The Left, in a modern sense, exists as an attempt to resolve a contradiction. This contradiction being between the wealth generated by labor, and the distribution of that wealth away from the laborers.

In Marxist Wizard Speak this is called resolving the dialectic. Being a Marxist is cool because you learn a bunch of weird phrases from old dudes with beards, and it grants you special powers.

The power is typically depression.

And so on this day of Bernie Sanders’ exit from the Democratic Primary, we are confronted with several dialectics to resolve.

Bernie Sanders lost, Bernie Sanders won. The DNC cheated the entire time, not enough people voted. We need to push for a third party, we need to buy rifles and canned goods.

All of these suppositions can exist simultaneously as true. There will be dozens of autopsies performed on Sanders’ metaphorical corpse, carried out by those more qualified than I. And this is not meant to act as a true post mortem on the campaign, mostly a collection of thoughts on the last few months and a layman’s wager on how the next few years play out.

We all knew this day was coming. The math had been clear for a while, and while any call to a candidate’s only opponent to concede is too soon, the media narrative was set. If you need to mourn now is the time. I, and I imagine many of my counterparts in the pseudo-intelligentsia will not waste the time.

I will admit to being hopeful, confident even in the lead up to and the beginning stretch of primary season. A fact that I am currently being reminded of in a few group chats. But Bernie’s candidacy was always a long shot. Post Super Tuesday it was a wish. And despite Biden lying to the American public and displaying a limited control of his own policy goals at the debate, when Bernie failed to gain any momentum the race was over.

Now in midst of a global pandemic, the idea of even finishing the primary was met with resistance. Yes Bernie’s time as a presidential hopeful is over. Already too old for this shit, a 2024 run is impossible.

As the Left stands in the ashes of his campaign, let us reflect.

Is It Okay to Be Sad?

Yes. Bernie’s loss is a tragic event for our movement, our country, and our planet. Bernie was the last opportunity for electoralism. If Bernie had (essentially done the impossible) been elected president, and somehow his platform had been enacted. It would have allowed the US to exist in a relatively unchanged format perpetually. Social Democracy, in a vacuum, is theoretically sustainable. And had the United States pivoted to a Social Democratic model we’d all happily stare at our phones until climate change inevitably kills us. Always remember that if the ruling class would only cede a fraction of their wealth, we could all have a decent way of life. Because they will not cede that fraction, they must be eliminated. Bernie has proved that once and for all.

Sadness, loss, confusion, anger, rage, seething hatred at the absurd cruel nature of existence are all valid emotions at this time. Feel all of them, feel nothing. It doesn’t change the material, make of the emotions what you will.

How Did We Lose?

An old fashioned mixture of manufactured consent, genuine election tampering, and the time honored leftist tradition of not voting. In a ratio that I shan’t speculate on. And while it is paramount to uncover any shenanigans performed by the DNC, we must not rest on the conspiratorial. It is true that the Democrat Establishment and the Media did everything in their power to suppress our movement, its also our fault that it worked. We didn’t Pokemon Go to the polls.

Bernie’s team of professionals and volunteers will serve as a model for all future presidential campaigns in terms planning and execution. We should all be grateful for their efforts. They did wonderfully, and we let them down.

Because we knew better. We knew that the Democrats and the press would do this. They did it last time. And for a few weeks we gave them a run for their money. The perfect storm of ineptitude and genuine corruption in Iowa might have given Pete a moment of legitimacy, but it didn’t hurt Bernie’s momentum. The Sanders’ campaign team was out in full force, things were looking good.

Then the Democrats got their act together. Obama made some calls. Pete, Amy, Bloomberg, all dropping out moments before Super Tuesday. A clearly coordinated consolidation of moderate Dem voters to Joe Biden, who up until that point was viewed as weak. While Lyin’ Liz waited long enough to leech delegates off Bernie before conceding. This is what the Republicans didn’t do in 2016, and its what got Trump the nomination. The Democrats were waiting for anyone else to take Joe’s spot organically, and when that failed to happen orders were given.

The Media treating all of Bernie’s victories like goofs, and all of his pitfalls like career enders effectively denied Bernie the momentum that early primary wins offer. By the time the Iowa results came in, showing Bernie in a virtual tie with Mayor Pete, we were six news cycles past the actual caucus. Do not think for a second that any of this was unintentional. These are but a paltry few examples of the media narrative being controlled not by actual events but by the ideologies of all eight people who own the media conglomerates.

Again, we knew this was going to happen, we planned for it, we fought it, we still lost. And in many ways we were always going to lose. If we had fought harder, volunteered more, canvassed more, phone banked more, ate less avocado toast, stopped going to Starbucks, walked into the President Store shook the mangers hand and said “Sir please elect Bernie Sanders”, then sure Bernie might have won. We need to be honest about where our fault lies in this, while also not forgetting that Democrats wanted Bernie to lose more than Trump. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here.

Can this dialectic be resolved? Can we simultaneously have been cheated while still losing on our own merits? I would say yes, because when you know your opponent is going to cheat, the burden is on you to prepare. Every single vote that was suppressed, miscounted, deleted, thrown away, or never cast due to an innumerable amount of reasons could have been counteracted in some way by additional Sanders supporters showing up. So many more of us could have voted early, absent, or on the day of. Which isn’t to say that those who didn’t vote are completely at fault, lest we forget the billion dollar industries that were trying so hard to disincentivize participation.

#wheresjoe

So Joe Biden is now the presumptive nominee. As the race is now uncontested. But where is Joe Biden? As of right now, he’s still in his basement making FaceTime calls. Where he’s been for weeks, holding private virtual events. During this time Bernie has been holding fireside chats and raising money for the Corona Virus response. Their approaches have been different, to say the least.

But now Joe is the heir apparent. For now.

Joe Biden is missing, he has not been seen in public for weeks. We have no idea why he was placed in digital exile, all we know is that he’s mostly wearing the same outfit and it took several days to get a webcam running. He might be physically ill, his mental grasp might be slipping even further than we’ve already grown accustomed to. This could be the DNC’s way of keeping him presentable, all digital, all scripted, all in the comfort of his basement, and more importantly all before dinner at 4:30pm.

There will still be a convention however. A convention where the DNC could, well within their legal bounds, nominate someone that isn’t Biden or Bernie. Gov Cuomo was being floated in the press, a capable figurehead for the Democrats to follow, he might get it. All it would take is Biden stepping back, and of course the Democrats would need to find someone in line with the frontrunner, right? They couldn’t go to Bernie.

Joe Biden is clearly in the twilight of his life. His handlers, family, and political accomplices are guilty of elder abuse by pushing him in this race. If Biden dies, which could happen at literally any time. Theoretically it could have already happened and they’re running a deep-fake studio out of Joe’s basement. The Democrats will be forced to nominate someone who can live up to Joe’s legacy.

The Democratic Nominee for president could be anyone. It could be Biden, it could be Cuomo, Bloomberg, Clinton. Nothing is off limits, the only person we can eliminate from the running completely is Bernie.

And if it is Joe, he will lose. He will lose on his own merits, and he will lose with our help.

Vote for a Loser

The Left must strive to base our ideals, our ideas, and our actions around the material. Free of the shackles of ideology we can attempt to understand the world through a relation to the real. Not of “what we want” but of “what we can accomplish.” So here’s the material.

Bernie was the last shot for electoral politics. The Democrats have nominated an even worse candidate than they did four years ago. Just as that candidate lost, this one shall lose too. Electing Liberals only enables fascism. The Democratic Party does not exist to put a damper on the excesses of capital, as they advertise, they rather exist to squash progressive movements before those movements gain traction. While the Republican Party is more outwardly evil, The Democratic Party continually signs off on the horrible legislation they create. The United States is functionally a one party state that masquerades every four years to maintain the illusion of choice. No real, meaningful change can exist while a “two party” system exists. A two party system will always exist as long as elections are held with a first past the post victory threshold. Ranked Choice, or similar alternative voting structures will never be implemented as long as only two parties exist.

What will it take to create the conditions for a third party candidate to hold State Wide or higher office? A viable third party would be a nice start, don’t you think?

Thats where we come in.

The death march into fascism that the Republican Party has begun will never be halted by the Democrats. The Democrats will always stop the left to protect the right. The Republicans can not be stopped until the Democrats are out of the way, and a legitimate labor party exists as an alternative to the Democrats.

The Democrats need to be destroyed, obliviated, nuked from orbit. Its remnants discarded, and it’s fields salted so that no more treachery may grow on their ground. Joe Biden needs to lose to Trump, which he will do, but he needs a greater purpose than that.

And we will give it to him. In the way that our labor, our bodies, and our spirits are sacrificed to the never satiated hunger of capitalism, Joe Biden will be our lamb to offer towards the dark spirits of American Political Theater, and only then will they grant us the strength to demolish the entire party structure.

The FEC states that party of any Presidential Candidate which receives 5% or more of the vote formally becomes a Minor Party, and is eligible for federal election funding. It is essentially the bar at which the state legitimizes a political party. If a third party is capable of crossing that five percent barrier, it greatly increases their resources available for the next election.

5% of the 2016 electorate roughly comes out to 7 Million votes, and if this year’s turnout is lower then that number is even less. This, incidentally, is roughly the number of votes that Bernie accrued in the 2020 Primary, excluding all future scheduled elections.

We have the numbers right now. If those of us from the states that have already held primaries would pick a candidate and vote for them in the general, we could have an official Minor Party for the first time in a century. Increased funding means increased exposure, means growth in the party, means an opportunity to have a political existence outside of the Republican/Democrat paradigm.

The obvious choice is Howie Hawkins once he cinches the Green Party nomination. Gloria La Riva, of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, is another. I’m sure there will be plenty of discourse in regards to who we choose from these picks. To my understanding the Green Party will be on the vast majority of ballots, whereas SPL will not. Again, this is something that we will solidify at a later date. What matters now is the plan.

If you’re going to vote for a loser, lose on purpose. Voting for the losing candidate is a lot sweeter when you’re actively making the future better. Otherwise you’re just voting for a loser like Joe Biden. Wouldn’t having an actual worker’s party be a better realization of Bernie’s dream? Wouldn’t that make this seem like is hasn’t been all for nothing? Wouldn’t that give you some purpose? I would hope so. Because its the best option that we could ask for at this moment.

Our Dumb Future

Sparing the boost of a viable third party, every possible outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election looks pretty grim. Lets go over a few hypotheticals shall we?

Biden Wins. Trump, secretly relieved to be free of this terrible burden he accidentally obtained, shrieks and caterwauls for two months, then leaves the office without much fanfare. Trump goes on to host a show on his own streaming platform. He continues his day to day life much like he did in the White House. Shitposting between golf rounds. Biden, barely cognitive at this point, operates at the behest of the Democratic Deep State. He is met with extreme resistance by Republicans in the legislative branch, any legislation that gets passed is toothless and so compromised by bad faith actors in Congress that no real change occurs on the domestic front. Our military presence is ramped up in MENA and the Pacific. Biden is impeached by 2022 over Hunter’s connection to Ukrain

Biden Wins. Trump, openly furious at the attempt to make him less popular retaliates immediately. Declaring the election illegitimate, citing the DNC’s shady actions against Bernie as a precedent. He refuses to leave the White House in January 2021, The Supreme Court is deadlocked on how to move forward, the American Government grinds to a halt as small skirmishes between diehard MAGAheads and Federal Agents pop up across the country. Trump is eventually removed by force with little bloodshed. Our military presence is ramped up in MENA and the Pacific. Biden is impeached by 2022 over Hunter’s connection to Ukraine, the Senate votes to have him removed, his replacement is also impeached but not removed

Biden Dies and is replaced by Hillary, see 2016 for rest.

Biden Dies and is replaced by Cuomo, Bloomberg, Mayor Pete, anyone else. See 2016 for rest.

Trump Wins. America continues its death rattle while selling off National Parks to companies with slogans like The Purge, But For Trees. Trump implements Universal Healthcare but only for people who voted for him. Liberals are outraged that Trump couldn’t get healthcare for the Republicans who stayed home on Election Day. Our military presence is ramped up in MENA and South America. Trump runs for a third term and wins. Palestine is now just three apartment complexes around an Israeli owned shopping mall.

Trump Wins, a resurgence of Covid-19 in the Summer allows him to run his campaign in the fall on strong anti-Chinese sentiment. Promising economic retaliation or worse. After the election a skirmish between Vietnam and China escalates over Sino expansion into the South China Sea. America sends troops to aid the Vietnamese, with increased presence at bases in The Philippines, Korea, and Japan. The conflict never really escalates any further, The Americans also never leave those bases. Trump runs for a third term and wins. Turkey annexes the Kurdish regions of Syria and Iraq with no pushback from the US.

Trump neither wins nor loses because elections were suspended due to the lingering effects of Covid-19. Trump promises a rescheduled election “As soon as Christmas, maybe.” By 2021 its clear that neither Democrats or Republicans were concerned enough with keeping up appearances to get around to it. Trump serves as President for the remainder of his natural life, and is succeeded by a power sharing agreement between Jared Kushner and Donald Jr. Baron, now 6’8″, waits for his time to ascend to the throne.

In Conclusion

We lost, in so many ways, and for so many reasons, the thing we were trying to do didn’t work.

We are going to continue to lose, but with each loss we can weaken our enemies until they are on level playing ground with us, and we will crush them.

Oh also, we’ve only got like 3o years to get this right before the effects of climate change become non-negligible and we start killing our neighbors over canned goods.

But right now, on this solemn day, we need to reflect. Look inward, see where our own failures on the Bernie Journey took place, and how we can rectify them in the future.

We need a plan for the general election, where we take a material victory at the expense of a symbolic loss.

We need to be having a little bit of fun too. Just think Biden/Trump Debate, two senile racists trying to verbally kick each other’s ass. Now there’s a silver lining.

Good job losers, lets not get ’em next time.