Voters Reject Right-Wing Agenda —
Prepare to Fight the Bipartisan Policies of the 1%
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Nov 9, 2012 By Bryan Koulouris and Ty Moore
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Tens of
millions breathed an enormous sigh of relief upon hearing that Mitt Romney and
Paul Ryan wouldn't be entering the White House. Union members, women,
African-Americans, Latinos and the LGBT community correctly saw the Republican
agenda as a vicious and real threat.
The right wing tried to steal the election with voter intimidation,
suppression and fake-populist posturing on the economy in the final weeks,
putting over one billion dollars in campaign cash into trying to disenfranchise
the poor, young people and people of color.
Obama's vote was nothing like the excited and energetic campaign of 2008.
This year, voter turnout was down by 12 million compared to four years ago. Most
people voted for Obama as a “lesser evil” rather than as the savior they saw in
2008, who would bring “hope” and “change.”
Last year's Occupy Wall Street movement made an impact on this election by
bringing a discussion about economic inequality between “the 99% and the 1%” to
the forefront. A brighter spotlight shone down on the record $6 billion spent on
federal races, to the outrage of millions. Occupy's message against corporate
domination also fueled a healthy hatred for Mr. 1% himself, Mitt Willard Romney.
Obama won this election in spite of his pro-corporate record. Banks received
trillions in handouts while social services were cut and millions of families
lost their homes. Many antiwar voters supported Obama, despite continued bombing
of civilians in country after country, expanding Bush's model of an
unaccountable imperial Presidency, waging war in Libya, and drone strikes around
the world without discussion in Congress.
Many of Obama's voters were deeply disappointed in his performance over the
past four years, correctly seeing him as a puppet of Wall Street and the 1%. The
Obama administration begins its second term without any real mandate. The
Democratic Party “base” among the unions, people of color, women and the LGBT
community, swallowed their anger at Obama during the elections, holding their
nose to vote for the “lesser evil.” Now, with the elections behind them, all the
pent-up anger and frustration is set to boil over.
Demands for jobs, clean energy investments, education funding, housing
rights, and solutions to an endless list of injustices will again come to the
surface. And again, Obama will put the interests of Wall Street and big business
first, provoking fresh outrage and opposition. The time is ripe for building new
movements of workers and oppressed, politically independent of both corporate
parties.
Changed Situation and Attitudes
For the first time nationally, voters in Washington, Minnesota, Maine and
Maryland voted in favor of same-sex marriage rights, marking a historic turning
point in the struggle for LGBT equality. Many other progressive ballot questions
won across the country, from minimum wage increases to defense of union rights
to measures against the racist “war on drugs.” Minnesota voters narrowly
rejected an attempt enshrine the harshest voter restriction laws in the country
into their constitution. This shows a shift in demographics and a shift in
attitudes among young people and workers. Combined with massive working-class
anger, this is the basis for explosive movements in the next year.
Romney based his strategy largely on a solid white male vote (especially in
the South) and hopes of a (rigged) low voter turnout. The Republican tactics
ever since the 1960s have been to win elections by whipping up fear and hatred
among white voters. This strategy will be more difficult to be implemented in
national elections, a reality that will become even more clear with coming
elections, as the rising generation reaches voting age. This election defeat
will deepen this brewing crisis in the Republican Party, which will be forced to
redefine its identity or face being reduced into a permanent minority party.
While there wasn't a big shift in the composition of Congress along party
lines, the changes in the Republican legislators are worth noting. The
“moderate” Maine Republicans and “centrist” Dick Lugar are out of office as are
several of the most crazed Tea Partiers. Despite many Tea Party defeats, the
over-all balance of power within the Republican congressional delegation has
shifted even further right, setting the stage for more bipartisan gridlock.
Yet in Obama's victory speech, he repeated his stale pledge to “reach across
the aisle” to the Republicans. In reality, Obama's bipartisanship is cynically
designed to provide cover for his nakedly pro-corporate policies, which will
soon be on display. Both parties are preparing historic cuts to Social Security,
Medicare, and other vital programs before the end of 2012. This could provoke
radicalization, street protests and further struggles. In this context, there
will be opportunities to build mass united working-class resistance,
anti-corporate electoral campaigns, and a political party of the 99%.
Building the Socialist Movement in a New Environment
The historic
result for Socialist Alternative candidate Kshama Sawant in Washington State shows the
potential to build the movement against capitalism. Running openly as a
Socialist, Sawant got more votes than any Republican has ever received against
Frank Chopp in this powerful Democratic politician's 18-year career.
Running against budget cuts and corporate tax evasion, and calling for public
ownership of Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon, Socialist Alternative's electoral
challenge helped popularize the ideas of democratic socialism, winning over
11,906 working-class votes which is projected to grow to over 20,000 votes once
counting is finished. This result is the biggest highlight for local independent
left candidates in 2012 and needs to be built upon.
To take advantage of this situation, we need to boldly call for organized
resistance against cuts involving hundreds of thousands of union members, Occupy
activists, community campaigners and young people. These coalitions will need to
prepare for strikes and mass direct action to defend living standards against
the corporate assault. Out of these struggles, we can lay the basis for what is
needed—a mass party of working people with a democratic socialist program.
In other news outside the two main establishment parties, we saw the threat
of right-wing populism. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party presidential
candidate, got over one million votes, three times the votes won by the most
prominent left presidential candidate, Jill Stein from the Green Party. Like the
Tea Party victories in 2010, this provides a glimpse of the potential for
right-wing populist ideas to grow if the left and workers movement fail to build
a mass political alternative to the hated corporate establishment.
These elections, taking place in the fifth year of a grinding economic
crisis, showed the deepening polarization in U.S. society. At root the political
and social polarization flows from the sharpening class divide, and the growing
desperation of tens of millions of workers. Lacking a clear working-class
political voice in the elections, the contests between corporate politicians
gave distorted expression to the class anger. In this situation, right-wing
ideas could gather support, and the last four years have seen the rapid growth
of hate groups.
On the other side, where a bold lead from the left is given, the class
polarization can also provoke people to consider far-reaching left-wing
solutions. There is a widespread search for ideas that can offer a way out of
the capitalist misery overseen by both parties of big business. As the Socialist
Alternative campaign for Kshama Sawant in Seattle illustrates, U.S. society is
becoming increasingly fertile for the rise of socialist
ideas.
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