Get Out of the Way: The Democratic Party Prevents Us From Fighting Fascism

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“Restrain, reform, and restrict ICE.”

That’s the command for Democratic senators coming out of Chuck Schumer’s office.

The party is preparing for negotiations heading into a potential shutdown this weekend following the administration removing Greg Bovino as head of ICE and this is what they’re settling on.

Restrain.

Reform.

Restrict.

Tell me how you’re supposed to restrain these animals.

Tell me what kind of reform you’re support to carry out.

Tell me how you’re going to restrict a group that is stealing children and murdering us in broad daylight.

I wouldn’t give you a nickel for this entire fucking political party. What a worthless bunch of quislings. From Chuck Schumer enabling fascism to Tim Walz calling for restraint and flirting with Donald Trump on the phone while his citizens were being shot to death. You could not design a better collaboration party for the fascist takeover of the United States of America than what you have now.

What do they give us?

Slogans.

Brightly-lit rallies that make people feel excited for an hour or two.

Press conferences and statements that say just enough for diehards to believe they’re trying and so little that anyone paying attention knows they’re all bullshit.

In power, even their own agenda is undermined by their own members, almost as if it’s coordinated to benefit their wealthy benefactors while assuring supporters they’re “trying their hardest.”

Even while they held the presidency and it was obvious the GOP was undermining civil rights protections, they refused to use their power to protect their own supporters, encouraging them to “out-organize voter suppression.”

They failed to properly persecute Trump for his myriad crimes out of a fealty to “civility,” which is just a code word for class solidarity.

When they lost one of the most consequential presidential elections because they refused to condemn the genocide in Gaza, they wrapped their arms around Republican castoffs like Liz and Dick Cheney, they tied themselves to Goldman Sachs and military chauvinism, they blamed “the groups,” or, rather, black, brown, gay, and transgender people for their own failures.

They have watched their own constituents, who they are sworn to protect, be murdered and disappeared to concentration camps, and they have barely lifted a finger.

At long last, listen to them. They tell you we need a “strong Republican party.” They mean it. The main issue of the 2024 Presidential Election was who could be stronger on deporting immigrants. They have no intention of fighting fascism because fascism is what the wealth class needs right now and they are beholden to those billionaire benefactors. Everything else is window-dressing.

The Democratic Party stands in our way because it allows people who see that this is wrong and dangerous and awful to think this party will save them, that they’re playing some masterful game ala QAnon, and all they have to do is “trust the plan,” which is just another version of “vote blue no matter who.” It is a tension release, promising that they don’t have to get their hands dirty or risk their lives or livelihoods because “escape” is just one election away.

It is a sham. A ruse. A way to steal your money and your freedom.

Unless there is a major takeover of the Democratic Party by leftist outsiders, which the party has already shown a rabid willingness to do anything to stop, there is no saving this corporate body and transforming it into a vessel of actual resistance. Even if we are to embrace our destiny, link arms, and carry out collective action, we have already seen what the Democratic Party does in a moment of revolutionary action.

Nancy Pelosi and that motherfucker Chuck Schumer behind her wore kenta cloths and kneeled during the BLM protests in 2020. They pretended to throw their weight behind the people and did everything in their power to move us away from using “incendiary” language like “defund the police.”

Go back to the first sentence of this article.

“Restrain, reform, and restrict ICE.”

Do you see how this is the same thing all over again. They can’t even call for the abolishment of ICE. And why?

For the same reason they never wanted to say “defund the police.”

Because the Democratic Party wants the police and ICE to remain intact because they serve the interests of a wealth class over the well-being of the people who depend on them for representation. They helped create ICE, injected it with hoards of wealth in the same fashion they created the modern law enforcement state. They want to control ICE when they have power. But, because the Democratic Party represents the “good cop” in the fascist dance, they want them to be less openly fascistic. They want them to operate in the dark, away from cameras and coverage. After all, Barack Obama and Joe Biden outstripped Donald Trump on deportations. They just made sure it wasn’t so openly hostile or violent.

The Democratic Party’s job is to make you feel like you are being heard, to reassure you that things are going to be okay, just don’t rock the boat right now. It’ll be fine, don’t make too much noise, trust the process. All while the fascists complete the surveillance and oppression systems the wealth class requires.

They’re wasting our time and stealing our energy.

I don’t think there’s any reforming this party. In fact, I think if we are to take action, what will need to happen is a complete rejection of the broad majority of Democratic politicians and the realization this duopolistic environment is not just flawed but self-destructive. Perhaps a few Democrats could join us or be trusted, but it would take an exhaustive process of trust-building to even let one of these sons of bitches show up at a protest or match or strike. They have betrayed us our entire lives. They’ve sentenced our families to live shorter lives, to work harder and get paid less, to succumb to preventable diseases, to breathe poisoned air and drink poisoned water. They are the smiling face plastered on the genocidal, murderous corpse of American capitalism.

They have played an integral role in the fascistic cycle and for that they should never be forgiven.

What we have seen in Minneapolis and other besieged cities is that we are capable of fighting these motherfuckers while taking care of one another. We don’t need speeches. We don’t need record filibusters that are meant only to sell books and get shared on social media. We need neighbors refusing to sacrifice neighbors. We need the type of collective fight that shakes us out of our self-defeating slumbers and reminds us that democracy is more than casting a ballot, it is an examined life in which we realize we are in this together and we have a common enemy who has stolen our wealth and our joy and our hope.

We will defeat them. We will.