by Danny Haiphong
“Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are here to rescue the system with a dose of fear and hope.” Trump’s open-air racism instills fear in racial minorities and people who consider themselves “liberal" or “progressive.” Sanders gives them foolish hope that the Democratic Party can be changed from within. Grassroots movement politics is sidetracked, because “presidential elections are where movements go to die, as the anti-war movement exemplified directly after the election of Barack Obama.”
The Bernie and Trump Trap: Beyond the Dead-End of Imperial Politics
by Danny Haiphong
“The development of the Mass Black Incarceration State and the explosion of US military warfare throughout the globe have done little to solve the system's political crisis.”
There are few moments more difficult for the development of a genuine mass movement against imperialism than the Presidential election season. Generally, this period involves massive investments on the part of the ruling class in candidates who will take the reigns of Washington and continue the reproduction of imperialism's crisis ridden system. For the last eight years, the ruling class developed a superstar in President Barack Obama. His regime was able to intensify the war on workers and oppressed people everywhere, especially Black people, without significant challenge. But in 2016, the conditions are different. The end of the Obama era means that the electoral trap will inevitably take a different form.
The trap has already begun to take shape in the current Presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Sanders has risen up as the Democratic Party’s “progressive” face. Despite his use of the word "socialism" to describe his politics, Bernie's platform is rife with blood-soaked support for war-driven countries such as Saudi Arabia and hostility toward peace-seeking nations such as Russia and China. He recently disrespected socialist Venezuela by calling Hugo Chavez a "dead communist dictator." These words scream hypocrisy. Bernie’s commitment to the war machine reveals that his primary purpose is to appeal to those who were positively affected by the Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter development and move them to vote Democrat. This is why he has pandered to labor unions and has held private meetings with #BlackLivesMatter activists.
“Sanders recently disrespected socialist Venezuela by calling Hugo Chavez a "dead communist dictator."
If Bernie's purpose is to channel people into the Democratic Party, Donald Trump's calling is to move the opposition rightward. His open-air white supremacy has a visceral and viral affect. But Trump's anti-migrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric is to be expected under the rule of centuries of racist, capitalist development and decades of prolonged capitalist crisis. Trump is the bogeyman that instills fear in those who call themselves "liberal" and "progressive" and reactionary hope in what Gerald Horne deems as the historic conservatism of the white workers in the US. His no-filter campaign has the effect of creating an illusion of warfare between two parties that ultimately work for the same imperialist state. Because there is no "more effective evil" in this round of elections, the bourgeoisie has intensified the facade of polarization between the capitalist parties to compensate.
This facade presents a steep trap for forces working to build a revolutionary mass movement in the US. The Bernie and Trump trap reveals the weaknesses inherent in imperialism’s crisis. A condition of stagnation plagues imperialism. And the crisis emanates directly from capitalist development itself. At this stage of development, capitalism has outstretched its capacity to advance a higher rate of profit over time for the capitalist class and simultaneously account for the expanding costs of upkeep. The exponential growth of technology (a fixed cost) has forced capitalists to wage a multifaceted and endless war on workers and nations everywhere to keep profits bloated. But this war has exacerbated the fact that production far outpaces consumption. And the increase in exploitation and war inevitably leads to more poverty and more chaos. These developments have created a non-stop search by the rulers of the system for temporary measures to score quick profits and extend the system’s hegemony.
So what do Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have to do with the US capitalist crisis? Their campaigns are a manifestation of the growing desperation of the ruling class. Economic measures such as austerity, bank bailouts, privatization, and the mass unemployment and impoverishment that come with them have not brought relief to the capitalist crisis. The development of the Mass Black Incarceration State and the explosion of US military warfare throughout the globe have done little to solve the system's political crisis. If anything, these measures in their totality are forever sharpening the contradictions inherent in the system itself. As these contradictions become more acute, the war on the consciousness of workers and oppressed people becomes all the more important for the ruling class.
“Trump’s no-filter campaign has the effect of creating an illusion of warfare between two parties that ultimately work for the same imperialist state.”
The Bernie and Trump trap is a critical weapon in this war on consciousness. Bernie's early success can be attributed in part by Occupy Wall Street's impact on the overall political debate and the growing debt and joblessness of former union workers and student professionals. Yet his supposed pro-worker orientation is completely contradicted by his support for the US-sponsored massacres in Yemen, Ukraine, and Palestine (to name a few). As for Trump, his success can be credited to the general rightward political direction of the US in the last three decades of capitalist development. This rightward direction is a product of capitalist consolidation in the political realm. Crisis has brought the Democratic and Republican Party together policy-wise in service of imperialism. The Democratic Party should share much of the blame, as it has worked hand over foot to save the profitability and power of the ruling system during the most delicate phase of its life.
So the situation for the capitalist system is grim. The Black vote has always been a significant measure of the ruling system's legitimacy to the masses, especially for the Democratic Party. In 2016, Black voters that have the ability to make it to the polls may stay home. This is of great concern to Washington. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are here to rescue the system with a dose of fear and hope. Bernie is the hope and Trump is the fear. The bourgeoisie hopes that this combination of forces will drive their respective constituencies to settle for one of the two brands of imperialist politics available in 2016.
In the final analysis, Wall Street and the capitalist class will decide which imperialist party rules in 2016. Presidential elections are where movements go to die, as the anti-war movement exemplified directly after the election of Barack Obama. The bourgeoisie is not so much concerned as to whom the masses lean toward during elections but rather the effectiveness of the victorious candidate's rule. Capitalism's prolonged and endless crisis has created conditions that make this election cycle of 2016 critical for those in power. It will test the durability of the capitalist system in a post-Obama period where the seeds of resistance have been planted by the struggle against police brutality. Capitalism is banking that this election will draw people into electing politicians instead of building movements. This is the basis of the Bernie and Trump trap we must fight.
Danny Haiphong is an organizer for Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST) in Boston. He is also a regular contributor to Black Agenda Report. Danny can be reached at wakeupriseup1990@gmail.com and FIST can be reached at bostonfist@gmail.com
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