The Bernie and Trump Trap: Beyond the Dead-End of Imperial Politics

[AOR]

--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.”

(Snip)

"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."

(Snip)

"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."

(Snip)

"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.

(Snip)

"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."

Article in full here...

http://www.blackagendareport.com/bernie_and_trump_beyond_imperial_politics

[mmonk]

1. In our case, the movements don't die until the injustice does.

It's no trap.

[AOR]

2. You would need to expand on that a bit...

Injustice will never die without the struggle of a mass leftist political movement. Bernie Sanders running as a Democrat DOES NOT represent a leftist political movement of mass and we are FAR from anything resembling one. That is the point and that is the task at hand. These "primary wars" are circus entertainment representing business as usual and nothing more. There is no "political revolution" coming out of the Democratic Party power structure. It's that simple. It's most certainly a trap to stop real resistance from forming.

[mmonk]

3. The problem of course is access.

Both media and ballot with duopoly and law. Any movement is squashed by the limitations. It doesn't mean we should give in or be co-opted. Just recognize opportunities.

[oasis]

4. Who do YOU support? You already posted an anti-Clinton hit piece

This Haiphong character you seem to be promoting on these boards doesn't seem to represent anyone in Democratic Party or any of their policies.

[mmonk]

5. Maybe the expression of an opinion is all that is needed.

[oasis]

6. If there is a need to simultaneously trash both candidates, perhaps

that agenda can be pursued somewhere other than GD-P.

[AOR]

7. I support the working class and the struggling...

in which I am a member of. I support the working class and the struggling over a ruling class in all things. I support labor and the workers over capital and the owners in all things. I "promote" nothing but getting to what's real and what isn't in historical and material reality on the ground. Get it ? A "hit piece" is something that has no truth. The Danny Haiphong analysis is far from a "hit piece." Of course, anything that does not deal in subjective illusions and promotion of personalities over the truth and facts is a "hit piece" to some. Cheers