Obviously this man was an important anarchist thinker, but I think this is particularly relevant to anarchism right now in a US election year where this conversation will come up ad nauseum.
He stops short of decrying electoralism in general here, but makes the point that the milquetoast emptiness of the US liberals enables a rightward slide. What he says is short and to the point and avoids getting bogged down in wider issues. He acknowledges that “at least they’re not nazis” is an appeal of the liberals, but points out that is the only appeal.
I just think this is a good thing to have if you don’t want to type out this argument every time you see it, to point out that this has been happening for a very long time, and to hear a voice of sanity when every single liberal is yelling at you to stop criticising poor Joe or else we’ll get the fascists again.
I’m not American, but a further left party exists, it’s called the green party. It just isn’t a viable strategy. The Majority Report is a US podcast that are very electoralist, but from a left perspective. I don’t agree with their electoralism, but one strategy they talk about a lot is primarying republicans, because both parties are vulnerable to this approach. They have flipped in the past, so there is value to the idea I guess. The problem is there’s only so far you can take a strategy like that before the political machinery subsumes it. Smart people have tried electoralism for a very long time, and equally smart people have worked against them. The structures in place however reinforce the logic of hierarchy and will not allow us to vote for true liberation.
There’s nothing wrong with voting, but it will never bring about the world we want. We have to do direct action.
