This weekend, I watched a talk from Larry Holmes (not the boxer but the first secretary of the Workers World Party) about the current role of the Democratic Party. After the election, Holmes made the point that if the Democrats truly wanted to stop Trump, as they claim to in their rhetoric, they could do so easily.
They could come together as a party, walk out onto the steps of the Capital and tell people to take to the streets. To strike. Democratic governors would not call the National Guard. Really, in this political climate, they could get away with things unthinkable a few years ago.
But they will not do that. Regardless of their rhetoric, the Democrats will not stop Trump. Their role is to be the opposition party. If they had to, the Democrats would cling to the Constitution, yelling for civility as they are dragged to prison. This may sound alarmist, but I don’t think it is.
Trump is quickly working on fulfilling his campaign promises (the “Wall,” deporting innocent people, the travel ban) except for one: his long-standing promise to prosecute Hillary Clinton. The current president has massive campaign rallies with people chanting “Lock Her Up.”
It is not alarmist to consider the fact that many people took this chant very seriously. Yet the Democrats are fully collaborating with the Trump regime: voting for his nominees, being willing to give him a chance, etc.
Because, in truth, the Democrats and the Trump-led Republican party are not that distinct (although this does not negate the fears of people worried about Trump escalating or going after new groups of people). Many of liberals’ worst fears under Trump came true under Barack Obama.
Mass deportations (Obama deported more people than any other president, about 2.5 million people), jailing of political prisoners (Chelsea Manning was imprisoned under Obama; Leonard Peltier and many others were denied clemency), building dangerous pipelines, not doing nearly enough to stop climate change, etc.
The Department of Education under Obama championed school-privatization policies similar to those of Betsy DeVos. My 100 percent Democrat-run hometown, Cleveland, is plagued with police brutality, extrajudicial murders by police, rampant poverty and a failing school system. One need look no further for the destructive policies of the Democrats than the “Rust Belt” cities.
For the record, I see no problem in voting for Democrats as a harm-reduction strategy. Yet I am fearful that the current mass protests against Trump’s policies will be co-opted by the Democrats.
Democrats have been showing up at mass protests around the country; Martin O’Malley showed up a few weeks ago to the anti-travel ban protest at BWI airport. I see some people praising Democrats showing up at protests, yet to see their presence as anything other than a political stunt is misguided.
I did not see Democratic politicians protesting when Obama and Bill Clinton enacted similar policies to Trump. In fact, a few months ago, the Democrats performed a sit-in in Congress, which they publicized as being pro-gun control but included support for the expansion of the “No-Fly” list, a list infamous for racially profiling. The same Democrats now standing up to protest unjust policies were just sitting down for similar policies mere months ago.
So I urge you, be fully against Trump. Do everything you can to support marginalized groups. Give money, give time, give labor. But do not give your soul to the Democrats. Do not try to reform a party beyond any possible moral reform.
I see many progressives pushing for Keith Ellison to win the DNC chair to push the Democratic Party leftward. And while I understand this urge, I disagree with it. It is 2016 and Donald Trump is president. Normal politics are out the window. If the Democrats were going to move leftward, they would have done so already. I do not want to polish the brass on the Titanic.
To you first-time protesters and those against Trump, look outside the Democratic party for support. The Democratic party already failed to stop Trump, and they will do so again and again. Despite rhetoric, they failed to stop his nominees and they supported similar policies to Trump’s for decades.
In short, the Democrats will not save you because they have been killing and jailing people for years. They, along with Trump, are what we all must be fighting against. With the massive influx of new protestors the past few months, I pray that they will not be co-opted by the neoliberal Democrats but rather join already established leftist movements. And I believe, deep down, that we will win.
Emeline Armitage is a junior International Studies major from Cleveland.
