Name the System, Fight the Constitution

Palouse DSA member Matthew S. talked about the Constitution during an anti-Trump Presidents’ Day protest in Pullman, WA.

I think everyone here is rightly upset and worried about the actions of the new Trump administration. This administration is threatening the health and well-being of working-class Americans with its attacks on Medicaid and labor rights. It’s threatening the civil rights of LGBT people through its measures against self-identification and trans healthcare. It’s threatening to deport millions of working-class people who live and work in this country because they had no opportunities where they are from, largely due to the role of the United States in impoverishing and destabilizing their home countries. Finally, on a global level, it’s threatening to ethnically cleanse Palestinians who have persisted through a year and a half of genocide in Gaza and ongoing attacks and displacement in the West Bank, to engage in expansionist wars with our neighboring countries, and to draw us into a devastating conflict with China as it dramatically escalates the already aggressive New Cold War policies of the Biden administration.

It makes sense to feel threatened by this administration and we have to fight back!

Our impulse to direct all our anger at Trump makes total sense — his rhetoric and actions are scary and put us and our loved ones and neighbors in danger every day. But we also need to look beyond Trump and recognize that he is a symptom of a bigger problem and not the disease itself.

First, let’s be clear about what we’re talking about. The root cause of so much of the harm we’re seeing now is the system of capitalism. In our country, capitalism looks like CEOs and elites amassing billions of dollars in wealth, while many of us can’t afford to feed our families or take care of ourselves or our kids when they’re sick. The system of inequality we see and experience every day, that keeps people poor and without safety, security, or dignity purely based on their race or where they were born, was both created by and is upheld today by elites. Even our Constitution was created by and for a few wealthy people trying to hold on to their power, despite demands for equal representation and opportunity.

We shouldn’t fall into the trap of imagining that because Trump won more votes than Kamala Harris the majority of the country approves of his attacks on the working class, trans people, immigrants, and the rest of the world. Trump won the election within an unrepresentative two-party political system, in which we are given a false choice between two candidates selected by a few wealthy oligarchs to protect their interests at the expense of the well-being of the majority — the working class. What’s more, this single undemocratically selected representative is given incredible control over the entire federal bureaucracy, the military, and the justice system. Lawyers close to the Trump administration are trying to expand this incredible power of the imperial presidency even more with a novel legal doctrine called “unitary executive theory,” which was bolstered by the Supreme Court’s decision last year that the president cannot be held legally responsible for so-called “official acts.”

This power is bolstered by an unelected Supreme Court, a malapportioned Senate, and first-past-the-post single-member house districts which hamper the emergence of a political alternative. In response, socialists call for a democratic constitution with universal and equal suffrage, which means the abolition of the Senate, ending the Supreme Court’s right of judicial review, enacting proportional representation, and doing away with the independent imperial presidency, which empowers tyrants like Trump.

Our capacity for resisting these attacks on our livelihoods, our democratic rights, and our bodily autonomy is rooted in our capacity to build durable democratic organizations that are accountable to their members. Spontaneity can only get us so far. It’s all well and good and sometimes important to mobilize people to express their displeasure, but without organization and consistent political work, we have no leverage and will just go home after the march without having accomplished anything.

We can’t trust the Democrats or the array of nonprofits and front groups attached to them to fight back for us. They are all financially dependent on donations from people just as wealthy as those supporting Trump. And those wealthy people will find ways to protect themselves no matter what happens, whether it be war, fascism, or ecological catastrophe. They will turn on a dime when it suits their interests, as we’ve seen with the turn of so many in the tech industry, like Mark Zuckerberg, towards the Trump camp.

What we need are organizations controlled by their members from the bottom up through democratic structures and self-funded by membership dues so we don’t have to rely on the wealthy to bankroll us. We have very few of these organizations in the United States but they can be labor and tenant unions, cultural societies, self-defense organizations, and socialist political organizations like DSA. Building these organizations and imbuing them with the democratic and socialist consciousness necessary for collective liberation is the key task of our time.

Now is not the time to fall into despair, wait around hoping things will change in four years, or just protest like we are doing today. We have been trapped by an unaccountable Democratic party into dead-end political actions that focus us on pointless online arguments, turning out to the polls every four years, and spectacular actions like protests and marches. These aren’t the way. None of these forms of action on their own contain the essential thing that has made past social movements so powerful. That thing is organizing. Organizing ensures that we do not just erupt at every injustice only to fade back into the background, but instead sharpen our discontent into a lasting movement that can connect together all of our struggles and sustain our collective fight for liberation through to the end.

Of course, I want to tell you that one of the things you should be doing is joining the DSA. As DSA’s political program puts it: Our mission is to unite workers into a powerful political movement to win the battle for democracy and change the world! The socialist movement is alive and well in DSA right now.

You can also help Pullman for Palestine with their efforts to support the Palestinian cause through education, political struggle, and boycott and divestment efforts.

You can help people meet their everyday needs while bringing a political message about why our society has failed them through the local mutual aid network.

If you are a student you can help with campus organizing by joining the Young Democratic Socialists of America.

If you want to support local media, you can listen to and support your local community radio station KRFP, which tirelessly brings you local coverage at 90.3 on your FM dial.

You can support the northwest abortion access fund, Inland Oasis, or Planned Parenthood not just through donations or online speech, but by volunteering and being connected in real life to the needs of your community.

I urge you to reach out to us no matter what you want to be doing to turn protesting into changing society. You can contact us by going to palousedsa.org, or please take one of your flyers today, or speak to one of our members or supporters who is here helping!

Matthew S. is co-chair of his local chapter of Palouse Democratic Socialists of America.