For those who tuned into the Democratic National Convention coverage last month, the speeches from life-long Democratic Party politicians were the expected empty platitudes and full-chested endorsement of Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nominee. But hearing Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez give the same unconditional support to Harris’ pro-imperialist, pro-Wall Street, pro-fossil fuel agenda was a sharp disappointment. Just a few years ago millions were inspired by Sanders’ call for a political revolution against the billionaires, and AOC was saying that in another country she and Joe Biden would not be in the same party. These were self-described socialists building a platform around taking on the billionaire class in a post Occupy Wall Street landscape. The Squad was a growing group in Congress of similarly progressive candidates. Now, kissing the foot that kicked them and letting working people take the rest of the pummeling, they thanked President Biden, VP Harris, and the Democratic congress, all the while dredging up some old parts of their populist program like the Green New Deal which were defeated by the Democrats.
AOC even called Trump a “two-bit union buster,” an audacious remark from someone instrumental in the Squad’s biggest betrayal of working people yet: when they voted to break up the United Rail Workers strike in 2022 while the right wing Freedom Caucus gave their public support to the union. Their betrayal allowed the Freedom Caucus to mascarade unchallenged as the stronger ally of working people, when they are nothing of the sort.
The Democrats: Who Do They Really Stand For?
Instead of pulling Biden and the Democrats towards Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and a $15/hr federal raise in minimum wage—Sanders and the Squad, in trying to reform the Democratic party from within, have been pulled to the center, and are effectively isolated on any position they hold which goes against the grain of the party. Now they are making promises they can’t keep—In her speech at the DNC, AOC assured voters that Harris would be “determined to get a ceasefire.”
The same politicians, donors, and Super PACs who are supporting Harris have relentlessly attacked Bernie and The Squad. To be sure, Harris has regularly met with AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) over the years, and throughout her political career has received $5.4 million in donations from pro-Israel lobbying groups. She has publicly denounced the protests against Netanyahu’s DC visit.
Meanwhile, AIPAC has been ruthlessly pumping millions to unseat marginally progressive candidates who speak out on the horrors in Gaza: AIPAC spent $15 million on attack ads against Jamaal Bowman, who early on in his term voted in favor of the Iron Dome, and $8 million to unseat Cori Bush. In 2022 they ousted Andy Levin, a Jewish congressman and a self-proclaimed Zionist who voiced opposition to continued violence against palestinians. The Party explicitly barred Palestinian-Americans a speaking slot at the DNC.
What Happened to the “Dirty Break”?
The Dirty break strategy, popularized by the DSA is the idea that we can use the Democratic party as a strategic “in,” and make our exit at some undetermined point. But currently, the Squad in Congress is being whittled down to size, and most of those still in prominent positions have shown they are content to swim with the stream of the establishment and be progressive “window dressing” for the party. It is notable that Muslim Rep. Ilhan Omar, the lone Squad member that has put up more of a fight, was threatened with a proposed censure in May of this year for her vocal opposition to the genocidal war in Gaza.
The message is clear—submit to the yolk of the party, or you will be dismissed from your so-called public servitude. Bowman and others were not ousted because AIPAC represented a unique and separate evil. The will of AIPAC, super PACS, corporations, and capitalism as a whole finds direct expression through the Democratic party machine.
It is because the Democratic party is tied with a thousand threads to corporations that it is not an avenue for us to fight for demands that working class people need. The “Dirty Break” has never opened the door further to independent politics, nor been a loud enough bullhorn for working class movements. In many cases, when these campaigns do not base themselves in movements, they cannot adequately challenge the resources of more establishment politicians and campaigns.
Why it Matters
Many of those who saw the Squad and Sanders as the path forward to challenge the Democratic Party leadership now see them as an ineffective opposition. The betrayal of Bernie and the Squad is not because of ill intent, but the result of trying to tie our movements to the Democratic Party. Sanders was an independent congressman with a history of protesting the war in Vietnam, and AOC was a fiery waitress from the Bronx who beat out a respected establishment incumbent, Joe Crowley. In 2016 they gave working people hope that politics could fundamentally change and the status quo could be seriously challenged.
What has followed Bernie’s 2020 campaign has been one backward step after another. It is hard to describe just how much of a mistake it was for Bernie to drop out and endorse Biden, when during the height of the George Floyd Movement and the Pandemic there was a clear opening for calling for a new working class party—when there was massive distrust in the political system, in the Democrats. If he had used either presidential campaign to call for an independent, working class political party, millions would have met that call.
Such a party could have been used to organize a fight against attacks from the right and build political support for the social and labor struggles that have burst onto the scene. And then under a Biden presidency, the Squad was unprepared to mount pressure within the party to fight for a federal $15 minimum wage, Medicare-for-All, free public college education, cancellation of student debt, and a Green New Deal. Instead of mobilizing ordinary people to fight for these enormously popular measures, they abandoned their original goals that got them elected and formed an alliance with Biden and Pelosi.
Without a doubt, Sanders and AOC underwent immense pressure from the outset of their political careers—by running in the Democratic Party, these pressures were highly concentrated and inevitable. . If elected representatives are going to truly represent the interests of working class people, they will be under immense pressure from the capitalist-dominated powers that be, on a near constant basis. It is only the active support of ordinary working class people organized in a party independent of big business that would provide support to this challenging task—and that would make the difference between fighting for workers or standing in their way.
We Need Our Own Party
The legacy of the once exciting progressives turned everyday politicians is bitter, but we cannot afford to lose its lessons. The establishment of the Democratic Party has been left unchallenged, and once popular demands like Medicare for All are completely out of the party discourse. The enthusiasm and record-breaking donations raked in by the Harris campaign within its first month have little to do with Harris’ policies, and most to do with the fear and anger at a possible Trump second term. And there is certainly widespread relief that his challenger can form a coherent sentence on a debate stage.
But a Harris victory will not vanquish the threat of Trump and Trumpism, precisely because it will not speak to the needs of all working people. Those that were drawn into Sanders’ left populist program, that were left abandoned, are now shown a direct path toward the rightwing populism of Trump. In 2016, 12% of people who voted for Bernie then went on to vote for Trump in the general election, and another 12% stayed home.
Workers in the US are long overdue for a party of our own. The capitalist billionaire class of the wealthiest, most powerful nation-state in the world has two parties that dominate our political and economic system—our everyday lives. Today, the emergence of left labor leaders like UAW President Shawn Fain who names the bosses as the enemy or the movement to #AbandonBiden because of the genocidal war on Gaza, shows potential for a new path toward that party. But workers need to be ready to mount pressure on labor leaders, and we desperately need to build a fighting organization of our own that can pose a challenge to the dead end of the Democratic Party.