Amid the escalations in our class conflict the Ukraine war has brought, the question that the communist movement has increasingly come to be battling over is: can we advance all the parts of our cause, while working with ideological elements that don’t share each of these ideas? Can we remain principled on social justice, workers rights, and all other aspects of our agenda at the same time that we collaborate with these elements on issues like anti-imperialism?
Acknowledging the futile reality of electoral tactics (especially for the US President) isn’t a “purity test.” And if anything, West, like any other left voice that continues to be allowed a platform by the corporate media arm of the state, deserves extra criticism and scrutiny.
I agree that electoral tactics are futile, and i personally have some major issues with Cornel West and some of the things he has said about communists and communism, but the fact remains that the Democratic party is the biggest obstacle to revolutionary organizing and revolutionary consciousness in the US. I can see an argument for supporting a spoiler candidate that draws away votes from them, especially when that candidate comes with a platform that has at least some semblance of anti-war messaging because that is something woefully absent from public discourse in the US and any voice on this issue with a platform such as that provided by participation in electoral politics is invaluable for shifting the public consciousness no matter what other faults those who popularize anti-war and anti-imperialist sentiments may have.
As Lenin said, the point of participating in bourgeois electoralism is not the delusional belief that you will be able to actually change anything substantial through the mechanisms of liberal democracy but the platform that this gives you to agitate and to spread your messaging.
From my point of view as an outsider looking at the situation in US politics my primary hope is that someone, regardless from which political direction, will make US interventionism unpopular enough for the US to stop meddling around the world. Ideally NATO would be allowed to collapse, funding for programs like the NED to be cut and US military bases and military aid to allied government across the world to be deemed unaffordable and be rolled back.
Of course I am realistic and I know that this is a long shot, US interventionism and empire is very much in the interests of its capitalist elite, so this will only happen if there is sufficient decline and turmoil in the US itself that its ruling class is forced to focus its attention inward.
There are some obvious positives if West’s campaign is publicized enough to pull more people and the general conversation here to the left. I’m not convinced that Lenin quote fully applies to him though. Lenin was talking about the Bolsheviks gaining more visibility through participating in electoral campaigns. Neither the People’s Party or Green Party are revolutionary parties. They are vaguely reformist and the danger is that they take disillusioned progressives and funnel all of their energy into doomed electoral/fundraising efforts rather than actual revolutionary work. It also has the chance of pulling people to the left but also leaving them more cynical when it eventually doesn’t work out. And if West by some snowball’s miracle in hell does win, he will either betray his promises or be so hamstrung by the state that he will ultimately be ineffective at executing any significant change. Whether people become more radicalized or reactionary from there is a question. Anything could happen.
There are revolutionary socialist parties in the US that are becoming more and more popular every year. They run electoral campaigns while also introducing their members and volunteers to the mass line work that is actually required for building real political power. I think Lenin’s quote on electoralism applies to them moreso. I’d much rather throw my vote towards the PSL nominee for that same end.
My issue is with the tired liberal tactic of framing left critique of electoral candidates as some “purity test.” It’s disappointing that a self-described communist would even use that term to corral us into allying with bonafide reactionaries and neo-confederates.