This Is How Bernie Wins

“We have sold genuine socialism to a hitherto unimagined portion of the electorate: the young, the idealistic, and the middle class. We now need to sell it to the people it was designed for.”

Introduction

At various points in 2019, it was conceivable that—by the end of 2020—we would have witnessed genuine leftist electoral victories in both the United Kingdom and the United States. However, these hopes came to an end on the 13th of December in 2019 when Corbyn’s Labour Party was defeated. While many on the Left would describe that defeat as crushing, the ascendancy of openly socialist politics to the national stage in the United Kingdom is arguably a partial victory in itself, representing a step on the path opened by Sanders and Corbyn in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Bearing this in mind, it is important not to settle for the mere legitimization of genuinely left discourse within political debate in the Anglo‒American sphere. Above all, Left campaigners must not become habituated to a position of highly vocal “also rans.” We can do better than just saying we took part in the electoral process on our own terms. We now need to ask how Sen. Bernie Sanders might win—and whether there are lessons to be learned from the U.K. election as we attempt to realize this objective. At the same time, we need to think about long term goals, irrespective of whether Sanders wins the Presidency—or even the Democratic nomination, a feat that no one on the Left is at this stage taking for granted.

Countering Neoliberal Hegemony

Overall, we need to assume a believer’s positivity in the short-term, coupled with the expectation of a long, slow period of political realignment. This is because—when seen things from a historical perspective—short-term shifts are ultimately insignificant in comparison to the tide of neoliberal technocratic‒capitalist advance seen over the last 40 years. In the decades since the Thatcher-Reagan elections, we have witnessed wealth and power become concentrated in ever fewer hands, while the masses are monitored and manipulated as never before. These rightward victories for neoliberalism were solidified by decades of concessions by centrists, as well as even nominally progressive parties such as the New Labour of Tony Blair in the United Kingdom and the SPD in Germany. Moreover—as Quinn Slobodian observed in his excellent book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism—promoters of neoliberal policy such as economist Friedrich Hayek knew they needed to entrench political gains not just through domestic ideological shifts but through legal codification at the international level. From the European bank to the World Trade Organization, international bodies are institutionally inclined  to resist movements towards the Left, even if candidates such as Sanders are successful. These barriers to progressive change are operational across borders and are, ultimately, unaccountable. As such, they are unlikely to be rolled back in one (or even two) presidential terms. We can further guarantee that the considerable powers mounted against President Trump in his first term by neoliberal interests both in the United States and abroad would be more than matched in opposition to a Sanders agenda, should Sanders be elected president. Many on the Left quietly believe these powers will rally to inhibit Sanders from even gaining the nomination.

Of course, the idea that an increasingly advanced pro–capitalist system may prevent the Left from gaining power at such a crucial moment—leading to another Trump Presidency and the trione Trump–Johnson–Putin among G7 leaders (to perhaps be later joined by Salvini and Le Pen)—is alarming. Although the populist rot is already global in scope, India and Brazil are just two major non-Western powers that have been swept up in the reactionary flood. To many, these developments might rightfully sound like cause for sudden action to be taken in order to stave off permanent subservience for our descendants at the hands of increasingly decentralized capital and increasingly recentralized, xenophobic state authority. But even well-organized street protests allied with mass movements have in recent years either dissipated to nothing or—in the case of Syria—acted as tinder to the powder keg with catastrophic consequences. To see protest as the only route open to the Left in any case undersells the current historical opportunity (and, indeed duty) to challenge the hegemonic forces of both right-wing populism and neoliberalism through the ballot and legislature. The Left can provide a compelling and genuine alternative to the calcifying forces opposing greater equality and democracy, providing it can make its case to the electorate.