Writing about Antifa is incredibly difficult. Writing about it well, anyway. But the topic came up at the DSA’s Chicago regional preconvention meeting in a group discussion on how to fight the far right. The relationship between fascism and Trumpism was a related topic of discussion.
I’ll set that latter topic aside, since I’ve already addressed it on this blog. But that leaves us with Antifa. What is it? Has it succeeded? What are its limits? Is it useful to leftist organizing?
With Joe Biden in the race, the presidential candidate field is more or less complete. I promise I have something a bit more substantive on the way. For now, let’s get on with ranking the Democratic candidates! Who’s deserving of a vote?
I’ve written previously about how I vote. But it’s easy enough to summarize. I vote for candidates who have a chance to win and won’t leave the world worse off than they found it. In practice, the decision for President is usually pretty easy. Almost all presidential candidates would harm the world. Usually Democrats harm it less, and Republicans harm it more. But both cause harm. Therefore, in presidential elections, I usually face a decision between voting third party or not voting at all.
Local elections are less bleak, as lower ranking officials have less potential to cause harm.
But here we are, ready for yet more voting in 2020. Should the left support Bernie again? Support someone else? Should we support no one at all?
Let’s think about this. Right now, I’m just giving the presidential candidates a quick first look. I’ll have more to say later about the three or four best.
Sarah Smarsh and I both grew up in the rural Midwest. But she’s the only one of us who’s written a book about it. Good for her! Her book is called Heartland, and I’d recommend reading it.
I wrote a bit about the book in an earlier post. But here are some more detailed thoughts I had as I read along.
So, one day, I set out to buy Jacobin’s little book, The ABCs of Socialism. Somewhere along the way, I screwed up and ordered The ABCs of Capitalism instead. That’s OK. No harm done. I read The ABCs of Capitalism, and here are my thoughts on it.
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