Rumblings

In an unexpected twist, Senate Leader Mitch Mc Connel, the very smirking face of cynical capitalist realism, has called for a vote on the GND. His calculation is that the vote forces Democrats to choose between socialism and capitalism. Which could actually be true. And be amazing. At the most Spectacular level, the Repubs have been busy painting the GND as a subversive plot to undermine Free Enterprise ( I only wish) and many centrist Dems are no doubt sensing a trap being laid. Progressive Dems will try to minimize the re-distributive aspects of the resolution and pooh pooh the crazy talk about socialism. Which puts a self-avowed socialist like AOC in a strange position as well.She can't settle for solar powered sweatshops and yet she has to navigate a corrupt system of patronage and power.

So there's a lot of moving parts here but it is as close to a moment of political rupture as we've seen in some time. Young people are pissed and want action. Puts me in a spot as well; could I support an effort to get the resolution passed, with all the electoralism and voting shit it implies? Is it too reformist, putting too much faith in party politics? I kind of feel like old Eugene Debs:

“There was a time in my life, before I became a Socialist, when I permitted myself as a member of the Democratic party to be elected to a state legislature,” he later said. “I have been trying to live it down. I am as much ashamed of that as I am proud of having gone to jail.”

On the one hand, if all the Dems just called Mitch's bluff and said yeah, we want to re-structure the economy and finance it with the wealth of the plutocrats, well, I just gotta join the Party. If every kid in America went on strike and shamed their parents into going on strike and the GND just kept getting more and more radical, I would have no choice. However, if they win the vote by making it sound like a capitalist stimulus plan and then start squashing the more progressive elements, we are back to square one.

We have to wait to see how this plays out. Much depends on what kind of tactics and messaging Sunrise goes with in this decisive moment. If they go conciliatory and start talking about markets and incentives and investment bullshit, they lose that important, militant energy from the Left. And if they lose the Senate vote as well, they are toast. If they stick to the science and the imperative of structural change they could still lose the vote but battle lines will have been drawn; as stark as they have ever been. The legislative process will be de-legitimated and the grassroots energized. Then we have a real fight. AOC can call for worker ownership of the means of production. Bernie can call for a general strike.