How will the left do under a Biden administration? A thread.

The last election was, more than any other, a referendum, albeit incomplete, on socialism in the US. 1/x

The reason for this, of course, is Bernie Sanders. No one has managed to put forth such a serious challenge to the Democratic primary running as an openly socialist candidate in the last hundred years.

Bernie’s run in 2016 shocked the Dem establishment, and his nomination was barely avoided by the dirty tricks of the DNC (such as the throwing out of ballots in NY)

Bernie showed that pro-working class policies have incredibly broad appeal, and he became the most trusted politician in the US by calling for a $15 minimum wage (now a bit outdated), health care for all #M4A, and free college.

The reason this referendum on socialism was incomplete, of course, was continued DNC dirty tricks, including by Obama, who used his personal clout to unite a group of weak primary challengers around a weak establishment candidate, which with the help of poll closures

and other vote suppression, coupled with wall-to-wall negative media coverage, denied Bernie the nomination. With this action, Bernie, who represented socialism, though his suggested reforms are more like FDR-style social democracy, would no longer be available to vote on

in the general election.
Socialism represents the hope of a better life, the dream that society could be organized around the greater good, rather than around profits that go only into a few hands.

That dream will not go away because Biden was elected. Millions of people lack access to healthcare, killing tens of thousands of people a year, even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Millions are unemployed, and many more have dropped out of the labor market, making the

horrible unemployment numbers understate how bad the employment situation is. Americans are heavily indebted and millions are at immediate risk of eviction.

The recent spate of video footage of police killing black men has drawn thousands of protests involving millions of people, which has been brutally suppressed by police and armed militias, but the BLM movement has been a massive success at drawing attention to the problem of

racist police violence, and making the connection with the structural racism of policing. The radical phrase “defund the police” has gone from a fringe position to perhaps only a bit ahead of a mainstream position;

a very similar movement occurred with the idea that African Americans should have full civil rights, which was also a fringe position in its day.

Liberals would like to return to their brunches untroubled by these & other issues. Perhaps for the top 10%, who essentially live a different existence than the bottom 90%, such a return to ignoring politics is possible. But for everyone else, these issues will not simply go away

Thus I expect to see continued organizational development, continued protests (my hope is that racist violence is increasingly understood to be tied to the overarching system of capitalist exploitation), and

continued radicalization of those who realize that we live in an authoritarian society in all the ways that matter.

As Marx wrote, Capitalism produces its own gravediggers. Capitalism deserves credit for sweeping away the brutality of feudal serfdom, but it is time we recognize that we can and must do better.

We must create a society where no one is left to starve, no one goes without housing, where healthcare and education are seen as basic human rights, not privileges reserved for the lucky few.

We must embrace planning on a global level, moving us toward environmental sustainability and away from our current path of ecocidal, imperialist warfare. I believe not only that we can do this, but we must.

@profwolff you might enjoy this thread