ALTHOUGH THIS is entirely anecdotal, talking with some of my friends and comrades in the United States, I detect that the level of disillusionment about the upcoming presidential election is deeper than it was in 2020. Once again, the American left is faced with the unattractive option of supporting another centrist, Kamala Harris, in order to keep Donald Trump and his cronies out of the White House. 'It's a shit show,' says journalist Abby Martin of The Empire Files and, I suspect, that few on the US left would disagree with her, even those calling for a Harris vote.
The difference this time, and it's a big difference, is that the US left is not so ready to swallow the 'dead rat' that is Kamala Harris. In 2020 the left swung in behind Joe Biden, if grudgingly, in order to block Trump getting a second term. And there's an argument that says that it was the support of the left that got Biden over the line.
In an open letter published before the 2020 presidential election, fifty writers and activists, including Noam Chomsky, the late Barbara Ehrenreich and Cornel West, urged the American left to focus first on defeating Trump and then taking the battle to Biden. It dismissed calls to boycott Biden as sterile sectarianism:
'Not voting for Biden in swing states won’t bring on a revolution. Not voting for Biden in swing states will not make anyone the slightest bit more progressive, radical, or revolutionary. Not voting for Biden in swing states will not grow or solidify the ranks of opposition. But not voting for Biden in swing states risks immeasurably enlarging the obstacles that opposition will thereafter face...So, it comes down to this. Dump Trump, then Battle Biden.'
But some of these very same signatories are not supporting Harris in 2024. Cornel West, for example, is standing as an independent presidential candidate and now saying that 'the lesser evil is still evil'.
In stark contrast, perhaps the American left's most influential and certainly most popular figure, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is urging the left to vote Harris to again keep Trump out of the White House. Her own organisation, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), appears to be moving in that direction. This week, AOC's New York section of the DSA, announced it would 'encourage tactical voting in the 2024 general election to block Trump’s election and the election of other fascist candidates in swing states and swing districts.'
What has split the American left is Gaza. Kamala Harris continues to support Israel and its so-called 'right to defend itself'. For the left not prepared to vote for 'the lesser evil' again, Harris is simply supporting genocide.
Whether Trump or Harris wins, the U.S. government will continue to support Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian civilians under the guise of its 'right to defend itself.' If Trump wins, it is certain that all Republicans and many Democrats in Congress will support his unequivocal backing for whatever Israel does. If Harris wins, we can expect her policies toward Israel also to be terrible. The glint of light in the darkness, is that she’ll be subject to increasing pressure from much of her party’s base and some Democratic members of Congress like AOC and Rashida Tlaib to stop arming Israel. It isn't much, but at least the left will have some space to organise. That's still preferable to a dangerous authoritarian like Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office, plotting revenge against his 'enemy within'.
IN 2016 the consensus was that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would defeat her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, and beat him comfortably. The polls predicted a Clinton victory. Trump was regarded only as some kind of ludicrous vaudeville act, a figure of fun for the late-night television talk show hosts.
Film maker Michael Moore thought differently. He warned that the failure of Washington's liberal elite to hear the concerns of the US working class, especially in the rust belt battleground states, was driving more and more folk into the arms of Donald Trump. The decision by the Democratic Party establishment to pick a corporate candidate like Hillary Clinton ahead of the immensely popular Bernie Sanders, said Moore, only confirmed for many people that the Democratic Party was controlled by a liberal cabal in the pocket of corporate America. Moore predicted that Donald Trump would win the race to the White House. The rest is history.
This year, the consensus is that the presidential race is too close to call, and the polls seem to confirm that view. There are a myriad of polls being conducted right now, and by different polling companies. None of the polls give either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump any kind of significant lead.
But just as he did in 2016, Moore disagrees with the prevailing consensus. He is in no doubt that not only will Harris win, there is the possibility she could also win in a landslide. He writes:
'Right now, if you know how to really read the polls, or if you have access to the various private and internal polling being conducted by and shared only amongst the elites, Wall Street, and Members of Congress, then you already know that this election was over weeks ago...The vast majority of the country, the normal people, have seen enough and want the clown car to disappear into the MAGA vortex somewhere between reality and Orlando.'
Moore has drilled down into the numbers. You can read his conclusions here, which, he says, he arrived at 'by simply being around my fellow Americans who are shopping at Costco, having fun making TikToks and eating once a week at Chili's'.
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