Republican candidate Donald Trump won the United States presidential election on November 5, winning the Electoral College and the popular vote.
Cyn Huang, a member of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), told Green Left that Trump was able to win because of the “failure of the status quo”, which has led to “the rejection of incumbent parties, both Democrat and Republican” in recent elections.
“People’s lives have been getting systematically worse under the [Joe] Biden administration,” he said.
While liberal economists and the Democratic leadership have been pointing to the rise in gross domestic product and lower employment, “when you ask people simple questions like ‘how can you afford your rent, groceries and gas?’, the simple answer is that they can’t, it’s harder than it’s ever been before”.
“For the past five decades, both Democrats and Republicans have been stalwart defenders of neoliberalism, which has faced a crisis of legitimacy since the 2008 financial crisis.
“In the electoral context, millions of people are trying to desperately communicate ‘anything but this’, and when there is no left-wing alternative on offer, things can get worse.
“We have learnt from the Biden administration that the Democrats are a party that will use the things we care about as a bargaining chip and then sacrifice them on the altar as soon as they are back in office.”
Huang said the absence of a left alternative meant people were more open to far-right ideas, such as blaming immigration for low wages.
“When the system is facing crisis, there are openings for alternatives, and the right have been better at capitalising on those openings.
“Trump and the far right were really adept at exploiting people’s dissatisfaction and presenting themselves as the party of change, as opposed to the preservation of the status quo that Biden and Harris represented.”
Democrats swing right
“The big story of this election should be the fact that Harris came 8 million votes short” of Biden’s vote in 2020, YDSA member Daniil Sapunkov told GL. “When Harris became the candidate, she hitched the campaign to the Biden administration and ran to the right.
“Trying to court Republicans, including campaigning with Liz Cheney, rather than speaking to the issues of regular working-class people was a big mistake,” he said.
Sapunkov said there was a “peculiar switch” this election as the Democrats received more votes from people who earn $100,000 or more, while losing votes among working-class people, in particular young people who either didn’t vote or put in a protest vote.
He said the liberal media turned to finger-pointing and blamed “working-class people with legitimate concerns” for the result.
Huang said there are “a lot of critiques” to be made of the Democrats’ strategy and messaging. “They gave their left-wing base nothing to get excited about.”
A huge difference between this election and the previous two elections is the absence of left-wing pressure that was represented by Bernie Sanders, Huang said.
Under the Biden administration, “left figures like Bernie and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have channelled their energy into persuading Biden leftwards instead of agitating and building a base outside of formal politics”.
While some have proclaimed the “death of the Democratic Party”, Huang is not convinced. “Trump is able to put forth an anti-system veneer but he is actually the most rotten expression of capitalism and his policies cannot deliver for workers.
“Inevitably, when his program fails, we are going to be in another death spiral, seeing the pendulum swing between the Democrats and Republicans.
“That means the left has to figure out a way to break out … and put a real independent left-wing alternative on the map. Not just left in name, but one that arises out of real social struggle.”
Gaza genocide
Huang said Gaza and Palestine “loomed large in this election … [e]specially in battleground states like Michigan, where there are huge Arab American and Muslim populations.
“These communities have consistently backed the Democrats for the last couple of decades, and voted overwhelmingly for Biden, especially because of Trump’s policies — like banning refugees from majority Muslim countries.”
He said Democrats have “haemorrhaged support” from these communities because of their role in aiding and abetting the genocide in Gaza.
Sapunkov said university students involved in the Palestine solidarity encampments also did not turn out for the Democrats and Harris lost nearly every major college town in critical areas like Michigan.
“[S]ending military guards and police in droves to shut down student protests didn’t do Democrats any favours.
“Harris and Biden calling pro-Palestine protesters antisemitic and unlawful, constantly reaffirming Israel’s ‘right to exist’, failing to acknowledge the scope of the destruction and refusing to call it a genocide” turned people off, despite their claims they were “working tirelessly for a ceasefire”.
“Support for the Democrats dropped by about 40% in some areas, though pro-Palestine candidates such as Rashida Tlaib won a big vote,” Huang said.
However, “[w]hile these were significant changes”, they were “not as decisive as the left has made it out to be”.
“The takeaway is that we have to redouble our movement against the genocide.”
Ukraine and China
“Trump’s election isn’t just the US’ problem, it’s the whole world’s problem,” Huang said. “It will have devastating consequences for Gaza, Ukraine and the international working class.
He said Trump will use “industrial warfare” to bring manufacturing back to the US from China. “Trump will lift all constraints on oil production, deregulate everything and cut corporate taxes as part of an economic nationalist program.”
Further militarisation, including increasing weapons manufacturing and the need to control oil resources, will keep the US in the Middle East, Huang said.
Huang said Trump may pull back from US support for Ukraine and shift attention towards China — as opposed to Biden’s policy of using NATO to line up European support for a war on China.
On Gaza, “Trump has been repeatedly urging Israel to ‘finish the job’ and has appointed Mike Huckabee as the Ambassador to Israel, someone who denies that Palestinians exist and supports the annexation of the West Bank,” Huang said.
“His cabinet picks are an unimaginable rogues gallery of war hawks, alleged criminals, accused sex traffickers and right-wing conspirators … it does not bode well.”
Building a left alternative
“The right has waged a very successful cultural war against the left, making things like abortion, LGBTIQ rights, political education and critical race theory seem like the narrow concerns of radicals rather than the expression of universal equality, justice and freedom,” Huang said.
“But while the far right does have a committed social base, especially thanks to a very well-financed and sophisticated media apparatus, they don’t have a social majority.
“We should not say that every vote for Trump expresses a deep ideological sympathy for his program.”
While the results indicate a significant number of people have moved to the right, “if people move that way, they can move another way,” Sapunkov said.
“DSA received a bump in membership following the election; people are joining organisations and want to build a better world.
“We are trying to develop these new members and encourage them to take ongoing action and responsibilities.
“In New York City we filled out a church with more than 300 new members to talk about how socialism can fight fascism and why we need an alternative to the Democratic Party.”
He said building independent workers’ power “from the bottom up” is vital. Socialists are building on the United Auto Workers union’s call for a mass general strike in 2028.
Huang said activists are planning anti-Trump mobilisations around his inauguration.
“We need to build on-the-ground campaigns in unions, communities and social movements around immediate issues that have political relevance … and find opportunities to reignite class politics in our country.”
“I think it’s pretty simple,” Sapunkov said. “We need a program and a candidate that will be able to speak to frustrations around cost of living and inspire people to join the political movement we are trying to build.
“A lot of people who voted for Trump said they would support a candidate who would implement free, universal healthcare, free public transportation and address other basic needs.
“That’s the way to win the people back and prevent the shift to the right.”