What I talk about when I talk about the election. Building an anti-fascist coalition that knows how to fight both fascists and each other. Differentiators: Part 1 of whatever.
I'm the kind of anti-fascist that wants fascism to end everywhere, not just the country I live in. I do agree that there is a distinct and qualitative difference between the two candidates, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to ignore the fascism exported overseas for the sake of maintaining the illusion of democracy in the US. One of the ways the left and right in this country are more similar than either side would like to admit is that we have become cults of personality rather than adherents to a political ideology. I will not vote for Trump. But I'm not sure I can vote for Biden either. He needs to earn our votes, and he isn't doing that. We on the left have a perfect opportunity to hold the current administration's feet to the fire and instead we are bowing to the proverbial elephant in the middle of the room, pretending nothing horrific is being done in our name. We are subscribing out of fear to a false dichotomy that claims our only choices are to either back Biden unconditionally, or succumb to a fascist dictator. But we have the power to insist on another option: If we want to have any hope of defeating fascism, we have to start by demanding accountability and withholding the promise of our vote until we see evidence of accountability. Instead, we're allowing the power brokers to behave in any heinous way they want, as long as any transgressions that are comparable to those on the right happen in some other part of the world. We have the opportunity to demand the end of genocide and we're failing to leverage that.
I'm the kind of anti-fascist that wants fascism to end everywhere, not just the country I live in. I do agree that there is a distinct and qualitative difference between the two candidates, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to ignore the fascism exported overseas for the sake of maintaining the illusion of democracy in the US. One of the ways the left and right in this country are more similar than either side would like to admit is that we have become cults of personality rather than adherents to a political ideology. I will not vote for Trump. But I'm not sure I can vote for Biden either. He needs to earn our votes, and he isn't doing that. We on the left have a perfect opportunity to hold the current administration's feet to the fire and instead we are bowing to the proverbial elephant in the middle of the room, pretending nothing horrific is being done in our name. We are subscribing out of fear to a false dichotomy that claims our only choices are to either back Biden unconditionally, or succumb to a fascist dictator. But we have the power to insist on another option: If we want to have any hope of defeating fascism, we have to start by demanding accountability and withholding the promise of our vote until we see evidence of accountability. Instead, we're allowing the power brokers to behave in any heinous way they want, as long as any transgressions that are comparable to those on the right happen in some other part of the world. We have the opportunity to demand the end of genocide and we're failing to leverage that.