Philosophy blog

Recently with Biden stepping down from the 2024 presidential race and Kamala Harris stepping up in his place the American left splits once again. We seem to find ourselves in two camps as leftists. Those whom do not wish to vote for Kamala because of her complicity in the Gaza genocide and those who do simply because of the threat of a Trump presidency. I do not wish to downplay the scale of the atrocities of what has happened in Gaza or in any way dismiss the complicity that the Biden administration has in them. As far as I am concerned every single one of them have helped commit genocide, are war criminals and should be tried as such. In my view in it's current state American politics have not developed enough for leftist means for not voting for voting for a third party to be an option if we wish to move to anything remotely looking like a socialist state and an end to American imperialism.

I understand the frustration coming from American socialists and I do not wish to belittle them or their campaigns for a free Palestine, nor do I want to sound like a smug "enlightened" centrist saying "heh actually both of you are wrong. The global right have got to their current position through political organising and out-manoeuvring the left, they've played the long game and are now reaping the rewards from it, we must do the same if we wish to form a better society. A Trump presidency means rolling back years of civil liberties, these are things we have won by organising campaigning and fighting for allowing them to slip through our fingers like sand is a major blow to any step towards revolution. In my view we are not free until all are free, I do not see how this means we should not defend our own liberties even if it means the continued denial of liberties of others. Simply allowing a Trump presidency for the sake of your own moral conscience in not voting for a different genocide-enabling war criminal is fatal levels of crab bucket mentality. We are all victims of capitalism and the oppression it brings but we should not pull ourselves down or pull others back down because it means others are left behind. We shouldn't wait for the random moment that the bucket bursts apart for us to attack bring down those who put us there but climb out and reach down to those still in the bucket before we can all take down those who trapped us. Any dream of a permanent or continuous revolution won't come under the knee of a fascist. At some point we must of course reject the systems capitalists have placed before us in order to establish a socialist society.

The moments that have allowed communist revolution have been spontaneous so far. We cannot afford to sit around and wait for our chance but create it ourselves. Break down barriers, educate, organise, unionise, protest, campaign, riot, boycott, sue and win court cases, take direct action, write to your representatives and push them to do better until we are all prepared to start a real revolution. The opportunity for revolution will not happen in America in it's current state. Most people hear "Marxism" and get flashbacks to the red scare propaganda they were fed at school. The median voter doesn't take issue with transexuals but also wants to pay less tax. They are not ready to bring down their oppressors. A Trump presidency will push back leftist progress years, it is irresponsible to allow this to happen, what does not voting achieve? What alternative will bring us closer to revolution? America is not ready for revolution so we must make it ready and that will not happen while trump is in power.

I argue against impossiblism. I recognise how the public may see less need for revolution when there is reform however this is about the long run. A larger base of socialists amongst the proletariat shall only help our cause.

This is pure speculation and only semi related but I'm willing to be optimistic and say that Kamala would be less stubborn against public pressure than Biden was and more easily movable. Again I do not want to be a "leftists should shut up and sit on their hands and compromise" but revolution is not on the cards yet, not to say that revolutionary tactics shouldn't be used. Effective direct action should be a huge focus of revolutionary groups in my opinion. Push Kamala as much as you can to our side while you can.

American politics while corrupted to the core to serve capitalist means and systems needs to be changed. It serves it's purpose too well to simply rebel and hope it all fixes itself magically. We must fight to get those onside and change the system to allow for revolutionary action to begin to develop. Get rid of the unchecked power of the supreme court, defund the police, end the 2 party system that has destroyed any hope of revolution thus far. We had one of these moments with the George Floyd protests and it ultimately lead to nothing, we cannot wait for that to happen again in another 20 years but fight as aggressively as possible to create more of those moments and capitalising on them as much as possible when they do arise...