In response to the growing social fascist tendency within the U.S., materialized in recent electoral victories by Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed candidates, the moderate, “centrist” wing of the Democratic Party has launched efforts to maintain and expand its control over the party leadership, party program, and voter base.
Days after the New York primary election, where DSA-endorsed candidates won multiple races, 10 Democratic representatives and three candidates in the House of Representatives launched the reactionary “Promise to America” initiative. The initiative’s principles include “we are capitalist, not socialist,” “Americans deserve secure borders, safe communities, honest government, and an orderly immigration system,” and “we are proud, not ashamed of America.” This rhetoric shows the convergence between so-called moderate Democratic policy goals and those of the fascistic Republican Party.
DSA’s policies seek to reform the facade of U.S. Imperialism and justify its inevitable collusion with open reactionaries as pragmatic sacrifices necessary for achieving greater goals. Moderate Democrats, on the other hand, join hands with the open reactionaries from the start, upholding monopoly Capitalism, spreading reactionary “law and order” narratives, fear-mongering toward immigrants, and promoting jingoist pride in the despicable past and present of U.S. Imperialism. The image of American “unity” that they advocate for is not unity of the masses, but unity of the bourgeoisie.
Two days after the “progressive” Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic primary for the Michigan Senate election, the think tank Third Way launched an initiative to use $15 million for an “anti-extremism” campaign. The president and executive vice president of Third Way published an opinion piece in The Washington Post, arguing that DSA is “not a faction to be appeased; it is a movement to be opposed.” The president of Third Way has also described the fight between DSA and the moderate Democratic Party as “the next war that is coming.”
Shortly before the initiative was publicly announced, a leaked Third Way email revealed recruitment for a “Director of Anti-Extremism”. The first task in the job description for the role is to create “a database of the DSA’s most extreme ideas and statements and a repository of voting records, affiliations, and issue positions,” a tactic similar to that of the Zionist “Canary Mission,” which tracks Palestine solidarity activists and publishes their personal information.
Third Way is funded by lobbyist groups, including Business Roundtable, an association of the monopoly bourgeoisie, with a board of directors consisting entirely of CEOs, including those of Walmart, Apple, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, and Citigroup. Business Roundtable’s past activities include lobbying for Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts and for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which opened the way for U.S. Imperialism to penetrate Mexico. Another group funding Third Way is Better Solutions for Healthcare, an organization representing the private insurance industry, which is built on manipulating the healthcare system to serve the profit motive rather than the masses.
As millions of workers and youth are being driven to Socialism under the weight of deepening imperialist crisis, both wings of the Democratic Party are united in maintaining the same U.S. imperialist system that is responsible for the crisis. The moderate Democrats seek to derail any potential change in the party. DSA advocates for a revival of the Democratic Party in the image of its social fascist New Deal era and for halting any movement toward revolution with the promise of a slightly reformed imperialism. The road to ending imperialist crisis is not to have a more polite figurehead; it is to destroy the Old State while constructing the New State.
