By Chris Townsend

November 8, 2024

 

There should not be much room for confusion regarding the come-from-behind re-election of Trump in the November 2024 U.S. elections. The hapless and last-minute Harris campaign flailed away aimlessly, cut every corner, promoted a feelgood “vibe” in place of speaking to the real issues, and not surprisingly brought forward a monumental defeat for Democrats. An emboldened and confident Trump machine remained consistent and focused, defied convention, developed a huge working-class base, and strutted to near-complete victory. What about this is difficult to understand?

All measures indicate that the just-concluded “election” was surely the most absurd in living U.S. history. Absent was any significant amount of meaningful political discourse. The nonsensical name calling and he-said-she-said campaigning, along with a new record set for bizarre pronouncements and insults by Trump was by Election Day the product of astonishing multi-billion-dollar campaign spending.  https://www.opensecrets.org/2024-presidential-race  Never before on earth has so much political money brought forth so little real debate or consideration of the broad array of issues affecting the people. The reduction of U.S. presidential politics to mere bad sitcom farce seems complete. Any notion that political spending must be curtailed is long forgotten. The new low now reached merely invites even worse in the coming elections.

This completely corrupt and debased U.S. election environment is also the product of the deliberate policies of both “major” political parties. With third, fourth or fifth political parties effectively banned no other result can be expected. A frustrated electorate that was confused and disoriented before the election has now been transformed into an electorate even more confused and bewildered after the current contest. Harris loyalists and devotees are today in a literal state of mental and emotional collapse as a result of the poor showing of the Harris ticket. The Trumpists are jubilant, drunk on their win, and with several months to go before the actual handover of power, many developments lie ahead.

DEMOCRATS BANKRUPT

The Harris campaign meltdown starkly reveals the utter bankruptcy of the Democrats, both politically and organizationally. The combined forces of the former Clinton and Obama regimes, along with the Biden political operation all fell to the often moronic Trump campaign. Bernie Sanders tried in vain to mobilize his considerable following to support Harris, failing and only further diminishing whatever his legacy may be. The Harris operation never caught fire anywhere except for the reliable pockets of Democratic Party strength, which by definition are not sufficient to win a national election.

Post-election analysis  now reveals how millions of working people soundly rejected the garbled and condescending middle-class messages of phony optimism from the completely-out-of-touch Democratic Party professional stratum – as best represented by Harris. The highly paid Democratic Party consultants took home a fortune in billings for their “services,” reminding us of the perverse fact that the political know-it-alls get paid handsomely even if their candidate is buried on election day.

DISASTROUS PATTERN EMERGES

The Democratic Party operatives, funders, fixers, remaining elected Democrats, their captive media, and the remarkable number of non-profit commentators and dubious “experts” in their pay will grouse and fight among themselves for several months in the wake of this embarrassing defeat. As this process winds down all history shows us that the Democratic Party will ultimately end where it has ended in previous election cycles. A consensus will develop that some significant measure of bipartisan surrender must be offered to the Trump forces. Despite the amassed criminal record of Trump, not to mention his frequent deranged utterings, it can be confidently predicted that these issues will trail off and give way to surrender and accommodation to the reactionary forces of Trumpism. These olive branches will also be spurned by Trump, only adding an additional element of humiliation to the Democrats’ defeat. Early signs are that the Democrats plan to welcome Trump to the White House now out of some  belief that “democracy” mandates their abandonment of resistance to the dangerous Trump.

The current collapse of the Democrats also repeats a troubling pattern where failed Democrat regimes have systematically laid the path for even more right-wing Republican challengers – and winners. The bungling and anti-worker policies of the Carter regime literally paved the way for a Reagan presidency. No observers gave Reagan any serious chance of success until the decaying Carter government opened the door and revived his faltering campaign. The barely-able-to-finish-his-second-term Clinton administration served to lay the groundwork for the poisonous and murderous George W. Bush years. The culmination of that saga concluded when the corrupt Florida Bush machine literally stole the 2000 election from the sputtering operation of Al Gore. And likewise, how Obama’s complete subordination to big business paved the way for the initial growth of Trumpism. Now Trump’s astonishing second term is ushered-in through the wreckage of the genocidal and delusional governance of Biden and his hand-picked Harris.

Democratic U.S. presidents now follow a continuous pattern; they raise hopes and are sometimes elected, then compromise ceaselessly with Corporate America and the Republican opposition, fail to deliver on any substantive issues, decay, lose support, and are then defeated by even greater reactionary Republican forces. The steady movement of the U.S. political pole from conservative, to rightist, to far right, and now to extreme right is easily traceable by this succession of failed presidencies.

LABOR AND LEFT CONFUSION AND PARALYSIS

The labor movement and the small left political elements in the U.S. are for the most part already in full paralysis trying to figure out the real causes and meaning of the Harris collapse and Trump triumph. How did this happen? How could tens of millions vote for the obviously flawed and dangerous Trump? Why don’t union members see the danger of Trump? Was the “messaging” wrong? Is the working class just comprised of racists and sexists? Why didn’t working people respond more to the up-with-people campaign of the likeable “Kamala”? Why are people unfazed by Trump’s authoritarianism? Is the sky falling? Where can I hide?

This agonizing is sure to consume the dejected and depressed leftists for the coming months. With gigantic quantities of energy and precious resources squandered by the trade unions and many of the left groups on the doomed Harris trek, a falloff in activism is certain. Ordinary working people who were coaxed and herded into support work for Harris are now profoundly confused and bewildered as the machinery they participated in ground to a halt far short of the needed goal. All manner of left and liberal commentators will make impassioned attempts to explain this debacle and soothe the Harris supporters, but very few will challenge the rotten underpinnings of the situation they have constructed.

Few of the labor or left organizations – or their publications – who chose this path will likely examine the wisdom of their unconditional Harris support. The immense costs, lost momentum, lowered morale, and falling membership will remain unmentioned and unquantified. These sorts of losses and miscalculations are best dealt with by ignoring the realities of the failure. That way the leadership of the respective organizations are left unaccountable and able to dodge responsibility for the fiasco. No study of the basic failed premise of left-support-for-Democrats-as-an unquestioned-principle will take place, guaranteeing that the failed formula will repeat as it has for the past 60 years.

A few brave labor and left leaders may attempt some rhetorical gymnastics to somehow claim that there was still some “influencing” of Harris going on. But no serious observers will be convinced by these hollow claims given the realities of the election debacle. In fact, all evidence would point to the source of the Harris collapse being precisely tied to the left’s inability to influence her in any way. The post-election statement by Bernie Sanders denouncing the failed Harris campaign – just hours after her loss – is more proof that the Harris campaign never intended to utilize the widely popular messages that acknowledged the worsening plight of working people. Trump skillfully and cynically appropriated these messages to expand his support and ultimately win the election, with Harris left to spin multiple varieties of inane politically-correct identity politics as her main campaign foundation.

SCIENCE IGNORED, FAILURE IS THE RESULT

While no longer fashionable to quote Lenin for most of the left, this passage in his brief “The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism” certainly explains and addresses the current moment. “People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases, declarations and promises.” https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/mar/x01.htm A return to a sound Marxist analysis and understanding is in dire need throughout our fragmented and scattered left. The just-concluded election in the U.S. fully illustrates the failed methodology of those seeking to influence the utterly bankrupt Democratic Party. These efforts are based solely on a dangerous utopian belief in somehow winning a war of ideas within a party firmly in the grip of the ruling class.

Any honest and scientific appraisal of the situation should lead all sober and adult observers to conclude that this route is impossible. No tangible evidence exists that this “strategy” of somehow “capturing” or even “influencing” the Democratic Party stands any chance of success. New routes to power must be experimented with, independent of the two-party trap that has proven to be a deadly dead-end for the working class. This will be difficult – to say the least – but validating it is the fact that this course of action offers the only possibility of forward motion with repetition of the current course guaranteeing only further failure. Magic carpets to whisk us to political success inside the Democratic Party do not exist, will never exist, and no matter the effort expended will never be constructed. Continued delusional thinking like this must be confronted and rejected if any progress is to be made.

As the Democrats have proven over and over and over again, they are quite happy to accept free foot soldiers and money from labor and the left at election time but are completely unwilling to alter their course through any semblance of power sharing or coalition. Vague promises and lip service are lavished – sometimes – on those willing to provide this free assistance, but as history has shown even when victory is the result the actual “payback” from Democrats is meager to nonexistent. Trade unionists, socialists, communists, and leftists of all sorts have again poured themselves into the Harris campaign like so much water on the Sahara sands, with nothing now to show for it.

CONSIDERING THE WRONG QUESTION

For those in labor and on the left the “debate” can no longer be just detailed wrangling over the details of the Harris flop. That is not necessary, or productive. And it is no longer useful in any way to endlessly agonize over the reactionary character of the Trump movement. All of that should be self-evident. The gross over-thinking of the obvious is unnecessary and in fact is destructive. All energy must be applied instead to a scientific and fact-based study of our disastrous course, and our badly debilitated condition as working class movements. Leadership must be held to account, challenged, and replaced if necessary. Perpetual failure and miscalculations on this scale can no longer be afforded. Weak and confused leadership has given rise to poor followership, with additional disastrous consequences. The Harris campaign was never, ever, “our” campaign. At best, labor and left elements were detached; they were  volunteer supporters operating far away from any place where real decisions were deliberated and decided by the Democratic Party controllers.

BOMBARDMENT LOOMS

Despite the obvious ruins before us, most labor and left leaders will likely act to prevent any consideration of the obvious disaster. The accumulated labor and left leadership must be compelled to offer detailed reports on the resources allocated, the numbers of members deployed, the experiences gained, and then accompanied by a balance sheet of what the actual impact really was. The gargantuan political spending of the unions must be examined in detail, as more than a billion dollars in members’ money has been expended on the overall election debacle. The members paying the dues for this disaster are entitled to a full accounting.

Utopian daydreams of a path out of our situation and reality must be rejected out-of-hand. Solutions and new directions will not materialize out of thin air. A scientific review of our dilemma, and the determination of a sound course of action going forward is the only sensible course of action. Worn-out bromides, repeating of repeatedly failed formulas, and an unwillingness to consider a new path forward must all be rejected. The left and the labor movement must accept this reality and begin the process of rebuilding a credible political movement of our own. The re-energized Trump machinery will not wait long as they consolidate their power and launch major attacks. A never before seen political and economic bombardment is imminent, and the labor and left leadership who delivered us to this political wasteland must be held to account.

 

-Chris Townsend is a 45-year union member and leader. He was most recently the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) International Union Organizing Director. Previously he was an International Representative and Political Action Director for the United Electrical Workers Union (UE), and he has held local positions in both the SEIU and UFCW. He may be reached at: cwtownsend52@gmail.com