Trump in 2016 was that, while she was perhaps a less than ideal candidate given her long history of equivocation and occasionally outright reactionary politics, she would at least be the safe bet to defeat Trump, who represented a uniquely barbaric threat to the United States and the world. As everyone now knows, this “electability” argument turned out not to be true—the electable candidate was not elected. The Democrats’ preference for this “safe” strategy over the years not only culminated in Trump’s victory but has resulted in devastation up and down the ballot, from the halls of Congress to state houses and governorships throughout the country.
This failure on the part of the Democratic Party should shape how we approach electoral politics going forward. Americans are not excited by, and thus are not driven to vote for, candidates who defend the status quo. If Americans are going to reject the rabidly racist and xenophobic politics put forward by pro-corporate Republicans, they can’t just be offered a slightly nicer, more diverse, less reactionary version by pro-corporate Democrats. They need a bold alternative political vision informed by clear moral principles that stands in stark contrast to what’s on offer from Trump and the Right.
Sanders offered that in 2016, and the next generation of left-wing politicians and electoral organizers can offer it going forward, confident that running on a robust and uncompromising left-wing vision is not only morally correct, but strategically shrewd. The rise to prominence of firstterm Congress members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib is a promising sign that this message is getting through. Not only have they already shown a willingness to use their offices to advocate for the working class, but they have also so far resisted immense pressure to fall in line with the Democratic Party establishment. All three endorsed Sanders for president at the low point of his presidential campaign, when Sanders had suffered a heart attack and pundits rushed to declare that he was finished. If they remain steadfast, they will be anchors in the electoral wing of the movement Sanders started for decades to come. But just as we can’t rely on Sanders alone, we can’t rely solely on them either. We must take the reins ourselves.
We are convinced of the need for a political revolution in this country, and we think that revolution needs to be a democratic socialist one. By posing and answering key questions, this book will identify what that political revolution can look like and how we can continue to build it.
The first question we pose is: What exactly is so important about Bernie Sanders? We answer this by briefly tracing the history of socialism and class struggle in the United States, through periods of militancy and retreat, and showing how Sanders’s own political trajectory was shaped by—but also stood outside of—that history. Somehow, through a wild amalgamation of left-wing politicization, a shrewd vision for how to operate independently from and outside the main currents of American politics, a uniquely stubborn personality, and perhaps a sprinkling of dumb luck, Sanders cut a distinct path through the decades, going from student socialist and civil rights activist to longshot third-party candidate to mayor of Burlington to member of Congress to serious presidential contender. His truly singular political perspective and personal attributes made him the perfect—and the only—candidate with the credibility and experience to provide political leadership for a new era of popular awakening and a rebirth of class politics.
Second, the question of how should we approach electoral politics is key. Elections are a major factor behind the current left resurgence, after all. There’s a lot to learn from Bernie’s presidential campaigns; the campaigns and in-office actions of public officials that have come in his wake, from Ocasio-Cortez in the House of Representatives to local elections like the six Chicago socialists who won election to city council; and even unsuccessful electoral campaigns that you may have never heard of, like the Jovanka Beckles campaign for California State Assembly. These kinds of electoral campaigns are essential to continue building the political revolution.
They are all examples of what we call “class-struggle campaigns,” in which candidates openly identify as socialists, aren’t afraid to name the enemy, and work to build working-class movements beyond their election—and beyond electoral politics altogether. Candidates who wage successful class-struggle campaigns will probably be in the political minority for the immediate future, but they can wield outsize influence by aggressively using their bully pulpit to promote socialist ideas. This book lays out some socialist strategies for punching above our weight.
We also talk about the Democratic Party, which has a monopoly on all electoral politics to the left of the Republicans, despite being an essentially centrist or occasionally center-left party. That monopoly distinguishes the American situation from that of almost every other country on earth— a major boon for the 1 percent and a disaster for the planet and the working class, both at home (under vicious attack by corporate power) and abroad (bearing the brunt of US imperialism).
The Democratic Party is a fundamentally pro-capitalist institution, and that is unlikely to ever change. But in the short and medium term, there are serious barriers to our scrapping the Democrats and creating a new mass party that can actually fight for the vast majority of society. That’s why we argue for an approach to the Democrats that is willing to use the party’s ballot line, preventing us from being doomed to complete political irrelevance, while laying the foundations for an eventual break with the party to create a future workers’ party—what has been called a “dirty break” (as opposed to a “clean break”) strategy.
We think that socialist organizations have a special role to play in building an independent working-class movement and eventually a party. They offer invaluable education, a coherent direction and common analysis for organizing around the most pressing issues of the day, a strategic orientation toward the working class, and a deep sense of comradeship and purpose. Right now, there’s no better political home for those who want to join the fight than the Democratic Socialists of America, the country’s largest socialist organization.
Socialists must have an inspiring long-term view of a revolutionized society, but also an actionable short-term agenda. We argue that there is great value in the struggle for reforms, if those reforms can advance socialist values and erode capitalists’ power. Otherwise they’re just tinkering around the edges and won’t help build a bigger movement that can wage and win more ambitious fights down the line.
Finally, we argue that the labor movement is particularly important given the centrality of the working class in making the world function under capitalism, and the power workers can wield when they join together to fight the boss. A strong labor movement is one that is democratic and fights for the common good of all working-class people. The best way to build such a labor movement, as well as close the gap that currently exists between the socialist movement and the working class, is through what’s called the “rank-and-file strategy,” which places an emphasis on building power at the shop-floor level alongside other workers. In recent decades, some of the most dynamic and transformative fights in the labor movement have emerged because of this type of bottom-up, rank-and-file organization.
At the time of this writing, the fate of Sanders’s bid for the presidency is uncertain. If he loses, the old problems remain, and the fight continues. If he wins, the fight is far from over: in fact it dramatically escalates, as the capitalist class will immediately seek to undermine our attempts to remake society. In both scenarios, the ability of the movement that has cohered around Sanders to stand on its own two feet and strategically exercise its power is the ultimate decisive factor. We conceive of this book as a guide for that movement as it strides into the future.
We have a once-in-a-lifetime opening to reshape the world for the many, not the few. In particular, given the impending reality of catastrophic climate change, we have no choice but to take advantage of this opening if don’t want to live out our days in a dystopian nightmare. Capitalists are not only exploiting the vast majority of people and maintaining an order based on privatization and austerity that engenders needless suffering—they are also driving the planet to the brink of disaster. To pull it back from the precipice, we have to go toe-to-toe with the industries that are destroying
