FEEDING ILLUSIONS: LIBERALISM, ANTI- COMMUNISM AND THE DEMOCRATIC
PARTY
Dave Silver
November 2004
Liberals have historically always felt more comfortable with the Right
than the Left. This follows logically from the fact that they regard
capitalist bourgeois democracy as the system that can best meet the
needs of the vast majority of people. They mechanically adopt the
principle of organizing only within the framework of the system and
therefore feel that energy should be put into the Democratic Party
because “that’s where the masses are.” The Democratic Party is not
a mass organization and masses are not “in” the Party. The masses
are given a choice of two evils, and vote for what they believe to
be the lesser evil since they have no alternative available. Thus
Liberalism, as it rejects a radical class perspective, at the same
time finds a new and comfortable “center” where they buy into racist
notions such as I’m for affirmative action but against “quotas” or
that we should credit Rudy Giuliani with bringing crime down.
A more subtle opportunism and anti-communism is prevalent among those
who are further to the Left and consider themselves for the most part
as anti-imperialist. They adopt the politics of neo-marxism (the “traditional”
kind is outmoded and no longer has answers for the global economy,
they say.), social democracy or the “new left.” Many may be anti-racist.
I allude to groups such as The Brecht Forum, listener supported WBAI,
North American Congress for Latin America (NACLA) and Committee in
Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), the Green Party
and other justice and peace Coalitions.
These latter groups equally condemn “violence” whether it is the reactionary
violence of the imperialist or domestic oppressor or the violence
of liberation or oppressed and exploited peoples. We have seen them
applaud imperialism’s attempt to demonize and try leaders such as
Milosevic for crimes against humanity. They equate as co-evils both
he and the NATO bombing of his country. Most egregious of all is the
common practice of the Liberal-Left to equate socialism and fascism.
Of course the essential anti-communism is camouflaged with the cutting
edge code word “Stalinism.” This group likes to equate the two opposite
systems using surrogate symbolism; for instance ripping out all historic
context they refer to the Hitler Stalin Pact. One program equated
the Nazi manifestation of Kristallnacht with the Berlin Wall needed
to safeguard the socialist base of the German Democratic Republic
against the illegally adopted west German Mark.
Caught up in “making the system work better” these folk invite Black
and white elected officials who tell us that they can do a better
job than the Republicans and pose as the only hope for the downtrodden.
The choice is clear; we must reject the Liberal often racist and anti-communist
path or feed the dangerous illusion that the Democratic Party, whether
“reformed” or “Independent” can be a Peoples Party. One cannot be
anti-imperialist or anti-racist and at the same time be anti-communist.
Marx called them antagonistic.
