Although I will concede that Lenin was referring to a communist party, and Biden is very, very, very far from that, however I don’t think that we need to completely reject electoralism. If I’m misunderstanding Lenin then please correct me, but it seems to me that electoralism is not at all incompatible with pursuing communism.
neither Biden nor Bernie would care to fix things, instead, we’re forced to utilize violent revolution. And it’s well past time for us to acknowledge that.
I actually agree. Voting is not a method to enact change. Voting will not end capitalism. Voting doesn’t do very much at all. But fascists vote. And if only fascists vote, then that would be a problem. That said, feel free not to vote. I won’t judge you.
I wrote up a whole long thing, then clicked off the window and everything I wrote was gone. And I don’t really wanna put in as much effort the second time around. But, I guess I have to at least try to make the same point again.
Some of Lenin’s writings only really translate 1:1 to the situation of Russia in the early 1900s, the bits about voting don’t really translate - or “remould” if you would - well to the American situation today. His writings on it could translate, if we lived in a system that provided us with an inkling of real democracy on the office of the president. But, unfortunately, we live in a system that “bread and circuses” us on the election and only really gives a vote to the American-bourgeois class of the Electoral College. The proletariat is entirely isolated from democracy on that level, which makes the concept of reducing harm via democracy a bit of a galaxy brained approach to the whole affair.
Getting into politics is, of course, important. But, unfortunately, we could spend all of our time backing a candidate. We could hand out flyers, we could invest in the candidate directly. And none of it would matter if the Electoral College didn’t like them. So, instead, it’s much wiser to take your “harm mitigation” to grassroots activism. Join a soup kitchen, start a book club, run a charity, join your closest leftwing party. Expecting the state to do a tenth of what you’re capable of is delusional, you have the power and ability to actually help people - something the state will continue to refuse to do until we tear it down.
The Social-Democrat’s political paralyzation, their “wait until the cows come home” attitude with electoralism, is a poison that too often drips into radical movements. And that shit needs to be destroyed before it kills the momentum of the movement. Why do you think black people in the US still aren’t treated as equals? the easy answer: because every time a movement is built for their benefit, socdem step in and start saying shit like “yes, use that energy at the polls” and dismantle momentum. Electoralism is a liberal lie, and as I said, reject it.
I do worry that I might be applying Lenin’s writing where it’s not necessarily applicable. Lenin was, of course, writing about getting communists into Constituent Assembly, and here I am talking about getting some goddamn conservative into the White House because he’s less of a fascist than the one we’ve got right now…
The fact of the matter is that on January 20th, either Joe Biden or Donald Trump will be president. It’s an Alien vs Predator election. No matter who wins, we lose. That said, we still get to decide who it is we lose to. Basically I just don’t want us to cede electoralism to fascists. Anyway I’ve said my piece so I’ll let it go but maybe I’ll make a post over on /c/leftistinfighting later if I feel like picking this up again.
voting is lit https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/ch07.htm
Although I will concede that Lenin was referring to a communist party, and Biden is very, very, very far from that, however I don’t think that we need to completely reject electoralism. If I’m misunderstanding Lenin then please correct me, but it seems to me that electoralism is not at all incompatible with pursuing communism.
I actually agree. Voting is not a method to enact change. Voting will not end capitalism. Voting doesn’t do very much at all. But fascists vote. And if only fascists vote, then that would be a problem. That said, feel free not to vote. I won’t judge you.
I wrote up a whole long thing, then clicked off the window and everything I wrote was gone. And I don’t really wanna put in as much effort the second time around. But, I guess I have to at least try to make the same point again.
Some of Lenin’s writings only really translate 1:1 to the situation of Russia in the early 1900s, the bits about voting don’t really translate - or “remould” if you would - well to the American situation today. His writings on it could translate, if we lived in a system that provided us with an inkling of real democracy on the office of the president. But, unfortunately, we live in a system that “bread and circuses” us on the election and only really gives a vote to the American-bourgeois class of the Electoral College. The proletariat is entirely isolated from democracy on that level, which makes the concept of reducing harm via democracy a bit of a galaxy brained approach to the whole affair.
Getting into politics is, of course, important. But, unfortunately, we could spend all of our time backing a candidate. We could hand out flyers, we could invest in the candidate directly. And none of it would matter if the Electoral College didn’t like them. So, instead, it’s much wiser to take your “harm mitigation” to grassroots activism. Join a soup kitchen, start a book club, run a charity, join your closest leftwing party. Expecting the state to do a tenth of what you’re capable of is delusional, you have the power and ability to actually help people - something the state will continue to refuse to do until we tear it down.
The Social-Democrat’s political paralyzation, their “wait until the cows come home” attitude with electoralism, is a poison that too often drips into radical movements. And that shit needs to be destroyed before it kills the momentum of the movement. Why do you think black people in the US still aren’t treated as equals? the easy answer: because every time a movement is built for their benefit, socdem step in and start saying shit like “yes, use that energy at the polls” and dismantle momentum. Electoralism is a liberal lie, and as I said, reject it.
I do worry that I might be applying Lenin’s writing where it’s not necessarily applicable. Lenin was, of course, writing about getting communists into Constituent Assembly, and here I am talking about getting some goddamn conservative into the White House because he’s less of a fascist than the one we’ve got right now…
The fact of the matter is that on January 20th, either Joe Biden or Donald Trump will be president. It’s an Alien vs Predator election. No matter who wins, we lose. That said, we still get to decide who it is we lose to. Basically I just don’t want us to cede electoralism to fascists. Anyway I’ve said my piece so I’ll let it go but maybe I’ll make a post over on /c/leftistinfighting later if I feel like picking this up again.