Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Category: Elections (Page 10 of 18)

These are posts on elections from the blog Base and Superstructure. Topics include international elections, American elections, and local Iowa elections. There’s a particular focus on describing and explaining leftist electoral results.

biden medicare for all don't vote for me

Medicare for All is the Price to Vote for Biden

August 10, 2020 /

The closer we move toward the 2020 presidential election, the more heated discussions become over whether to vote for Biden. On one side, there’s ‘vote blue no matter who.’ And on the other side, there’s…something. It’s not entirely clear, which composes part of the problem. As Joe Biden moves closer to accepting the nomination at the Democratic convention, the debate moves toward its height. Or toward its nadir, depending on one’s take on it.

And so, should we – as leftists – vote for Biden? How does one hold Biden accountable in an era where not being Trump is good enough for many Democrats? And if we do vote for Biden, what price should we expect in return? My three answers to these questions: No, One can’t, and Medicare for All, respectively.

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Bigger Than Bernie: The US Left After Sanders

August 6, 2020 /

bigger than bernie bernie and matt

After Bernie Sanders lost to Joe Biden, think pieces rolled off the assembly line. Whence did the Bernie Bros come, and where shall they go hence? Is there a movement bigger than Bernie?

In fact, that’s not quite true. The think pieces didn’t roll off the assembly line. COVID-19 washed most of them from the headlines along with everything else. And so, the U.S. press largely spared us from endless speculation on the future of the Bernie Sanders movement. But COVID also held us back. Leftists should think about this a bit. Where does the Bernie movement go from here? Even this question might assume too much. Is there still a Bernie movement? Or did it die in the couple of weeks after Super Tuesday?

Most electoral campaigns fall apart quickly. I’ve written about some of them: Cathy Glasson in Iowa and Elizabeth Warren nationally. That’s how most campaigns end. Remember the ‘Pete Buttigieg Movement’? Of course you don’t. Neither do I.

Is ‘Sandersism’ any different?

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snake emoji warren sanders

What The Snake Emoji Gets Wrong About Warren

July 6, 2020 /

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders had a dust-up in January. After that, a number of Sanders supporters directed the snake emoji at Warren on social media. You know the one. It’s the one in the photo above. What’s going on here? Is Warren a snake?

No, not exactly. Or so I’ll argue. Sanders supporters got it wrong with the snake emoji. But I don’t think they know why they got it wrong. I’ll say a bit about why and what I think they miss.

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Joe Biden Corn Pop most ridiculous campaign photo

Five Ridiculous Campaign Stories

March 23, 2020 /

It’s been a long campaign for the Democratic nomination. Very long. Too long. How many debates did they have? Lord.

News networks and pundits have to fill lots of air time and spill lots of ink to make these long cycles work. They’re on tight deadlines, and they seem allergic to any deeper analysis involving ideology or political methods and goals. The result? They publish a lot of junk! Here are the five silliest campaign stories and narratives I’ve found during the 2020 campaign.

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Misogyny Warren American flag

Misogyny and the Warren Campaign

March 12, 2020 /

Recently, I wrote about why Elizabeth Warren lost the race for the Democratic nomination. My thesis? Warren failed to consolidate the progressive vote, and then her pivot to the center didn’t work. And even had she done these things, she’d have quickly run into problems winning among voters of color, especially black voters. Many Warren supporters, by contrast, cite misogyny as the major factor in her loss. They think the U.S.’s culture of misogyny cost Warren the win.

I didn’t mention misogyny in my own post. But not because I forgot about it or think it’s not important. I didn’t, and it is. I think it operated as an important background force rather than as a major cause of her loss. And getting at these things required more space and time than the previous post offered.

So, let that space and time be here and now.

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