The system isn’t working (for most of us).
Let us list just some of the ways.
We are losing the climate war. In June, heat records were broken around the world as global heating continued to accelerate. Some climate system components may already be reaching their tipping points.
The Russian invasion and partial annexation of Ukraine continues, with massive casualties on both sides, bringing with it the real risk of nuclear confrontation. For more on the Russo-Ukrainian war, see my recent substack post here.
The scandal-ridden US Supreme Court rolls back decades of reproductive and abortion rights, kills affirmative action, legalizes anti-LGBT discrimination, and eviscerates gun control (in a nation where gun violence is the leading cause of death among American children).
The 2023 Social Progress Index finds that only three nations (the US, Brazil, and Hungary) are worse off now than they were in 2011 (when the index began), with the US suffering the largest declines. These include falling behind in Personal Rights, Inclusiveness, Nutrition and Basic Medical Care, Health and Wellness, and Access to Basic Knowledge.
The profoundly undemocratic two-party, winner-take-all electoral system serves to prevent dissident views from being represented within the political discourse. It leaves us with a false choice between the evil of two lessers.
And don’t forget increasing homelessness, decreasing access to health care, increasing income and wealth disparity between the ultra-rich and the rest of us, the apparently unending parade of murders-by-cop, migration, mushrooming student debt, shortages of affordable housing, and rising inequity and inequality.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Americans are pessimistic about their future, Recent polling from the Pew Research Center found that by a majority of 2 to 1 or greater, respondents expect that the economy will be weaker, the gap between rich and poor will grow, and the country will be more politically divided over the next two decades. By a similar margin, they felt that life is worse today than it was fifty years ago. And by an even greater margin, they are dissatisfied with the ways things are going. The pollsters also observed an increase in pessimism compared with a similar poll conducted five years ago.
The far right, including its neo-fascist elements, have been the principal political beneficiary of this pessimistic world view. They capture the widespread anger and individual despair. What they do not represent is the need for a collective and mass-based response from below to create a new society based on solidarity, not private profit.
We on the left need to build a mass movement both to defend our rights and to extend our power. Electoral politics and the Green Party can play an important role in helping to build this new movement. Cornel West’s campaign to seek the Green Party presidential nomination is an encouraging signpost along the road towards merging electoral politics with movement building. He has already stated his intention to take his presidential campaign to “Trump country”.
But what about the so-called “spoiler effect”, some may ask. This is a largely false argument advanced by the Democratic Party and its supporters to stifle those to its left. We hope to discuss this further in our next post. For now, we simply point out that in 2016, about 40% of eligible votes simply did not vote. They rejected the fetid choice between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. We need a real alternative. To echo Nelson Mandela: Vote your hopes and not your fears.
[Adapted from the July newsletter of the Green Party San Diego.]