Society is polarized between a handful of billionaire hoarders who profit from war, poverty and environmental destruction while the rest of us struggle with high housing costs, limited health coverage, and deep despair as the world goes further into crisis. Whichever candidate wins the election, billionaires will be determining the policy of the incoming president unless we build a strong movement to defeat them.

The capitalist system that created this mess is upheld by both political parties, and the blind pursuit of astronomical profits by big corporations at the expense of everything and everyone is driving the world further towards catastrophe. Politicians are in the back pocket of big business lobbyists while the super-rich bust unions, accelerate climate change, and collude to raise our rents. Meanwhile, the genocidal war in Gaza rages on with support from both Democrats and Republicans.

In a warped way, the polarized elections reflect divisions in society, but both candidates are backed by wings of the capitalist class. Still, millions of people are correctly deeply afraid of what a second Trump administration would mean for themselves, loved ones, and the planet. 

At the same time, millions of other people will be voting for Trump, wrongly thinking he represents a challenge to the establishment, and thousands of right-wing thugs are hoping to have someone in the White House (again) who will openly back up their racist and sexist hate mongering.

System In Decay

The two main options in front of us represent a capitalist class with no plan to solve the basic issues working people face. Trump has full control over the Republican Party despite the objections of the ruling class’s most trusted right-wing strategists. For instance, former Republican Vice President and sociopathic warmonger Dick Cheney has endorsed Kamala Harris. 

Still, Trump’s strongman brand of authoritarian “America first” policies have support from billionaires like Elon Musk and key players on Wall Street. The super rich want us to think they got their wealth from being smarter than the rest of us, but they are people devoid of ideas beyond short-term greed and lust for power.

Harris is replacing Biden, whose incoherent rambles were the best that U.S. capitalism’s “sane” party had to offer a few months ago. When bumbling Biden finally stepped aside, the ruling class’ strategists in the Democrats scrambled to make sure there was no contested race for the nomination. This shows the lack of confidence that the ruling class has in their own ideas and representatives. 

The world is a mess, and they know it, but they don’t agree on what to do. The old order of unquestioned U.S. corporate domination on a world scale is over, replaced by war, big power rivalries, and global instability.

Still, many young people and workers are relieved that we’re no longer facing a certain Trump landslide victory which appeared to be the main possibility when Biden was running. This is understandable because a second Trump term would be a real threat to workers and oppressed people and an attempt to further institute authoritarianism as a response to the system’s crisis. 

A second Trump administration wouldn’t be the circus of competing interests like the first one; it would be a reactionary machine of dangerous legislation and executive orders outlined in authoritarian manifestos like Project 2025.

Defending Migrants, Women & Trans People

Trump has promised widespread deportation of migrant workers with his VP pick Vance saying a million deportations would be a “good start.” Even if mass deportations are too expensive and not viable, Trump’s racist rhetoric, like absurdly claiming Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH are eating people’s pets, can and will whip up right-wing violence.

The labor movement needs to clearly oppose Trump’s divide-and-rule with tactics like the 2006 “Day Without an Immigrant” general strike that blocked anti-immigrant legislation, not try to pander to right-populism like Teamster President Sean O’Brien did at the RNC.

Harris has repeatedly failed to counter such virulently anti-immigrant claims, instead opting to flex the “tough on the border” policy that the Biden administration has carried out, including even more deportations than under Trump’s presidency. This is in line with the general policy of the Democratic Party. Obama even carried out raids that specifically targeted unionizing workplaces.

Another Democrat-led White House would still deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants and hold the threat of deportation over people’s heads to weaken the unions. Meanwhile, corporations will use migrant workers’ fear of being separated from their families to drive down wages.

Trump now flip-flops on abortion rights, but he picked the judges who led the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The Democrats refused to mobilize protests for women’s rights at this crucial moment, instead cynically raising money for their own campaigns. Despite countless blown opportunities for the Democrats to pass federal legislation to protect the right to abortion, Harris says they’ll finally do it once she’s president—this is a cynical ploy because she knows there’s no chance the Democrats will control Congress!

The Democrats didn’t codify Roe v. Wade in the 49 years leading up to the overturn of Roe, and now like usual they dangle people’s rights in exchange for votes. We can’t depend on the halls of power to win back and protect reproductive rights, but rather the strength, mobilization, and organization of working people.

Trump wants to pass legislation to “define transgender out of existence”, and he wants all discrimination against LBGTQ people to be made legal. This is a truly horrific prospect and would embolden right-wing violent thugs. Voting won’t be enough to stop the attacks on trans people—we need an organized movement to fight back. 

We need to remember that the far right grew under a Biden presidency, with Trumpism getting a more firm grip on the Republican Party. We need a strong left and labor movement, not establishment Democrats, to beat back the right-wing threat.

Resisting Trump’s Authoritarian Threat

If Trump loses the election, he’ll try to steal it again. Even though revolutionary socialists don’t support Kamala Harris, we would be shoulder-to-shoulder with everyone mobilizing to stop Trump from thieving his way into the White House. Rather than sitting back and relying on the cops or the courts to stop Trump from stealing the election, we should mobilize mass protests, strikes, student occupations, and direct action to disrupt “business as usual.”

While socialists fight for democratic rights, we don’t depend on billionaires, their politicians, or their institutions to defend us. We also need to tell the truth about what Harris and the Democrats represent. Internationally, the Democrats are even more pro-war than the erratic MAGA wing of the Republicans. US military might is a huge threat to working people internationally, and it’s one reason why Marxists never offer political support to the Democratic Party.

Terrain For Struggle After The Election

A Trump victory would demoralize millions, and while it could result in explosive movements against his worst policies, the Democrats would pose as a “resistance” opposition without mobilizing the mass movement needed to beat the right wing. The illusions this would sow in the Democratic Party would be a brake on the development of independent left politics.

The Democrats in the White House, after a brief honeymoon, will oversee a system in chaos and crisis, giving room for the far right to develop even more, but also providing an opening for a new wave of left opposition to both parties. This is a more favorable scenario for revolutionary ideas in the medium term, as it would cause an amount of disorientation among the far right, and expose the bankruptcy of the Democrats as they fail to deliver for working people.

However, this doesn’t mean socialists should support Harris or other Democrats as a lesser evil. Without a new party for workers, young people, and the oppressed, we will be stuck in an ongoing cycle of war, poverty, and environmental destruction. Trump losing at the ballot box won’t make his ideas go away, and we need to lay the basis now for the mass movements and independent party necessary to fight for a better future.

Socialist Alternative calls for a vote for antiwar, pro-worker Jill Stein for President as the strongest independent left candidate. This makes our opposition to lesser evilism concrete and specific. It doesn’t mean though that we think there isn’t a difference between the two parties, and the terrain for struggle can change based on who’s elected.

Whoever takes the White House, the far right can grow and be emboldened; this is an international phenomenon. We need to learn from events around the world—mainstream parties don’t stop the growth of the far right. In France, right populists were kept out of power because the left-wing parties grew in support. In Britain, after racist right-wing riots, it was mass mobilization by the left and labor movement that pushed them back, not corporate politicians. 

We need a new left party and powerful working-class movement to defeat Trumpism and challenge the capitalist system that gives birth to these reactionary monsters.

Come January 2025, working people will still face a volatile economy, and we need to deepen the labor upsurge with more strikes, organizing drives, transforming the unions, and political independence. We need a workers’ movement that fights for a new society based on cooperation and solidarity, not exploitation and oppression.

Fight For a Future Worth Living

Most people in the US unfortunately think presidential elections are the height of politics, and there will be a push for us to return to “business as usual” after votes are cast. We can’t accept this logic because the billionaires use their parties, courts, cops, media, and control over ideas to assert the logic of this system.

The trend line is clear—capitalism is headed toward more war and destruction. The threat of “Trumpism” will continue no matter who wins the elections, and we need to organize against both the far-right threat and all the injustices of capitalism in the here and now.

To stop right-wing attempts to scapegoat oppressed people, we need to go beyond sporadic waves of big protests. We need to build new fighting organizations with democratic structures independent of both capitalist parties. Protests should build up to escalating actions that can disrupt the billionaires’ profits. We need occupations, strikes, student walkouts, and mass direct action. This should all be coordinated and organized, which will require thousands of people to step up into action.

This could lay the basis for the type of new party we need, which could be in a stronger position to get far more than just one percent of the vote for independent left candidates. This could really change the framework of political discussion and debate in the US. The left can also make breakthroughs electorally in advance of explosive movements, and this has happened before. We need a sense of urgency to build strong independent left politics, connected to demands that benefit working class people.

Socialist Alternative fights for a broad new party of working people. Movements to improve our lives will come up against resistance from the billionaire class and both parties they control—but without an independent political expression, our movements are fighting with one hand behind their back.

A new party will involve people with many different ideas for how to take the movement forward, and Socialist Alternative is prepared to work alongside everyone on the left and in the unions who want a new party of the working class. At the same time, we also see the need for Marxists to get organized around our specific ideas within the wider movement. 

Any gain that can be made under capitalism will be under threat of being overturned as we saw with abortion rights. To make the victories of our movement permanent, we need to overthrow this rotten system here and internationally. This will require a determined struggle, clear ideas, mass democratic participation, and revolution that can lay the basis for a new society.

Socialists don’t merely sit back and wait for events while commenting from the sidelines. We get involved in struggles with ideas that can provide leadership. If Trump tries to steal the election, Marxists should be at the forefront of calling for a mass movement that can disrupt business as usual. No matter who gets into the White House, we’ll be organizing for a new party that can confront the horrors of capitalism. Join us!