The death of the left in America
The American left is morphing into one with the establishment and the democratic party.
It brings me no joy to write this article but I have to tell it as I see it. The American left has for a while been morphing into part of the democratic party and establishment A perfect example of this is an excerpt from an interview podcast hosts Kyle Kulinski and Krystal Ball did with the former campaign manager for the Sanders 2020 campaign, Faiz Shakir. Within the interview, Shakir was making excuses for the Biden administration. "It is a very hard job to be president when you do not have the powers of just kind of ordering an agenda to be passed" Shakir said of Biden not living up to his campaign promises. This of course is a lie Biden could easily cancel student loan debt and legalize marijuana through executive order yet chooses not to. So why is Shakir lying on behalf of the Biden administration? To figure this out we will need to compare him to another former member of the Bernie team, his former press secretary Brianah Joy Gray. Unlike most others from the Bernie Campaign Joy Gray poses a threat to the democratic establishment, she is a third party voter who supports the Squad using more aggressive Tea Part tactics such as force the vote, a movement that argued progressives in congress should leverage their vote against Nancy Pelosi for a vote on Medicare for all. Because of this Joy Gray is despised and routinely attacked by the democratic party and Washington DC insiders. People like Shakir see how Joy is treated by the establishment and do not want that to happen to them. He knows actually pushing back against it will mean no job within the democratic party. And this comes down to why the left is dying in America, much of it wants to be accepted by the establishment and part of the club.
The left both fears attacks from the democratic party and the establishment while wanting to be part of their club. Take California representative Ro Khanna’s answer when pressed on Krystal Kyle and friends when asked about progressives not pushing harder for a 15 dollar minimum wage. Khanna answered this by saying “even writing to Kamala Harris on overturning the parliamentarian was pushing the envelope, people thought we were unnecessarily criticizing the administration”. This is such a perfect window into the mindset of much of the left post-Bernie campaign. They are so afraid of angering the democratic establishment and so afraid to lose their acceptance within the democratic party that even writing a strong-worded letter is going too far. They enjoy being allowed within DNC spaces and being accepted by establishment media and will do anything to keep that position within the establishment.
And this brings me to AOC. Over the last few days, Twitter has been melting down over her showing up to the met gala wearing a dress saying tax the rich. While I personally think this is an overblown Twitter story the real question is why is AOC invited to the met gala in the first place. And the reason is, just like Ro Khanah and Faiz Shakir she is willing to play ball with the establishment in exchange for acceptance. This was pointed out early on by journalists Danny Haiphong and Anya Parampil in a segment on RT America. The two reporters pointed out that AOC’s praise for John McCain and Nancy Pelosi gave early warning signs she was not a threat to the establishment many progressives including myself thought she was. This was proven correct. AOC has sided with the establishment on many issues of imperialism and the national security state. For example, she met with far-right Bolivia coup supporters, said she had "questions and concerns" over pardoning Julian Assange, and said she would follow leadership on the Venezuela coup (Pelosi was in lockstep with the Trump administration on Venezuela). And her refusal to force a vote on Medicare for all shows she is no threat to Pelosi or the for-profit health insurance companies.
This co-opting is also true of left-wing organizations such as Our Revolution. The once pro-Sanders group decided to re-brand to "pragmatic progressives". AP reports that “Rather than insisting on “Medicare for All” — Sanders’ trademark universal, government-funded health care plan — or the climate-change-fighting Green New Deal, Our Revolution is focusing on the more modest alternatives endorsed by President Joe Biden.” This is a clear signal from the members of the group that they want to be part of the establishment. They have been co-opted into the incremental neo-liberal centrists all progressives used to fight against.
But even some of the fiercest fighters on the left are starting to be watered down. This brings me to the most disappointing part of the article. One of my favorite people from the Bernie campaign, Nina Turner recently joined the online "news" (and I use that word very lightly) show The Young Turks. Nina Turner was one of the fiercest fighters of the establishment who has done so much good in the past. But this move shows me even the best in the progressive movement can fall victim to being co-opted.
This now brings me to my final point, how progressive media has been co-opted. Similarly to how AOC and Ro Khanna want to be accepted by the Dem establishment outlets such as the Young Turks want to be accepted by the mainstream media. This is why Billionaires like Jeffery Katzenberg have no issue funding TYT because knowingly or unknowingly TYT exists to make sure progressive energy poses no threat to the establishment. The network repeats state department talking points on Russiagate, Syria, and Jullian Assange. They actively smear real grassroots campaigns like force the vote, ignore grassroots movements like the march for medicare for all and Mcarthy smear real adversarial journalists like Aaron Mate. This is because they want to continue to get funding from billionaires and want to be accepted by the mainstream. This is why their reporters like Ana Kasparian go to NATO summits and give softball interviews to war criminals like Madeleine Albright. They do not push back because if they did they would not be allowed at pro-war neo-con summits. This also goes for outlets like the Intercept. Former founder of the intercept, Glenn Greenwald after resigning from the intercept after being censored explained that the outlet had “an overarching need to secure the approval and admiration of the very mainstream media outlets we created The Intercept to oppose, critique and subvert.”
The sad truth is the left in America is it is not as big as many of us thought it was. This is because who we once thought were progressives are actually careerists. Groups like Our Revolution and people of the Bernie campaign like Faiz Shakir have turned into neo-liberal Biden defenders in the hope of getting a job within the democratic establishment. Elected progressives will not rock the boat in exchange for acceptance by the democratic establishment and mainstream media and left media outlets will repeat state department talking points and smear real grassroots activists in exchange for praise from the mainstream media and access. The only hope for the left is many of the new channels online such as Fred Hampton Leftists and Jackson Hinkle real adversarial media outlets like the Grayzone and activists and organizers such as Savage Joy or Afeni who actually organize and show up at protests such as the march for medicare for all.