How The Left Can Fight Back
Beating Back Elon Musk
The controversy surrounding Elon Musk and his cronies about having access to US Treasury payment data is worrisome. It is worrisome because, in theory, Elon and his lackeys could control federal payments for social security and federal employee salaries. While Treasury officials have sworn up and down that Elon’s DOGE team only has read-only access, this access is too much.
What kind of society allows an unelected fascist billionaire and his unqualified loyalist to be in charge of important government institutions? Maybe it’s the same society that elects a fascist billionaire.
That said, Musk has truly placed himself at the top of the hierarchy, with unfettered control and access to the government. If this is the time you, dear reader, are telling yourself “Our democracy is collapsing”. I wanted to give you some words of wisdom and action.
Our country since its foundation was never a democracy. Freedom and voting rights were granted to those who were white and owned land. Our country has been and still is a dictatorship of the wealthy. The US government has always put the whims of billionaires and corporations above freedom and democracy. Our government has supported various fascist regimes to solidify its interest and has put down numerous liberation struggles.
The discourse on democracy in the US was always based on aesthetic grounds to placate the masses from demanding true change. Many believe that if you just vote for the right person within the limited two-party electoral system things will change for the better, but we are repeatedly faced with the inconvenient fact… our system has failed us while working as intended.
Who benefits from cutting government programs? Who benefits from gutting federal agencies? Who benefits from less taxes? Who benefits from the rollback of regulations?
While it’s safe to put this facade that only the Republicans care about the wealthy and are the enemies of the country, I ask you dear reader to open your eyes. Has the Democratic Party as it stands been a proponent of the working class?
Many of you who identify as Democrats or Liberals will say a resounding ‘yes’, but let's look at the facts, even within the Biden presidency.
Under the Biden admin, there was increased deportation, student loans were not forgiven, billions in weapons were given to Israel so that it could commit its ethnic cleansing, there was no substantial push for universal healthcare, no minimum wage increase, etc…
While an apologist might try to use electoral politics as a scapegoat for why certain policies were implemented or not. I would like to remind readers that progressive policies supported by the majority of Democratic voters were shot down in great part by Democratic politicians themselves.
Even if the apologists concede that these Democratic politicians have hindered progress (many for their financial gain), the argument probably would be that these are just individual bad actors that need to be discarded. However, why weren’t progress policies pushed during Democrat majorities in the House and Senate during the Obama and Biden presidencies?
Sure, we can point to examples like the Affordable Care Act, but even that is based on Republican healthcare plans. The pattern becomes clear…
The Democratic Party hinders true change and prosperity rather than being a solution and instrument of change because it does not serve the working class. Like the Republicans, the Democratic Party supports its corporate oligarch donors. The Democrats just have better aesthetics about their actions.
Only the Democrats could bomb black and brown children the world over while claiming to be for racial justice. They cloak themselves in progressive rhetoric and aesthetics but their actions and policies are in service to neoliberal capitalism.
With that being said, let us not confuse the lipservice from liberal politicians as genuine resistance to right-wing fascism. History has shown time and time again that liberals enable and permit fascism.
What should be done? Genuine independent left organizing.
By the “left”, I do not mean liberals and Democrats. I mean people who want to challenge the systems of capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy from their roots. People who want to push for a more egalitarian future where everyone, not just a select few, prospers. The left needs to focus on rebuilding the labor movement and building coalitions within left organizations for a few reasons.
The American labor union movement has been decimated for many reasons, but it was one of the most powerful tools for worker's protection and advancement. As we saw with the port worker strike, corporations can be powerless in the face of organized union opposition. This is why many democrats and republicans have worked towards hindering their power. The labor movement has historically been the bedrock of progressive change in America, it needs to be rebuilt.
Outside of a labor movement, we need left coalition building on our shared interest. We on the left do not want empty platitudes of recognition and promises, we want real material change. Many want to be guaranteed minimum wage increases, single-payer healthcare, trans and gay rights, worker's rights, an end to US global imperialism, and more. We need to understand who is with us in meeting our shared goals and who isn’t, without effective organizing we cannot counter what Musk, Trump, or any other fascist lackey is doing in government. The Democratic Party has a history of co-opting and neutralizing popular left movements as we saw with BLM and the Bernie Sanders movement.
So, how do individuals reading this commit to the tasks of left organizing?
For those able my first piece of advice is to join a local left organization. Examples include the Green Party and DSA (Democratic Socialist of America).
My second piece of advice is to see if you’re able to unionize your workplace. Many resources show you how to do this. If you already have a union job, consider getting more involved in your union by joining in on committees or whatever other events they have going on.
Yeah, I want to fight back. I want to make dramatic artistic statements that shift the way people follow along blindly. I believe in the power of words well laid out more than following and attempting to brace up any existing structures.
It seems like the bus went over the cliff. I want to raise my voice for change, and I’m aware that I don’t always get the full story as a white person in America. The corrupt fascist plan has indeed been here the entire time, so I’m not surprised about what is happening. I’m just disappointed that people didn’t seem to take the months between the election and the inauguration seriously enough—- it was clearly time to set up a new shop.
I like Substack because I think this is where the true free-thinkers are gathering. I’m dropping my radical ideas in here hoping they might germinate like grass seeds. Since I’m a poet, I look for the broad themes in this epic scenario… it all goes back to the fact that colonizers seeking freedom from persecution arrived here to conduct persecution. And so they stole land, forced labor and built a government with their amoral acquisitions of wealth. If we never address this hideous reality with a proper response, then I do not expect to see democracy develop into a functioning dreamscape.
I’m one voice that wants to sing for reparations and dance for a returning of the land. I’m not bowing down to any bullshit man-oevers as I prepare to take hold of my own wheel to churn out artistry.
I’m so far left, I’m gone! (Gone all the way around the world … gone so far left, I just might seem ‘right’- as in correct)
What we really need to do now is form an international Global Sustainability Party… cause— look: the fascists are already creating the nightmarish political stronghold of Orwellian cautionary tales. We need to go global with a call to save humanity through solidarity and the earth through sustainability.
We could end a lot of stupid debates just by requiring all policy to pass through a sustainability filter.
Abortion? Oh… it must be an option. I’ve taught too many children suffering because they do not receive the love they deserve.
My last note to you is this: as the inept government ignores governing, local communities must organize community gardens. Our insufficient food system, reliant on diesel fuel and clear lanes of traffic - uninhibited by natural disasters— will collapse this year. I see a famine coming.
Maybe you could write a beautiful article to inspire people to organize grassroots and corn , beans and winter squash— we need the three sisters
🦋🙏