New Common Sense Left

As the Bernie/ Biden agenda gradually fizzles into a predictable pile of shit, you will find little honest reflection or re-evaluation from the Jacobin/ DSA crowd. Clinging ever so pathetically to their electoralism, they talk about other things, avert their gaze, and sing to themselves. Bernie makes a ridiculous pitch to the people of W. Virginia, hoping to pressure Coal Joe Manchin. The same Bernie that assured a whole generation that capitalist "democracy" could be reformed, made kinder and gentler and greener. Now he is reduced to this obscene spectacle of horse trading, of pitching acceptable numbers, of making deals with morons. A review at Jacobin of Astra Taylor's new book on Occupy makes the point clearly: " out of her experiences at Occupy, Taylor recognized a possibility to organize people around indebtedness." But of course it is precisely "indebtedness" that Joe Manchin uses as a populist cudgel against climate investment. And the system is perfectly happy to extend credit to individuals, which is why every yokel in rural America is driving a brand new giant pick up truck and Jeff Bezos is a trillionaire. "A political ethos that previously rejected electoralism and the state now contends for power within it." This is supposedly a "left reborn" post-Occupy, a left that threw itself into Bernie and AOC, Black Lives Matter, Sunrise and Justice Democrats. But it is an urban, left coast view that is totally out of touch with much of the country. If a vote in the legislature is "power", what do they call the ability to shut down supply chains? Like the capitalists are doing at the current conjuncture in order to crush Biden. While the author of the review admits to being in a " post–Bernie Sanders moment when the Left is less united and suffering from a crisis of political direction" and admires Taylor's "humility" when she admits "“when it comes to changing the world, no one really knows what will work.”, he nevertheless dismisses "an activism that relishes marginalization". But then contradicts himself yet again by ending with this: "A younger generation, leading climate strikes and rallies, understands the urgent need for radical transformation and a confrontational approach". All in all, this piece characterizes the confused ideology of a left that wants more than anything to be relevant but can't make the tough choices.