Photo: Nov. 4 Trump campaign rally in Pittsburgh, PA. Credit — Designism/Wikimedia Commons
By PSL Statement
MetroDMVNoticias-Opinion
Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election ushers in a new phase in U.S. politics that threatens profound attacks on the basic rights of workers and oppressed communities – but also presents an opportunity to build a united working class movement that can finally overcome the disastrous misdirection of the liberal wing of the ruling class that has failed so miserably to stop the advance of the far right. In this moment, our tasks are to organize working people to both fight back against the offensive that Trump is preparing to carry out, and to build the socialist movement fighting to overturn the rule of the billionaires.
For either to be successful, these two tasks have to be linked. The fight against Trump’s ultra-reactionary initiatives will not succeed if it is carried out as a defense of the status quo. There needs to be a larger vision for the transformation of society underpinning the struggle ahead.
What happened on election day
The election results should first and foremost be understood as a total failure of the Democratic Party. There will be no shortage of narratives blaming one or another section of the population for the outcome. But in truth, the Democratic Party elite and the entire centrist/liberal wing of the ruling class have no one to blame but themselves.
The key issue of the election was the economy, and in particular the high cost of living. Trump would frequently start his rallies by asking if those in attendance were better or worse off than they were four years ago, and for huge numbers of people, the answer was that they were now in a worse position. In the first 15 months of the Biden administration, weekly wages fell by nearly 4% when inflation is taken into account. Although wages mostly recovered later in Biden’s term, there was no substantial program put forward to address the decline and stagnation working people have experienced for years.
Biden came into office promising the largest expansion of social programs since the 1960s – the “build back better” agenda. Not only did he abandon this program in the face of resistance from senators within his own party, he presided over the expiration of all of the emergency relief programs enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the year leading up to the election, he spent $27 billion backing Israel’s genocide in Gaza while people’s basic needs went unmet.
Beyond material conditions, the bumbling political missteps of the Democratic Party leadership played a significant role. Kamala Harris was only the candidate for slightly over 100 days. Biden insisted on running for office until his meltdown on the debate stage forced him out of the race. At that point, he had also become rightfully hated by millions for his participation in the ruthless genocide against the Palestinian people – a genocide that Harris pledged she would continue to back with limitless weapons supplies. And Biden was only the candidate to begin with essentially because he was in the right place at the right time to defeat Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primary. And despite all this, Harris refused to distance herself from Biden, embracing his record while building an empty personal brand around “joy” and “hopefulness”.
Any attempt to blame the victory of Trump on one demographic group or another falls flat. For instance, one line of attack from liberals has been to accuse Black men of supporting Trump in record numbers. There is no evidence whatsoever that this materialized on election day – exit polls found that Trump enjoyed 20% support among Black male voters compared to Harris’ 78%, essentially unchanged from the total in 2020. Likewise, the idea that there was a surge in misogynist sentiment in society overall does not align with the decisive victories for abortion rights referenda across the country. In 10 states where abortion rights were on the ballot, clear majorities were in favor in eight of them – with the only defeats in conservative-dominated Nebraska and South Dakota.
Exit polls did reflect significant growth in support for Trump among Latinos. Harris won 53 percent of the Latino vote, compared to 45 percent for Trump – a 13 percentage point increase. That Trump achieved this feat while intensifying his racist rhetoric against Mexicans, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans and people of other Latin American nationalities is a reflection of how deep disgust is with the Democratic Party over its failure to address profound economic hardships.
Incumbent governments around the globe are facing serious headwinds. Long-dominant parties of many different ideological stripes have faced severe electoral setbacks in the face of a world situation characterized by high inflation, deepening geopolitical conflict and skyrocketing inequality. This proved true in the United States as well, multiplied by the incompetence and egoism of Democratic Party politicians.
Defeating the coming war on immigrants
Trump has vowed to carry out a massive police state crackdown on immigrants, pledging to round up millions of undocumented people in militarized raids that would take place in every part of the country. He has whipped up support for this mass deportation campaign using the most vile, racist rhetoric that slanders immigrants as violent criminals.
The Democratic Party has reacted to this by essentially adopting Trump’s anti-immigrant program, but without his demonizing language. Harris touted her plan to vastly expand Border Patrol, and emphasized the support of the Border Patrol officers’ association for her policy. She presented herself as a “tough on crime” prosecutor ready to take on “the border”. Even more, they have totally ignored laws like the Alien Enemies Act and the Insurrection Act that Trump is using as legal cover for his offensive. They preferred to wax poetic about Nazi Germany, while ignoring the authoritarian structures of the US government facilitating many of Trump’s proposals.
Some groups that are traditionally in the Democratic Party orbit have advanced a narrative in defense of immigrants, but its presentation as a single issue isolated from the other pressing matters on the minds of working people has failed to galvanize a sufficient mass of people. The non-profit model of organization lends itself exactly to this kind of error, and also gives credence to the false right wing narrative that ultra-rich individuals (who do in fact provide the grant money that fuels non-profits) are conspiring to “replace” the native-born population with people born in other parts of the world.
