Biden is the person most likely to get Trump reelected in 2024: Only social movements can stop them both
On Nov 7th, we felt a collective sigh of relief. Trump was gone. Millions even celebrated. Whatever we think of this new administration, we get to see what Biden will do over the next 4 years. Personally, I’m terrified that he’s just going to get Trump reelected in 2024. Here’s why:
If you look at the history of this country and the policies that have come from the Democrats since the 1970s, mainly what we see is legislation that keeps billionaires rich. You can see this in our climate policy, the rise in mass incarceration, our military and police spending. These are multi trillion dollar industries. Meanwhile public services like schools and hospitals and the arts are chronically underfunded.
With lobbying and the amount of corporate money in politics, maybe this is just how the Democrats think they will maintain their power. A lot of our elected officials are even personally invested in these industries or are the billionaires themselves. Whatever the case, the pharmaceutical industry, fossil fuel industry, big agriculture, companies like Amazon, etc. are running the Democratic establishment.
Just last week, Biden hired one of his first senior advisors, Cedric Richmond, who has taken more money from the fossil fuel industry than any of his other Democratic congressional counterparts. Clearly, Biden is continuing on the path of putting corporate interests over that of, well, our entire planet and everyone who lives on it.
And to be clear, both the Democratic establishment and the GOP are serving the class interests of the ultra-rich. The differences between the two are more in their cultures, rhetoric and relationship to explicit racism. There is currently no party that genuinely cares about the quality of life of working class people.
This is really bad for several reasons. There’s the obvious of how depressing it is that the majority of our elected officials don’t actually care about us, but more to the point: Trump is still a huge threat. He has millions of poor and working class white supporters who are pissed off. Confused. Terrified at having their idea of a white America taken away. Furious at the elite establishment for not doing anything to meet their needs pre-Trump. There is a wide range of ideologies and interests in the Trump base. Much of it is seeded in racism, yes. Much of it is also disillusionment with the status quo.
Meanwhile, Biden and his administration are on track to serve us four years of… not that much. As they continue to choose billionaires over the American people, the current conditions won’t really change. Millions of working class people will suffer without healthcare or sufficient stimulus packages. People will be hungry, die from COVID and other much more preventable diseases. The majority of the American public will once again become disillusioned with the status quo leadership. We won’t have a President condoning Nazis, sure, but people’s material conditions won’t improve that much, either.
In the next presidential race Trump will swoop back in with false promises of fast fixes for economic devastation, outsider politics, and an energizing vision of white male supremacy. While Biden won in 2020, it was not nearly as decisive a victory as any of us hoped. The majority of white people voted for Trump. Another wave of neofascism will rise and most likely win.
If the Democrats want to beat Trump in 2024, they actually have to reject the class interest of billionaires and prioritize working class people. To be clear, re-defeating Trump is not the most important reason to center the needs of working class people (providing people the resources they need to survive and live dignified lives is), but if they don’t, a Trump victory will be the likely result of continuing to pander to the billionaires.
The best thing the Democrats can do to stay in power is run on platforms that meet the needs of the people. Not just say it, but do it. We have already seen this work: Congressional candidates who supported Medicare for All won in both liberal districts and in Trump country. Why? Because people want healthcare. It’s really that simple.
People on both sides of the aisle want to live dignified lives. They want to work one 40-hour a week job and make enough money to buy a house one day. People want to be able to support their family and still have time to rest and enjoy life. They want to get sick and not be faced with crushing debt. They want to go to college and not be faced with crushing debt. They want a planet that isn’t crumbling before our eyes due to forest fires, tornados, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes — every six months. They want a future. Isn’t this obvious?
Policies that provide all of that and more are incredibly possible and realistic, yet we are made to believe that they are too “radical” or “progressive” because they wouldn’t make the elite as much money as laws that allow corporations to exploit and extract from poor and working class communities, mostly communities of Color.
After all, it’s what we are all taught in the US: “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” We are made to worship individualism and meritocracy, and it forms our ideas of who gets what and why, who is better than who and why, who is a criminal and who deserves a second chance. All the stories we read and watch are designed to protect the class interest of the wealthy.
These stories create a world view that enables huge injustices to occur right in front of us, and for us to write it off as normal, or fair, or just the way it is. We accept the classist, racist status quo. And then when the systems become too unbearable for the masses, something demands a shift. In 2016 that shift was Trump.
This time, that shift needs to be something else. It is up to us to challenge and change the Democratic establishment starting now, so that Biden, centrism and corporate interests don’t bring us all down.
We have the power to do this. Remember: Biden won. And it sure as hell wasn’t the Democratic establishment that made that happen. It was Black and Brown grassroots organizers who overcame massive voter suppression tactics to get to the polls. It was communities that had been organized over the course of ten years, not just in the months before Nov 3rd. Organized through having to fight innumerous attacks on People of Color and the working class — mass incarceration, police and ICE violence, pipelines and chemical plants — policies that both the Democrats and Republicans have spear-headed. It was a spike in voter registration that happened after the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent uprisings.
Organizers of Color rallied to beat Trump because it was a fight for all of our lives. But imagine the battles ahead if we succesfully pressure the Democrats to support working class people and especially People of Color’s interests? Imagine what it would feel like to fight for candidates you actually believe in? Imagine the millions more people who will be energized to organize and vote and run for office with the knowledge that the Democratic party is transforming, and passing policy to serve us instead of people like Jeff Bezos?
It was Black, Indigenous and People of Color organizers who saved us from Trump in 2020. It is up to all of us now to push Biden to pass the policies that will provide safety and dignified living conditions for all people — People of Color, Queer, Trans, Poor and Working Class People. The Democrats need to understand that if they pass business-as-usual policies, they will be shepherding in the next wave of fascism. We will not let that happen.
Here’s some groups to join and support:
BYP100
Justice Democrats
Momentum
Movement Voter Project Black Led Organizing Fund
Movimiento Cosecha
Never Again Action
Poor People’s Campaign
Sunrise Movement