Don’t miscast the role of activists as a source of power to influence elections instead of in the pursuit of ideals
Talk began almost immediately after election night about the fate of the Democratic Party and to what extent it was a success or a failure, and who is to blame for the failure parts. As pretty much always happens, anything that goes not as well as expected (based on broken ass polling btw) gets blamed on the thing the blamer doesn’t like which is often progressives. The funniest version of this was when people like Andrew Sullivan were saying things like, the American people have rejected “wokeness,” as though his own loathing of they pronouns was a big motivating factor among the 2020 electorate.
But the complaints also extended into more material arguments, that ideas like defunding the police, Medicare for all, Black Lives Matter, opposition to fracking, and the Green New Deal were self-defeating forces for Democrats. Honestly, I don’t take a lot of these individual complaints that seriously, because conservative Democrats who make them are not actually concerned that they are strategic missteps; they just don’t like them as concepts and really don’t like that many of them have a lot of support. So it’s just not that surprising that people who oppose progressive policies would blame them for their political woes. I also don’t lose a lot of sleep over stances like defund the police being used in law-and-order GOP attack ads, because those ads are stoking white fear rather than differences over policy. When racist campaign strategies use activist messaging against Democrats, I don’t really see that as a problem for activists or Democrats.
But I do get the inner-conflict in recognizing the need for Democrats to win elections, and knowing that a good chunk of the electorate disagrees with the ideals that I would like Democrats to stand for. Take, for example, the tightrope that candidates like Mark Kelly have to walk in a freshly painted light blue state like Arizona. So I find it both understandable and troubling when people who I think really do share most of my political goals lament activists’ dedication to their ideals. This is usually expressed in terms like “litmus test” or “ideological purity,” another common one you hear is “circular firing squad.” The argument in all cases being, by clinging to certain principles, activists are stopping progress from being achieved.
This idea of ideological purity, that someone would accept and celebrate nothing but one outcome, can be a maddening one. But it’s a sentiment that I think is vastly overblown in terms of how pervasive and how powerful it is. It’s kind of like the “cancel culture” argument applied to elections, as though cranky ass leftists on Twitter somehow hold mystical power over the direction of the Democratic Party.✓
There’s another fundamental misunderstanding happening, though, when people make this argument even in good faith, which comes down to what roles different actors play within the push for social change. Specifically, it miscasts the role of activists merely as a source of power to influence the outcome of elections, instead of a force of power in the pursuit of certain ideals, in which elections are one important pathway. It’s the incorrect assumption that, even though activists’ goals may align with a political party’s during elections, that the two forces share the same interests, which often they do not.
I saw this in a tweet by a climate writer who I actually really like who, concerned about losing the Senate in Georgia along with hopes of climate legislation, expressed frustration over criticisms of Jon Ossoff, who opposes the Green New Deal and most of the progressive agenda. I don’t really want to put this writer on blast because it’s just a dumb old tweet so I will just viciously subtweet him here in my newsletter, but the argument was basically that the reason Democrats lose is because far-left activists push radical policies that successfully move the conversation forward, but then candidates can’t embrace those policies given the electorate they face, and activists turn those policies into litmus tests for support. Another version of this in the climate community that I’ve seen a bunch lately is, don’t turn on Dem politicians because they are opposed to fracking which fyi is the extraction and burning of fossil fuels which needs to end so we don’t die. A lot of people are out there talking about fracking like it’s Lil’ Sebastian or something.
Again, I get the impulse behind these concerns. Nobody wants to lose the Senate. But it is not progressive activists’ or climate activists’ job, nor is it their goal, to get Democrats into office. The expectation is that activists should enliven sections of the party’s base, and then when they are no longer useful in appealing to some imaginary median voter, be quiet and go away until they are once again needed. Regarding the backlash against “defund the police,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out, “The idea that politicians can control activist messaging doesn’t make sense. They don’t work for us.”
Organizers behind the Green New Deal are a good example of this. Through a combination of protests and uncompromising messaging about climate urgency, groups that rallied around the Green New Deal totally altered the discourse around climate change policy. Many Dem candidates incorporated elements of the Green New Deal into their campaign platforms if not adopting it in everything but name. But many of them distanced themselves from the Green New Deal itself, fearing it would alienate some voters. Biden was one of them, but Sunrise worked its ass off to get him elected anyway. Does that mean that Sunrise should stop using the Green New Deal as its standard for climate policy? Absolutely not, because their job is pulling society toward that goal—not getting Joe Biden into office. As organizers with the Working Families Party and M4BL have been putting it, the Biden administration is doorway, not a destination.
That example also points to another misunderstanding, the idea that when activists are committed to certain radical ideals, they somehow betray the chances of Democratic candidates to win. In reality, it is often progressives, who may disagree with much of any given Democratic candidate’s platform, who work tirelessly to get them into office, as seen in the enormous multiracial GOTV push in key states this year. I’m sure there are some people out there who didn’t vote because Biden wasn’t far enough to the left. But in my experience, while people were wringing their hands about litmus tests and ideological purity, the activist left was working overtime to get Biden into office, knowing the enormous implications of the election, even though Biden himself may throw much of their agenda under the bus.
In other words, don’t underestimate activists’ ability to be unwavering in their ideals, while still living with the complexity of the political world. This is a combination of ideas that I seem to keep coming back to in terms of what I believe my job is, both as an activist and a journalist or writer—maintaining clarity of purpose and principle alongside comfort with complexity and uncertainty.
One final point here is that, when people talk about these activist slogans that they deem counterproductive, they often talk about them as though they are these arbitrary lines drawn in the sand. In reality, these are driven by pain experienced in communities. The Green New Deal (which by the way is itself flawed), isn’t defined by what’s politically popular; it’s defined by what’s actually necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change. Communities organically embraced the concept of defunding the police, not because it polled well, but because police keep killing and incarcerating Black people and no reform efforts will make it stop. People support Medicare for all because of their basic moral belief that everyone should have access to healthcare, and knowing or being among the millions who do not. More than slogans, they are needs.
On that note, I will close with part of this article Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor published recently that is very worth a read, and she gets into a lot of the weaknesses within the Democratic Party and the battle for what it stands for that I didn’t have time to get into.
The need in this country dwarfs the best of what Biden has put on the table for changing our current condition. But the demonstrations of the summer, the ongoing campaigns for mutual aid, and the growing movement against evictions are demonstrable proof that power is not only generated in mainstream politics but can be garnered through collective organizing and acts of solidarity. They also foretell a future in which the country does not return to a long-forgotten normal but is animated by protests, strikes, occupations, and the ongoing struggle for food, medicine, care, housing, justice, and democracy.
Links
- The Biden administration probably won’t be able to pass broad climate legislation, but there is still a lot it can do.
- Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats put together a wish list for Biden’s cabinet, which proposes a new Office of Climate Mobilization and Rep. Deb Haaland, a Pueblo of Laguna member, as secretary of Interior.
- Trump’s most profound legacy may be the irreversible damage his administration did to the climate in just four years.
- What Biden owes Black voters.
- The best part of this Boston election react story in the Globe is the photo of a guy standing on a car throwing Cheetos into a crowd.
- Barcelona is planning a radical expansion of its famed, car-unfriendly “superblocks” project.
- Arizona officially turned blue, including the formerly deep red Maricopa County (where I grew up!).
- Tucson, AZ, where my heart resides no matter where I live, had its hottest and driest summer on record. The city has committed to becoming a global leader in climate justice.
- Tressie McMillan Cottom on the danger in white moderates setting Biden’s agenda.
- This column about waiting for election results has some very helpful advice for coping during this very anxious time.
- A team of political scientists quantified the Republican Party’s abandonment of democratic ideals and practices. Spoiler:
Listening
Loren Connors, Airs. Here’s a nice track from it but you gotta listen to the whole thing because it is very soothing. Also check out Blues: The ‘Dark Paintings’ of Mark Rothko but it’s maybe a little less accessible than Airs.
Reading
I decided to pick up some lighthearted reading to get through the election anxiety.
Comics
I’ve mentioned this anthology series before, but if you have an interest in indie comics and especially if you don’t have a great comic store in your area, there is just no better way to spend 13 bucks than on an issue of the NOW Comics Anthology. Put out periodically by Fantagraphics, it always features a who’s who of exciting cartoonists, well-established and newcomers. Here’s one of its best covers, a recent stunner by Al Columbia:
Well the past couple of weeks have been something. If you are like me, between the virus and the election, you have been living in an endless cycle of dread and acclimation, punctuated by fleeting moments of hope.
Saturday and Sunday, for example, there was this wonderful feeling of relief because there is now a point on the horizon where this evil motherfucker perhaps won’t loom over all of us, all the time. I heard so many people saying on Saturday night they slept for like 10, 12 hours. I collapsed into an hourlong nap after the election was called Saturday afternoon. Some of that relief is still there, but the fact that one party is still not recognizing the clear outcome of an American election is fairly terrifying, if predictable RE: see chart above.
Lot of thoughts kicking around I kind of feel like this one wasn’t that fully baked but that’s newsletter life. Muddling through these days, by way of a cocktail of Avatar the Last Airbender, Stardew Valley, and books about nihilism. And poetry. Everyone seemed to like the poem last week I was very happy to hear it.
Whatever your Stardew Valley is, maybe it’s skincare routines or old episodes of Bones, don’t feel bad about it and hang in there. We are gonna get through this winter I promise you.
Tate