Breaking the Chains and Becoming the Party
Pittsburgh DSA member Tzipora S. puts democracy front and center
I'm tired. A lot of people are shocked right now. Some of us suspected that Trump could win but didn't think the Democrats would fail this hard. Well, they did.
Some of you probably voted for Harris, and some didn't; there was a lot of conflict about that. I personally didn't, and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) did not endorse or campaign for any presidential candidate.
Ultimately, while more people did pull the lever for Trump than Harris, more people didn't vote than voted for all candidates combined. Compared to Biden four years ago, Harris and the Democratic party dug a hole millions of votes deep that couldn't be filled even if all the third-party voters switched to Harris. People were not interested in what Harris was trying to sell, and she wasn't selling much besides being not Trump.
It's clear that not being Trump isn’t enough. Workers deserve more than the supposed “lesser of two evils.” We are sick and tired of being, literally, sick and tired. The economy might be going great for a lot of investors and capitalists, but regular working class people are treading water or drowning. Food, rent, health care, child care, and more all add up, and the math just isn't math-ing for a lot of us. Furthermore, the Biden regime is continuing to aid, fund, and arm the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Biden wouldn't even use the fullest extent of his powers to protect abortion rights and fight the climate crisis. Millions of people have been kicked off Medicaid now that the pandemic is supposedly over, and now we're staring down another Trump regime.
This election shows us that we don't live in a democracy. We don't live under a system of majority rule with one equal vote for all. For the millions of people who don’t live in a swing state, the outcome of this election would have been the same no matter who they voted for. The change we, this land, and this planet need isn't something we've been allowed to vote for. We live under an undemocratic regime where a rural state in one part of the country has more political power in the Senate than cities of millions in another, where the president rules by the stroke of a pen and commands an army that oppresses people around the world, and where an unelected panel of Supreme Court justices serves for life and strip us of what little protections we have.
Ranked-choice voting and abolishing the Electoral College are worth fighting for, and I'll join that fight. Still, we'll never be free unless we set our sights on fighting the undemocratic constitution framed over 200 years ago by slave owners and demanding and fighting for a new republic and a new democratic constitution. With a new republic, we could forge a democracy and empower the people to help save the planet and build a better future.
That might sound big and pie in the sky, but we need a goal and a program to guide us. If we're waiting for the next round of midterms and presidential election and getting behind the empty promises of whatever ghoul the Democrats are gonna prop up every four years, we're fucked, and the whole planet is fucked. With a fight for democracy as our goal, we can return to the little steps and build towards a green, socialist, democratic future.
We will have a tough time these next few months and years. Still, we can join with our friends, neighbors, and coworkers. When a community comes together, we can build something more, become something more, become our own party, save ourselves, and beat the far right where the Democratic Party has failed.
If you're looking to form a union at your job, build a tenants union with your neighbors, get involved in mutual aid projects, fight for divestment from the state of so-called “Israel,” join future campaigns for independent socialist candidates, or stand with our homeless neighbors, or if you just need to talk and vent and be in community, DSA members along with members of other organizations will plug you in. Join DSA to build an independent socialist mass party. The world really sucks right now, and it's up to us to lock in and make a better one.