The Struggle: How We Take Back Power

The Stakes Part IV: Rebuilding Democratic Power and Curbing the Threat of Authoritarianism

This is Part IV of the limited series The Stakes. Part I, which covers the authoritarian agenda for the future, is here. Part II, which explores the 2024 Presidential Election and beyond is here. Part III, which explains why the media and political class continue to get this wrong is here.

Considering what’s going on, and the fact that I believe this is an important message to get, I’m making this available for free. This series, and this platform, have been made possible by paying subscribers. Please subscribe today to support my work and keep this rolling.

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Introduction: The Struggle

I got bad news.

Some forty-odd years ago a political ideology took over our system and that ideology is inherently anti-democratic. Neoliberalism is a top-down philosophy designed to value wealth and property over human rights or self-determination, creating an era in which nearly every social program designed to benefit the people has been systematically shredded, all organizations meant to help bolster democratic power have been undermined, regulatory oversight all but eradicated, representative government almost entirely corrupted and co-opted, virtually all significant wealth transferred from the working and middle classes to a sliver of power-mad oligarchs, and all of this has, by design, created a system of interdependent feedback loops designed to protect entrenched power while recognizing anything that can threaten it and either neutralizing it altogether or else converting it into something that helps strengthen its gravity.

Oh. And that built off decades and centuries of oppression and other systems that effectively did the same thing and stacked the deck against you.

It sucks. Sucks something awful. And all of it intended to make you feel the full weight and gravity of not just this moment, which is tremendous, but also the crush of all that history that came before you.

To boot, any mode of actually retaking that power has been scrutinized and planned against. Labor unions were broken over the knee of institutionalized power. Relationships, intimacy, and solidarity were poisoned by the zero-sum, psychopathy of Neoliberal ideology. Co-opted government not only redistributed wealth, but shifted our laws as to make us more vulnerable to both physical violence and financial pressure. It is seemingly much easier, and safer, to simply throw up your hands and say, “Well, this is the way that it is and that’s just that.”

Now, here’s the good news.

That isn’t just that.

And this isn’t the first time this has happened.

Despite what you have been told, what you have been taught, and what you have more than likely absorbed through culture and interactions, the moral arc of the universe does not naturally bend toward more justice. It must be bent. And history is littered with moments just like this one in which people recognize that they play a vital role in bending that trajectory and pushing back against what has been thrust upon them.

The good news, the best news, is that you, yes you, are capable of bending that trajectory.

The good news, the very, very best news, is that a shift is occurring and we are entering a period where that bending is made even more possible.

Well, That Was An Adventure

It certainly was.

None of this is easy or simple or overwhelmingly comforting. Anytime that someone tries to convince you that you don’t have a role to play, that the powerful already have this under control, that it’s as simple as voting in the next election or buying a product or retweeting some “explosive new information,” what’s actually happening is that you’re being lied to. You’re being coddled. You’re being infantalized. And you’re being used.

This article is meant to be a wake-up call. It’s not going to be simple or comfortable. But it is intending to lay out the situation as it is and to help show, more importantly, what it could be.

You Haven’t Even Mentioned The Democratic or Republicans Parties Yet. Or Joe Biden or Donald Trump

Nope. And that’s because this goes deeper than the conventional explanation of politics in the 21st century. America’s duopolistic system is a convenient narrative that hides a much, much more complicated situation. By focusing on “Red vs. Blue” dynamics we are being forced to continually accept outcomes that have little to do with challenging that consensus discussed above. As discussed in Part I, that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences to these contests. And, as we got into in Part II, I firmly believe that someone like Donald Trump is a perfect figurehead to push an agenda that is explicitly and aggressively authoritarian on behalf of the wealth class that set up this entire situation.

But continually accepting that the Democratic Party, as it is currently constituted, is the only option, and that our unrelenting support, regardless of what they do, is also not realistic. We have a role to play in how this works and what happens going forward.

So, no, this isn’t just about the Democratic and Republican Parties. This isn’t about Joe Biden or Donald Trump. This is about you and us and the future.

But Aren’t The Parties The Means By Which The People Express Their Politics?

Sort of. But what has happened, with the birth of the Neoliberal consensus, is the creation of a shared agenda. One party (the Democratic Party) represents a technocratic, market-based approach in which things could be slightly made better, at least in how they feel and how they are presented, while primarily relying on the support of professional managerial class by protecting the status quo as created by the wealth class. Another (the GOP) represents the interests of the wealth class in exacerbating these issues while manipulating the white supremacist, nationalist, patriarchal, and economic anxieties of the working and middle-class.

That is how things work now. It doesn’t mean they have to work that way forever.

Wait. Are You Saying There’s No Difference In The Parties Or That I Shouldn’t Vote?

No. There is a difference, it just isn’t what you’ve likely been told now your entire life.

And you could and should vote. There’s no telling how many lives have been ended or destroyed in earning you the right to go to the polls on a Tuesday in November. It’s one of the great struggles of the human race to even have elections.

What I’m saying is that you should vote while understanding that democracy doesn’t end at the ballot box. It begins at the ballot box and requires a whole host of actions beyond the ballot box.

Actually, truthfully, it doesn’t even begin with the ballot box now that we’re talking about it.

Where Does It Begin, Then?

With you.

Me?

With you and me and everyone.

Neoliberalism has so thoroughly infected everything about us that it affects us in ways that we are increasingly unconscious of. Oh, and capitalism and religion and oppressive ideologies and generational trauma have already done the same things so many times over that we’ve been left to largely operate in ways that are irrational and limiting.

Taking back democratic power relies on beginning to unravel the damage that has been done to us and then communicating that change outward onto the world.

Well, Now This Sounds Very Emotional

It is. Because politics isn’t just counting up votes. It’s about how we see the world. What is possible. And we have been subjected to incredible, systematic abuse in order to make us feel terrible about ourselves, feel terrible about others, feel terrible about government, and feel terrible about the future. This is textbook manipulation and management in these circles and past revolutionary movements have shown us that the first thing we have to do before we change things is to expel the damage wrought upon us.

Our politics is captured by a lack of imagination and fearfully restricted possibilities. We have been assured that government can’t actually make anything better, the only thing it can do is make things worse. This is by design. And before the Neoliberal consensus could take hold, it had to first eradicate the New Deal consensus, which showed that government can in fact make things better when it is done the right way.

Each campaign is now a testament to just how limited our possibilities are. It’s not just that we’re getting Biden v. Trump II, which is a reiteration of a campaign (2020) that was more about getting rid of a problem than moving forward in general. Now, we have two options: Either embrace full-throated authoritarianism or protect the status quo that gestated authoritarianism in the first place.

And when we occasionally do ask for things to be made better (for reproductive and voting rights to be made permanent, for childcare, for taxing the rich in order to afford programs that take the boot off our neck, for healthcare, for god’s sake) we’re told that’s not realistic. We’re not being realists. And the realists tell us to settle and accept what’s being offered.

That’s not just limiting. It’s perpetuating the abuse that made this situation possible in the first place.

So What Are We Supposed To Do?

Well, first, believe that you deserve better.

I Do Deserve Better

Okay. Good. But you need to truly believe it. You need to be able to hold that truth in your heart as you navigate uncertainty. You need to take a look at where in your life you’re accepting less. For instance, are you fully satisfied in your job? Do you feel like your compensation in satisfactory or even fair? The responsibilities and expectations?

If you’re an American, my guess is you don’t. But there’s also a lot of fear there. If I push back, if I ask for more, maybe I’ll be inviting repercussions. I could lose my job and then my healthcare and then…and then…

That mindset is what rules our lives and ultimately what rules our politics. It’s a fear that we’re not all that comfortable with. The fear of uncertainty is often worse than the hell of what we know. Meaning, we can believe we hold these principles while also acting counter to them.

I spent so much time in the academic world watching some of the smartest and most talented people I’d ever met live in an utterly exhausting and demeaning situation, watching the same administrators who are currently making the campus protest situation worse and worse make their lives a living nightmare. And yet, there was a sense of demoralization that nothing, not even organizing or advocating, could make things better. And so, things didn’t change. They just got progressively worse.

How Did You Heal From All That?

Whoa, buddy. Hold on.

I’m not claiming I’m healed. I’m healing but holy hell do I have a long way to go.

Again, none of this is easy. None of this is simple. It’s not comfortable. But all I know for certain is that, by researching revolutionary movements, it begins with the process of personal healing of this systematic abuse and then spreading it outward.

I’m trying to make it day-by-day. Win some, lose some. Oftentimes more of the latter. But I can tell you this: the only means by which any of this gets better is by beginning to believe you have inherent dignity and worth and that you deserve better.

Are We Even Talking About Politics Anymore?

Absolutely we are. Because politics is the means by which we, as individuals, come together and decide where we are going. And you can’t move forward or progress into a better future if you first don’t believe you deserve it.

All Right. So, Let’s Say We Heal And Come To Believe We Deserve Better. Does That Mean A Political Party Will Suddenly Change And Represent That?

No, not by any means. Again, none of this is easy.

Political parties represent entrenched power and wealth. They’re not going to stop on a dime and spontaneously become something different. A lot of what we’re watching now is an expression of that. There’s a reason why you pick up The New York Times and see a bunch of articles critiquing “wokeness” and even echoing sentiments of The Right when it comes to transgender rights and whatnot. There’s a reason why the Democratic Party is in lockstep with the GOP in funding the police even while the Republicans claim they want to defund them.

There is always going to be institutional backlash. Which means that with every step toward making things better and reinvigorating democratic power there’s going to be a reaction and more and more tension.

As we come together as a coalition of individuals who believe, collectively, that we deserve better, there is going to be a climate of escalating tension that leads to violence, legislative changes, progressively aggressive law enforcement, and a whole host of problems. These movements are always met by worsening actors and groups and tactics.

That Sounds Awful

It is! It is awful! And there’s a reason. None of this is supposed to come easy. If it did it would have already happened. But we’re supposed to feel alone and powerless. We’re not, obviously, but the illusion is what helps entrenched power to hold sway over things. The odds are supposed to feel overwhelmingly bad.

Back To The Parties…

Sure. Let’s bring this back to the situation we have now. Let’s talk about influence.

Currently, in this duopolistic system, there’s a pretty understandable dynamic at place. It looks something like this:

For example purposes, let’s say one of the two major parties largely represents a base consisting of the professional managerial class (PMC), a group of mostly white, middle-class voters. They’re uncomfortable with overt racism, sexism, xenophobia, and outright authoritarianism. As this is the case, the party’s messaging avoids these things as outright expressions while ensuring the status quo that serves the PMC remains mostly intact.

However, the status quo actually depends on inherent racism, sexism, xenophobia, and uses “limited” or “strategic” authoritarianism in order to keep the supply chain and hegemonic power structure in place. Americans get the benefits (especially the PMC), while people in so-called “Second” and “Third” World countries are exploited and oppressed by dictatorial leaders who serves America’s bottom-line.

That’s a recipe for a strange, screwed up world where limited liberal democracy is the norm and the oligarchs and wealth class that employ the PMC are allowed to continue accumulating wealth and power. In this case, things are going to get continually worse.

Meanwhile, that party relies on allied groups for its electoral viability. Just as the opposing party is focused on carrying out the wishes of the wealth class explicitly and uses overt racism, sexism, xenophobia, and outright authoritarianism to tantalize working and middle class voters, this party we’re looking has people who are not inherently served by the party but are left with no alternative but to ally with the party itself. People of color, women, immigrants, the poor, and labor unions are left to make a choice: support the party that at least doesn’t push these things explicitly or let the party directly opposed to them gain more and more power.

It’s a hostage situation. And it has been the party realignments of the 1980’s, when the Democratic Party embraced Neoliberalism while realizing its old base (people of color, women, immigrants, the poor, and labor unions) would have no choice but to follow along. Therefore, a coalition is maintained without much pressure being exerted on the larger party. And the allied groups continue to have little influence on the party itself.

And that dynamic is understandable. The GOP is absolutely poised to hit the gas on the oligarchical, authoritarian takeover. It’s an awful, awful situation.

But what we’re seeing on social media, and even mainstream media, is also a terrible thing. We should never, ever be pressured to carry the water for a president or a party. We don’t have to fall in line and pretend like a party’s leader is perfect. This is, after all, what has happened with the GOP and Donald Trump. Questioning elected leaders is one of the first commandments of democracy. They’re not heroes. They’re not saviors. They’re certainly not perfect. They serve us.

If They Don’t Win Though…

I hear you.

But remember what I said about the fear of uncertainty? You cannot let that fear keep you from demanding better. You can’t keep settling for the lesser bad and expect things to progress. This entire thing is set up to serve entrenched power over and over again.

That doesn’t mean you hand power to the opposing force, by any means, but it also doesn’t mean you stop fighting for better.

Well, So What Do The Allied Groups Do?

They work together to change the dynamic.

In this situation the groups that have been left behind in the process recognize common cause (through solidarity) and begin to influence both the party at large and the base that is being served. This could mean a recognition of common interest by the groups (people of color, women, immigrants, the poor, labor unions, climate activists and the LGBTQ+ community), leading to a shared platform of necessary reform and change. Here, those allied groups form a coalition that can change discourse, putting pressure on both the party and the base to shift their priorities.

The party is presented with a pressing ultimatum. Recognize the concerns and agenda of the allied groups or face a loss of electoral viability. In 2010, the Republican Party faced a similar dilemma with the nascent Tea Party. Of course, the Tea Party was an artificially constructed “movement” paid for and directed by the billionaire class, but the billionaires recognized the very tactics we’re discussing now. The GOP and its media base very quickly embraced the Tea Party, moved further right, employed even more radical conspiracy theories, and began to settle into its current iteration.

What Common Cause?

The groups that have been pushed aside (people of color, women, immigrants, the poor, labor unions, climate activists, the LGBTQ+ community) were not just marginalized because of who they are. The components of Neoliberalism and hypercapitalism rely on a few standard principles that keep the system going: white supremacy, misogyny, xenophobia, classism, hierarchical thinking, climate change denial, and personal oppression.

It’s not a coincidence that as the political shift of the 1980’s happened that these were the people pushed to the margins. The new coalitions were entirely adopted to send capitalism into overdrive, and with that operation came some incredibly predictable side-effects.

The answer to all of this is the intersectionality of oppression. How all of these fates are tied together. How our politics are not accidental but carefully tuned to work like this. And how they will continue to work like this until something changes.

We have seen this method work before in past social revolutions, both in our country and outside of it. The recognition of common cause is the only means by which we can begin to wrest power away.

What Then?

Okay, well, that’s the big question.

There is a coalition to be formed between people who believe we at least need to return to the New Deal coalition and others who want larger change. That type of stuff should be hammered out as the movement grows and gains influence. The question now is whether this kind of thing can gain momentum before the state, working on behalf of the wealth class, puts into place so many levers of manipulation and control, including authorized violence, financial penalties, and increasing surveillance, that it becomes impossible.

I am incredibly heartened to see what is happening right now. Our labor unions are on the march and growing more emboldened by the day. What students are doing at Columbia and elsewhere is incredibly inspiring and has already shown how quickly the political status quo can be shaken. Polls regularly show us how many Americans truly align with the goals of the proposed movement I’ve put forward. Part of the crisis we’re already enduring is the radicalization of the Center, which has almost always been secretly aligned with the Right. At least when it counts.

You See The Student Protests As Part Of This?

Absolutely I do. And history shows us that when the status quo becomes particularly putrid, young people are oftentimes the first to step out of line and call it out for what it is.

If you could, imagine a nation as a family. It’s especially abusive and violent. Dysfunctional to its core. Children, as they are being socialized by that environment, will often call out that family and its abuses, resulting in more abuse in an attempt to socialize the children into compliance. It’s not a coincidence that this is the form social revolutions take. Or that they so often take place at colleges and universities, which is where the socialization into the capitalist world is finished.

What Happens If The Democratic Party Doesn’t Change?

What do you think happens?

Uh.

That’s right. It would probably necessitate a new political construct or party to carry out the will of the coalition. Which is what happens, throughout history, whenever a body either outlasts its usefulness or new considerations emerge.

Listen, the Democratic Party was born in the 19th century out of a need for democratic reform and energy. The stranglehold of the Federalists over our process - and an emphasis on white elite control - required a counterbalance that marshaled populist sentiment and organization. That didn’t always go well. The party would later serve as the power base for slavers who, tell me if you’ve heard about this, tried to overthrow the country in a bloody civil war.

American history is the story of elite control and the challenge of democracy. They move back and forth. Unfortunately, we’re at a period where, because of technology and the unique set of circumstances, has created an environment ripe for the walling off of democracy, the destruction of liberal democracy as a foundation, and plunge us into a future that is really almost too awful to bear.

Are You Rooting For The Destruction of the Democratic Party?

No, not especially.

I think the process of creating a new party to replace the Democratic Party, especially considering the status quo as it exists, with the money working the way it does, and the way in which the parties have their hooks in everything like ticks hellbent on never being removed, creates a scenario where it could get really ugly.

Personally, I’d love if the Democrats felt this pressure and at least returned to the New Deal perspective, which is the least thing necessary as the original New Deal represented a schism in the face of oligarchical greed and dysfunction in the first place.

What About November?

I’ve made my stance clear. I see Donald Trump as a clear and present danger and the Republican Party as an accelerator we cannot risk. I’m in agreement with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent answer to Mehdi Hasan’s question regarding the election.

This is a complicated, nuanced answer. And we should take heed. We have to stop raising politicians and parties to an unquestionable status. They are not heroes. In the history of democracy, they are opponents or allies and occasionally both. Joe Biden and the Democratic Party has not answered the call of history. They have not fought back enough, they have not represented us, and I do not believe, as they are currently constituted and oriented, that they are the party we need to fight this threat. In fact, they add to the threat in ways that are almost imperceptible.

I want to organize this movement and this change against Joe Biden and the Democratic Party rather than Donald Trump, the GOP, and the cadre of billionaires and fascists they represent.

But If We’re Making A Movement…

Well, you’re not going to change everything by November. There’s no way.

What’s happening right now with the student protests shows us something harrowing and also hopeful. So many of the people who were supposedly our “allies” never were to begin with. They are gleefully hoping for blood to be shed on campuses around the country because of a variety of viewpoints and psychological motivators. But moments like this can be harnessed to create momentum in the right direction.

Yeah, But If You’re Saying These People Are Against The Protests, and That Those People Constitute The Base…

Again, the process is about putting pressure on the party and the base. This is what happened in the early 20th century with the rise of the Progressive Movement and then in the mid-20th century with Civil Rights, the Anti-War/Free Speech Movement, the Feminist Movement, and the LGBTQ Rights Movement. The base - centrist liberals - were forced to reckon with their privilege and the specter of actually being on the wrong side of history until it shifted widespread opinion and the party itself.

And, again, this isn’t easy. It would take the allied groups - voting and reproductive rights advocates, law enforcement reform advocates, labor unions, LGBTQ rights advocates, working people - coming together and finding common cause, recognizing that the capitalist status quo is the common denominator in all of these cases, seeing things like the genocide in Gaza as emblematic of a larger problem, the same way the Vietnam War brought the actual problem into focus, and then shifting the tectonics.

Would it be simple? No. Would it be messy? You better believe it. But continuing as we are now, all we’re doing is ensuring that the Democratic Party is going to continue growing more and more conservative, moving the center while the GOP becomes more radical.

It looks something like what you see below, the top spectrum reflecting what we’re told politics looks like and the bottom how it actually functions.

Just to reiterate, change isn’t simple or uncomplicated. Protests and collective action is going to be a messy endeavor that doesn’t work all the time, that alienates people sometimes, and goes in fits and starts. I have no doubt there are extremists on these campuses, many of them provocateurs and outsiders, and that should be contained in favor of spotlighting the material conditions and motivations. Schools like Columbia shouldn’t be profiting from the massacring of Palestinians and that those schools are partnering with Israel to continue apartheid for power and profit should be opposed. The Left, what remains of it after generations of violence and undermining, should be on the same page when it comes to this.

Thanks For The Dynamics Lesson, But What Can an Individual Do?

Heal. Grow. Change. Find others who are healing and growing and changing. There are movements like the labor unions, reproductive and voting rights advocates, LGBTQ protection movements, and now the student movement, that are coming together to represent shared interests and collective action. It can also take the form of communal aid in your neighborhoods and areas. Likely these groups are also funneling upwards into the aforementioned movements.

Get into it. Look at who you are, who you’ve been, wrestle with your trauma and your privilege, decide what it is you want, what you want the world to look like, and discard these conventional and damaging ideas. Come to believe you deserve better and everyone else does, too.