral campaign to vote “uncommitted” during the Democratic primaries as a protest against the unconditional support of the White House for the genocide in Gaza has been a clear signal of the vulnerability of the Biden-Harris ticket. Until the U.S. government places adequate pressure on the Israeli regime to end the siege on Gaza, it will be extremely difficult for Harris to garner the support of essential sectors of the Democratic electorate.
The Cult of Trump Solidified in Milwaukee at the RNC
Just two days after a near assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Republican National Convention was held in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This convention took on the aura of a coronation of Trump and his vice-presidential running mate choice, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.
Despite previously being a staunch critic of Trump, calling him an “American Hitler”, Vance now has come around to recognizing that there is no place for anyone inside the Republican Party who maintains a voice at variance with the former president. Vance frames himself as an Appalachian who overcame poverty and a dysfunctional family by joining the Marines and studying at Yale Law School.
Nonetheless, the narrative laid out in his book entitled “Hillbilly Elegy” blames the widespread poverty among Appalachians on their failure to accept the values of ruling-class whites. The book never acknowledges that the poverty of people in the U.S., whether they be from the Black, Brown, Indigenous and other oppressed peoples, is the direct result of the exploitation and oppression which the capitalist system is built upon.
Although Trump and Biden both champion lower jobless rates in the U.S. as a result of their economic policies, the reality is that the actual decline in real wages among working-class people of all nationalities has led to mega-profits for multinational corporations. The unchecked exploitation of labor is a perennial problem for U.S. society which neither of the two capitalist-led parties will address.
The Imperatives for an Independent Political Movement
These developments during the 2024 primary elections have further revealed the need for an independent party that would encompass electoral and mass components. At present the oppressed peoples in the U.S. are compelled by the overall political culture to choose between the Republican Party, which is controlled by the cult of Trump bolstered by their allies within the ruling class, or the Democrats.
The Democratic Party relies on a different demographic for its electoral base including African Americans, Latin Americans, large sections of the labor movement and a significant portion of the women’s vote. Yet it is crystal clear to anyone seriously analyzing the current situation that it is the same ruling class that funds both parties. When the billionaire donors refused to release funds for the Biden reelection campaign, the president’s days were numbered.
With the ruling class divided over the future of the U.S. system, it will undoubtedly result in heightened tensions among the constituencies of each capitalist-dominated party. There are elements within the ruling class that do not want the resumption of Trump to the presidency. At the same time, there are others, such as Elon Musk, who have stated publicly that they are backing Trump.
Senator J.D. Vance has often been described as an ally of the so-called “Tech Bros”, the corporations which dominate the Silicon Valley sector of the capitalist class. Trump’s promise to enact more corporate tax cuts under the guise of improving the economy will definitely deepen the overall economic crisis by sharpening the already burgeoning class divisions in the country.
Concurrently, many of the titans within the media, entertainment and financial sectors of the U.S. capitalist ruling class are quite nervous about the potential of a second Trump term. The concomitant outcomes of Trump and his clique seizing control of the executive apparatus of the state could initiate social unrest and widespread industrial actions.
However, until the most oppressed and exploited are organized independently, there is a very limited potential for the advancement of an agenda that benefits the majority of people. The contemporary situation should be studied by progressive organizers and thinkers in order to devise a political program aimed at empowering the masses for the eventual transformation of society.
Abayomi Azikiwe is the Editor of Pan-African News Wire.
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