{"id":2139,"date":"2020-12-04T11:25:06","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T15:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=2139"},"modified":"2020-12-11T11:26:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T15:26:11","slug":"is-socialism-winning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2020\/12\/is-socialism-winning\/","title":{"rendered":"Is socialism winning?"},"content":{"rendered":"

S<\/span>ome socialists have recently claimed that our movement is winning. In a post-election newsletter<\/a>, the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America commented, \u201cAlthough establishment Democrats belittle our movement for socialism, we know that the vision we have for this world is popular. WE ARE WINNING!\u201d An article in Jacobin<\/em> put out a similar message: \u201cThere Was Actually a Lot of Good News for the Left on Election Day<\/a>.\u201d This analysis highlights that 20 out of 29 DSA-endorsed candidates were elected and that 8 out of 11 DSA-backed ballot measures passed, including propositions on the minimum wage, child care, and rent control.<\/p>\n

For the first post-election national DSA webinar, \u201cSocialism is winning,<\/a>\u201d victorious DSA candidates spoke about the opportunities ahead for the Left, suggesting that electing socialists into office moves us closer to winning reforms. Jabari Brisport, who won his race for New York state senate, said:<\/p>\n

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…across the country, we\u2019re winning these elections. We win ballot measures. We change the conversation. We shift the Overton window. We make our enemies afraid of us because they know we\u2019re going to shift power away from the corporate elites into working class people, into marginalized communities, and give them agency for the first time in our nation\u2019s history. I know that when we win, we can indeed win a Green New Deal. We can indeed defund the police. We can get a homes guarantee. We can get health care for all. We can eliminate student debt.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

However, a broader assessment of the political landscape shows that the socialist Left is in a weaker position after this election cycle.<\/p>\n

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Successful ballot measures endorsed by DSA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Is socialism winning?<\/h4>\n

At the beginning of the election cycle, socialists had high hopes for shifting national politics to the left chiefly through the Bernie Sanders campaign. Once Sanders conceded to Joe Biden, DSA shifted the conversation to how to defeat Donald Trump. Though the organization never formally endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket, leading members advocated<\/a> for supporting Biden, as did a broad array <\/a>of figures on the U.S. Left.<\/p>\n

In the course of supporting Biden, Sanders and others had to compromise on key demands including Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Expectations had to be lowered in order to accept Biden\u2019s uninspiring neoliberal centrism. Criticism of Biden had to be submerged, including the fact that he faces credible sexual assault<\/a> allegations.<\/a><\/p>\n

Biden will not deliver any of the things that people fought for in the Sanders campaign. In fact, Biden positioned himself in opposition to Sanders\u2019 politics, bragging<\/a> after his nomination, \u201cI beat the socialist.\u201d He campaigned on \u201claw and order\u201d in opposition to the anti-racist uprising this summer. And he responded<\/a> to October protests in Philadelphia over the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr. with \u201cThere is no excuse whatsoever for the looting and the violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s transition team<\/a> is shaping up to be a centrist dream team, packed with lobbyists, tech executives, and former Obama administration officials. So far, neither Sanders nor Warren have been offered a place in the new administration. Biden recently nominated Neera Tanden as budget director. This puts Senator Sanders in the uncomfortable position of overseeing the appointment of a person who a former campaign aide called<\/a> \u201cthe single biggest, most aggressive Bernie Sanders critic in the United States of America.\u201d The Sanders wing is not on the brink of taking over the Democratic Party. Rather, the neoliberal wing appears to have strengthened its hold.<\/p>\n

Despite the realities of a potential Biden-Harris administration, parts of the Left insisted on a vote for Biden on the basis that Trump could carry out a coup\u2014but the Right has not been defeated. Though Trump lost the election, he received 10 million more votes than he did in 2016. He is already raising the prospect<\/a> of a 2024 presidential run. On November 14, thousands of his supporters including members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers marched<\/a> through Washington, D.C., in a \u201cStop the Steal\u201d demonstration. Though Trump lost the election, his base has been strengthened over the course of it. To say now that the Left is winning downplays\u2014perhaps unintentionally\u2014the growing relevance and threat of the Right.<\/p>\n

What does it mean to win?<\/h4>\n

The idea that the 2020 election marked a victory for the socialist Left flows from an electoralist perspective that equates winning elections with \u201cbuilding power\u201d and that uses electoral victories as a gauge of strength. DSA-endorsed candidates contested 29 out of more than 595 federal, state, and municipal races. The post-election DSA newsletter points to the 73 percent win rate of DSA-endorsed candidates and ballot measures to support the idea that socialism is winning.<\/p>\n

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Socialists recently elected to office.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the DSA post-election webinar, National Political Committee members laid out why they think the socialist Left is in a stronger position. Hannah Allison declared, \u201cWe are winning this fight to transform our world.\u201d Allison then went through all of the electoral victories to conclude:<\/p>\n

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…We are celebrating, like many of you, the big, broad, multiracial coalition, all the amazing community organizations, unions, and national organizations that kicked Trump out of office. And there\u2019s so much more we\u2019re going to fight together to win. We\u2019re going to keep fighting… and to keep building socialist power at the ballot box.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another National Political Committee member, Kristian Hernandez, highlighted that candidates who supported Medicare for All won their races and asserted that \u201cDSA is winning\u201d because of the win rate of endorsed candidates and ballot measures. She explained:<\/p>\n

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While we have establishment Democrats out here trying to undermine what we accomplished together, we know that the vision we have for this world is popular. We know it was millions of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and working class people and our movements that kicked Trump out of office.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This echoes organizations like Justice Democrats that responded to centrists\u2019 attacks on the Left by telling<\/a> them:<\/p>\n

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Scapegoating progressives and Black activists for their demands and messaging is not the lesson to be learned here. It was their organizing efforts, energy and calls for change needed in their communities that drove up voter turnout.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

How do we tell if we are winning?<\/h4>\n

The historic turnout of millions of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, working class people to vote for Biden is taken as a sign of the Left\u2019s strength. But the fact that the Democratic Party mobilized its base with help from nongovernmental organizations, community groups, and unions is not a new phenomenon and does not in and of itself reflect social movement strength. Even if it did, the conclusion that we are in a stronger spot when Biden barely managed to beat Trump does not follow.<\/p>\n

Electoral victories are not a sufficient way to gauge whether the balance of forces is shifting. Socialists winning down-ballot elections certainly points to the possibilities of the moment. But we have not yet grappled with some of the limitations of these gains, namely how little winning an election actually guarantees. Reforms are won based on the balance of class forces\u2014when the working class creates a situation where the political price would be too high to not<\/em> implement a reform. The victory of a candidate who supports Medicare for All does not necessarily tell us if we are any closer to winning Medicare for All. Though progressive ballot measures passed in some places, popular policies were rolled back<\/a> by referendum in California.<\/p>\n