<nettime> Leftists, don't fall in the trap!

[Brian Holmes via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

So, now that the unthinkable has happened, now that the fascist, racist,
misogynist Trump has been elected by a clear majority of Americans, we on
the left are supposed to admit that we are wrong by essence, offer our mea
culpa, and move to the center where our Democratic leaders want us. In this
way, elections can supposedly be won by a party representing the
repressive, militarist and above all plutocratic elites of a social order
forged by triumphant neoliberalism and ready to maintain class privileges
by whatever grotesque war it takes to keep empire alive.

The monumentality of this trap, its totalizing foreclosure of all future
possibilities, may be exposed by a simple injunction: "Commit suicide now,
you will be reborn as all you once rejected, you'll be happy at last."

Refusing the moral injunction to move to the center is the vital necessity
of the moment and the only key to future social and ecological change. The
left did not lose this election for the Democrats. Instead, the Democrats
lost it for the American people and for the world.

Momentarily adulated by desperate voters after the late exit of a
narcissistic zombie leader who had promised a one-term, transformative
presidency, Kamala Harris was the candidate of the upper third of American
society, among whom the Democratic share of the vote increased
significantly, even as it fell off a cliff amid the lower ranks of the
wealth distribution. Her policies - or rather, lack of policies - did not
aim at the slightest transformation of this society, because after all, the
good people already have all the good jobs, live in the good neighborhoods,
profess the good opinions, and therefore have the right to tell everyone
else not only what to do, but who to be. According to them, acquiescence to
the condescending authoritarianism of a former prosecutor with a Glock in
her closet was supposed to be your return ticket to the status quo,
offering you a secure perch in a rusty cage where a collapsing world could
fall with a crash on your obedient little head. Within such an ideological
framework, a Trump victory was effectively unthinkable - and inevitable.

This is not to say that the progressive left in all its factions and
splinters does not need its own multiple rethinks and self-critiques.
Trump's landslide win may be the fault of the Democratic party, but it is
still a massive and highly threatening defeat for our aims, values and ways
of life. The incoherence of a Republican coalition divided between its
cunning billionaire elite and its enraged populist base all but guarantees
a chaotic administration, seesawing between unlikely solutions to
intractable problems and improvised responses to crises caused, in part, by
those same "solutions." To cover up their wavering missteps, it's clear
that the Republicans will resort to their favorite tactic: further
polarization. They will bait us with provocations, then use their
formidable televisual and social-media machines to create a cacophony of
hatred, distracting everyone from the substantial issues. This is the
second trap set for the left over the upcoming years.

In this perspective, the first necessary move for many groups is probably
an inward turn, in order to rediscover who you are, where you want to go
and how to get there. There is no formula for that, because there is no
unity of the left, that's obvious. However it's safe to say that the point
is not to simply double down on the ideas and tactics of the past, but to
assess the new situation and invent the strategies of a possible future.
Democracies are governed by majorities, not only at election time but day
by day, and whatever each of our factions and splinters produces will gain
in power and potential through some kind of address to the outside: not
only to other factions and splinters, but also, somehow, to the larger
shares of the population betrayed by the Democrats and abandoned to the
mercy or direct control of the new overlords. The assertion of self can be
combined with a kind of selflessness, a renewed commitment to the
solidarities that have always distinguished the left from the arrogant
individualism of the professional managerial class. Yes, I know, we just
did that during the pandemic - proof positive that it can be done again
today.

In an interview published by the New York Times, Nancy Pelosi just claimed
that the Democrats had run the best campaign possible, supporting the best
policies available, apparently for the best outcome imaginable within a
dead-end framework that had already failed with the financial crisis of
2008. Don't accept this bullshit from anyone anymore! But don't accept your
own bullshit either. What's needed now are not spectacular acts and
polarizing confrontations, but a reality check and the invention of new
strategies and new solidarities under increasingly adverse conditions. So
start with who you already are, and find the ways to become more open and
available to many more people. This thing is not over yet. A realistic
sense of tragedy is the price of utopian empathy. These are the wellsprings
of transformative resistance.

Yours across the desert,

Brian
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