How I’m Choosing my 2020 Candidate
In 2007 I approached the Democratic primaries focused on two
issues: ending the US occupation of Iraq, and supporting a transition to clean
energy. The main difference I saw among
the candidates was that then-Senator Obama had opposed the Iraq War before
Clinton or Edwards had done so.
This proved to be a mistake, as the antiwar movement was
marginalized from its mass constituency by Obama claiming the peace mantle even
as he massively expanded bombings of civilians in the Middle East, Africa and
Asia, while the public option, Civil Rights bills for Queer people, and cap and
trade were all abandoned, the Endangered Species Act was frozen, and
privatization advocates were installed in the Department of Education. Much of this could have been done by
executive order, and eventually was in last-minute, short-lived attempts to
satisfy abandoned constituencies.
Whether by overt malice, or by deference to the process, the best
opportunity for radical change in two generations (and counting) was lost.
Obviously, the most important reason for this was the
resilience and skill of the Bourgeoisie in co-opting reformist movements, but I
think it would be an error to write off all potential improvements under a
bourgeois-democratic system because of the Obama betrayals. Real changes are possible with the right
candidates, not to the system itself, but to the lives and livelihoods of
millions of workers, which will strengthen the movement towards an eventual
revolution. Less desperate workers are
stronger workers.
The question then becomes- how do we pick a presidential
candidate we can work with, one who will respond to the people's movement? How do we
gauge a president’s interest in working with their constituency vs. defending
the process? Who do we think will be
willing to match GOP hardball coup tactics?
I think we’re looking for someone who has a record of opposing
Democratic leadership from the left at a time when they faced consequences for
doing so. Bernie obviously qualifies for
his opposition to the TPP before it became a cause célèbre, his following the
lead of activists and coming around to the necessity of abolishing ICE, and
more generally for his courage in running against Clinton when no one else
would. I have to temper this with an
awareness of his recent apologia for racism, and his statements that issues related to racism and sexism are unimportant.
I still think Bernie is the candidate least likely to betray us, but I’m
not sure he’ll be consistently thinking of the entire working class, especially given his condoning racists' refusal to support Black candidates and tolerance of antichoice positions. Whether or not I can support him again will
depend in large part on the people he surrounds himself with.
The only other major candidate I can think of who has defied
Dem. Leadership to a comparable extent is Kirsten Gillibrand, who has been cut
off from party funding after standing with the #MeToo movement to criticize
Bill Clinton’s past sexual abuse and to call on Franken to resign. Whether we agree with her actions or not,
they clearly show that she was willing to stand with Democratic voters even at
a cost of massive campaign funding and her relationship with the Clintons. To me, this looks like a principled
declaration of independence that helped Doug Jones win Alabama and
distinguished her from the pack.
This is not a perfect metric. It privileges politicians who have been well
liked or rich enough to weather controversies, in short, looking for insurgent
candidates with a record privileges those who can get away with such an
insurgency. It’s hard to imagine Kamala
Harris doing things like this, but it is also hard to imagine such dissent being
tolerated from a Black woman. That said,
I do not see anything resembling this hint of independence in her career. I’ll be looking very closely at her record of
arguing against commutations for exonerated prisoners and her sluggish response
on ICE, and hopefully finding something that will enable me to endorse
her.
But for now, my choices remain Bernie and Kirsten
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