{"id":1251,"date":"2020-08-16T10:42:48","date_gmt":"2020-08-16T15:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=1251"},"modified":"2020-08-20T09:36:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T14:36:30","slug":"lesser-evil-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2020\/08\/lesser-evil-trap\/","title":{"rendered":"The lesser-evil trap"},"content":{"rendered":"

D<\/span>onald Trump\u2019s administration is in crisis. His catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic, the global recession, and the Black-led multiracial working class uprising against police brutality and racism have turned popular opinion against him<\/a>. Joe Biden appears headed for victory in the presidential election, and the Democrats may retake the Senate.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the Democratic establishment is haunted by the defeat of their last \u201csure-win\u201d candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton. They are pulling out all the stops to pressure former Sanders supporters and others on the left to campaign for a candidate they rightly despise.<\/p>\n

Socialists must resist the pressure to campaign for the \u201clesser evil\u201d to stop the \u201cgreater evil.\u201d This strategy has always led the left to surrender our movements and demands, enabling \u201clesser evils\u201d to cut deals with the \u201cgreater evils,\u201d and strengthen the far right who will appear as the only opposition.<\/p>\n

We need to preserve our political independence and build our movements. The Black Lives Matter uprising scored more victories in a few weeks than decades of voting for the lesser evil. Such mass struggles remain the motor force for social change and popular radicalism as well as the basis for building socialist organization.<\/p>\n

Bourgeoisie for Biden<\/h3>\n

The ruling class, which never fully supported Trump, is now deserting him. Whole sections of the bipartisan political establishment, the state bureaucracy, and capitalist class have switched their allegiance to Biden. They hope he and the Democrats will restore social peace at home and salvage Washington\u2019s dominance abroad.<\/p>\n

A growing layer of Republican centrists<\/a>, like Mitt Romney and turncoats from Trump\u2019s regime like former Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci, are backing Biden. Even the dark prince of the neocons, John Bolton, has promised to write in another Republican rather than vote for his former boss. He follows a long list of former \u201cTrump Generals\u201d <\/a>who have since deserted the president and are increasingly vocal in their opposition.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders at the Democratic Primary debates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rich, too, are leaning toward Biden. As one banker told Vanity Fair<\/em><\/a>, \u201cThe majority of my friends on Wall Street would like to see Trump lose to Biden. They\u2019re saying, \u2018We\u2019d like to see Biden crush Trump.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

So it should come as no surprise that at last count, Biden leads Trump in the race for billionaire donors by 106 to 93<\/a>, and he has taken the lead in overall fundraising<\/a>. With such ruling class support, Biden has surged to a double digit advantage in national polls<\/a> and leads in key battleground states that tipped the electoral college for Trump in 2016.<\/p>\n

Buyer Beware! The Lesser Evil is Evil!<\/h3>\n

There is no question that Trump is evil. His administration delivered tax cuts and deregulation for capital, set off a new cold war with China, staged conflicts with Iran and North Korea, doomed tens of thousands of people to unnecessary death by mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic, and whipped up racism, Islamophobia and immigrant bashing. Now, as his administration enters its apparent death throes, Trump has reached new extremes of racist demagogy not seen since George Wallace or Richard Nixon.<\/p>\n