Young Folks Are Losing Faith In The Democratic Party As A Vehicle To Solve Their Legitimate Concerns

Biden Has To Choose Between AIPAC And Millions Of Angry Voters

Yesterday, I attached a brilliant Jonathan Pie analysis video to a post about the state of British politics but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that much of what Pie had to say was as relevant to U.S. politics as it was to U.K. politics. You can watch it at the link above. But let me just excerpt a couple of quotes. He asked “How did we end up with Brexit.” Here that question would be “How did we end up with Trump?” Gesturing towards Westminster, he said “Simple answer: they broke the contact… It’s your marginal ‘Leave’ voter that explains everything… These are the people that saw their prospects go down the shitter, who lost their job stability, who had too move house because of the bedroom tax, who suddenly saw no prospect of their kids going to university, who had their disability benefits denied by some corporate box-ticking twat. We are in this mess because they broke the contract, the contract between a citizen and his government. A government’s basic job is to extort money from the working people in the form of taxes— and we’re fine with that so long as the government redistributes that money wisely and fairly. Austerity broke the contract. When you make a conscious choice not to invest in education and at the same time massively rack up the private cost of further education, you break the contract. When you out-source the distribution of benefits to private companies whose main motivation is profit, you break the contract. When the private sector who deserves help and who doesn’t, the government is essentially saying it can’t do its job. It’s given up on delivering. Housing? Fuck me! The entire U.K. economy is basically a massive laundry for Russian dirty money via the property market, which inflates prices so that most people can barely afford rent, let alone a deposit for a house.”

He wasn’t stopping there: “This would never happen in a country with reasonably functioning institutions with the well-being of its citizens at its heart. These are all massive public policy failures which has led to a breakdown of trust between the electorate and the government. You sprinkle a tiny bit of ‘it’s immigrants’ fault’ and ‘we pay the EU too much, it’s gonna resonate with the have-nots and the struggling. That’s how populism works. It masks political failure by blaming others… We’re amazed when there’s a vote that actually matters and the people vote for ‘fuck you and your bullshit, I have together my groceries from a food bank.’They wanted to send a message. They did not want the status quo. And that’s how you get Brexit.” And how we got Trump. And that’s how the people in Buffalo are going to wind up with a shitty conservative Democrat to represent them, Tim Kennedy… instead of Nate McMurray, someone who could actually make their lives better— and who is being railroaded by Democratic Party bosses and their corrupt machine.

And that’s how we could wind up with 173 Democrats joining 193 Republicans to pass a bill to fund Israel’s genocide against Gaza. Just 37 Democrats said ‘no’ to genocide. GENOCIDE! Just 37. The rest were fine making themselves complicit in genocide. Before the vote yesterday, Oren Schweitzer wrote at Jacobin that millions of Americans are outraged over Gaza but that our political elites are deaf to the anger. “From street protests to the vote uncommitted movement to Aaron Bushnell’s tragic self-immolation, millions of Americans have been voicing outrage over Israel’s assault on Gaza. Government unresponsiveness threatens to worsen our epidemic of political despair… Our political institutions seem rigidly unresponsive to progressive demands in general, not just disapproval of the war in Gaza. Despite years of protest, there has been no meaningful action on climate change, economic inequality, or mass incarceration. If Democrats continue to dismiss or ignore nonviolent protest as well as attempts to register dissent at the ballot box, would it be a surprise if we see more young people tragically resorting— as Bushnell did— to drastic and violent measures? Deepening feelings of political nihilism are a rational response to depressing political conditions— and also incredibly dangerous. Overcoming them will require a political movement that offers a compelling alternative to the status quo that actually addresses the needs and aspirations of working people, with a plausible path to victory, capable of moving millions more into grassroots activity to challenge corporate power and imperialist foreign policy. This is far easier said than done, though. Right now, despair seems to be winning.”

Through the most acute fissure between the Democratic Party’s base and its elected officials right now is due to Biden’s Israel policy, dissatisfaction with Biden and the Democrats began long before the current war. During the 2020 election, Biden pledged to address the climate crisis, end America’s forever wars, and oppose nativistic anti-immigrant policies. Instead, he has granted new public land and offshore drilling permits, embroiled the United States in another conflict in the Middle East, and pursued Trumpian border crackdowns.

To be sure, Biden’s tenure has not been without achievements: COVID-era welfare expansions, investments in domestic infrastructure, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and a remarkably prolabor National Labor Relations Board. But for millions— particularly young people and Arab and Muslim Americans— these accomplishments pale in comparison to his failures, especially his support for the obscene war in Gaza.

Young people’s disillusionment with the Democratic Party did not begin with Biden. The recent defections represent the acceleration of a trend dating back to Barack Obama’s presidency. Despite a powerful mandate for change in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Obama mostly delivered more of the same.

…Vast majorities support ideas like Medicare for All, taxing the very wealthy, and a cease-fire in Gaza. But few people believe our government will actually deliver on those kinds of policies. Even though 61 percent of Americans believe that there is too much economic inequality, 81 percent predict that by 2050, “the gap between the rich and poor will grow.”

These are the sentiments of people with little hope that the future will get better or that their own opinions make a difference.

Even Democratic Party politicians, who claim to be the last line of defense against attacks on US democracy, seem eager to justify popular disempowerment. On ABC in early March, discussing public support for a cease-fire in Gaza, Democratic senator Chris Murphy said he hoped Biden “doesn’t make decisions about what to do in Gaza or the Middle East based upon how the votes line up… These issues are too important to be dictated by the polls.” That a sitting senator can confidently reject the idea that public opinion should guide state policy, apparently without political repercussions, is a testament to how little power American voters have.

Without a break in this impasse, there’s no reason to think that political exhaustion and despair won’t also continue to spread. The authoritarian far right on the march, working people increasingly abstaining from political participation, Aaron Bushnell’s tragic self-immolation— these are all morbid symptoms. More are likely to come.

…Young people, and those who care about stopping war and climate catastrophe, are not irrational for wanting better options. The campaigns around the country to vote uncommitted in the Democratic primary are a relatively polite expression of this desire; Bushnell’s was literally incendiary. If the polite expressions continue to be dismissed or ignored, shouldn’t we expect more fires?