President Biden, Capitalist Democracy, and the 2024 Election

Why I Won't Be Holding My Nose

It is true that our representative democracy is seriously compromised by the oligarchs. The individuals and families that Theodore Roosevelt called "malefactors of great wealth." Because this country was founded in a different time it was burdened from the start with a compromised form of democracy. Compromised by the ethos of wealth, now hitched to the star of capitalism. Aristocracy unbound.

This battle between oligarchy and democracy continued apace through the 1800s and 1900s, sometimes with the average citizen making headway and sometimes losing ground.

All through the 20th century the working class pulled ahead, forming the strongest and most successful middle class in the history of the world. Until the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Thus began one of the greatest takeovers from within the world has ever seen.

In the ensuing years, the oligarchs have got their snouts so deep into the machinery of our governance that cutting them out might be as dangerous as separating Siamese twins joined by the liver or heart.

That is the true "deep state". That is where a wall as sturdy as church and state should have been erected, but was not. Because when the constitution was written, only landed gentlemen could vote. The idea of "workers rights" was as foreign as "civil rights" for Black people, Natives, women, or anyone other than the rich white man.

But the language of equality was powerful, and relying on that, judges and legislatures slowly began to bring forth the promise in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

None of which is pleasing to the oligarchs--then or now.

So, they waited. And when the time was right, pushed the pendulum back the other way. Barefaced fascism suits them better than even a watered down democracy where they still must keep to the shadows. This crop of oligarchs is the wealthiest ever. There ideology and reach is global. They have more power than nation states. And we, the people, are losing this class war.

Which brings me to Joe Biden and the upcoming election in November. Every election we are told we must vote for the Democrat or the big sell out will get worse. Everything will get worse. And this has always proved to be true.

But it is easy to see that avoiding greater disaster is not the same as fixing the underlying problem. The Democrats were not challenging the oligarchs or their control over American politics. They were fighting tooth and nail to keep voter's rights, keep the safety net, protect the environment, gun regulation, and a myriad of other worthy individual issues. They did not, however, challenge the underlying premises and conditions that made fighting tooth and nail necessary.

Every election, a few people on the left question this. What they are seeing as an injustice really exists. They are not wrong. We should have 5 or 6 viable major parties. We should have ranked choice voting. We should have a lot of things. But we don't. We must live in reality. There are two parties. Voting for a spoiler leads to a Republican win and that leads to disaster.

Where we are now. Staring American fascism in the face.

Every election we the Democratic majority warn the far left to just get in line and vote for the Democrat. Every election they get more arrogant and the virtue signalling gets louder. "Corporate Dems". "Neoliberal". "Warmonger".

The spoilers are rarely the ones who will be hurt by a Bush or a McConnell, or a Trump.

Which is why I have given my full-throated support to Joe Biden since the day he clinched the 2020 nomination. We all saw what happened when too many voted for Jill Stein in 2016. We lived through a four year nightmare, complete with a million avoidable deaths. We KNEW we had to come out in force. And even the hard core left were quieter than usual.

Now it is 2024. Trump is back with an openly fascist agenda. He has committed numerous felonies in broad daylight and yet he still walks free to put on a clown show campaign. Which he could win, especially if the "the two parties are the same' crowd act as spoilers as they did in 2016. The 'Uncommitted" campaign of people on the left going after Biden in the primaries because Gaza (something something) is just the beginning. Anything less than full throated support weakens Biden in the general. The malcontents know this. They will swear up and down they do not support Trump. But actions speak louder than words.

Meanwhile, what of Joe Biden? If this Trump is even more virulent than 2020, this Biden is arguably politically weaker. Which is ironic because his record is stellar. And something more. The cry of the spoiler is that the establishment left has abandoned its values and gone corporate. And should therefore be kept out of office even if the opponent is a thousand times worse. But something strange happened in the first Biden administration--this president has in fact stood up to the oligarchs. He has championed the average citizen and done so with great effectiveness. Establishment Joe is a pragmatic progressive. The most progressive since Jimmy Carter. What the right wing populist promises (but never delivers) this president serves up on a plain working class platter--economic justice and a leveled playing field.

If the spoilers can't dig their faces out of the grievance collecting and see that, it is because they don't want to. It was never about moving us towards a stronger, more fair democracy at all. It was about the tantrum the whole time.