(Editor’s note: We reproduce the following article with the permission of the El Tribuno del Pueblo.)
OK, we get it. Some people are saying that these presidential elections, like the previous ones and the ones before that, are just voting for the lesser of two evils. We’re not going to argue about that.
But what we are going to say is that the 2024 presidential election is probably the most consequential in our lifetimes. The election is generating a great deal of hope that our developing movement for rights and democracy can push back the far right, allowing our fight for a better world for all to flourish.
We know this means to keep Trump—and the Project 2025 plan he represents, plus his own Agenda 47—out of the White House. This is not an endorsement of the Democratic Party. We have been driven backward over many years by both Democratic and Republican administrations. Growing millions are now saying they will not be driven backward any further and they are fighting for the little democracy that we still have.
Donald Trump is openly telling America and the world what he is going to do if he wins: mass deportations and filling up the detention centers with immigrants and migrants. And if there is not enough room to keep your neighbors, relatives and children locked up, then open up the local jails and prisons for anyone who opposes Trump, citizen or not.
As if violating the human rights of millions of migrants and immigrants isn’t enough, Trump will go after you. It’s all in Project 2025. Here is a partial list of what he proposes:
- Abandon strategies for dealing with climate change, including repealing regulations that curb emissions, downsizing the Environmental Protection Agency and abolishing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
- Roll back civil rights protections, including cutting diversity, equity and inclusion-related programs and LGBTQ+ rights in healthcare, education and workplaces.
- Limit access to federal food assistance.
- Eliminate the Head Start early education program.
- Ban abortion nationwide.
- Furthermore, privatize Medicare and stop efforts to lower prescription drug prices.
Keeping Trump Out of the White House
Again, this is not an endorsement of the Democratic Party, which has continued to fail the American people in numerous ways, but rather a call to defend what little democracy remains in the United States.
Focusing on stopping Trump does not mean we stop applying pressure to the Democrats on our issues, such as ending the genocide in Palestine, stopping global warming, adopting a humane immigration policy, securing voting rights and reproductive rights, ending homelessness and poverty, racism, police killings and so on. It simply means that when we vote, we vote to defeat Project 2025.
Without preserving our little democracy, it will be even harder to wage the struggle to build a real democracy. A broad movement against corporate power and for democracy, peace, justice, equality and prosperity for all is rising in this country. It will not let anyone stand in its way as it pushes forward to secure our vision of a United States that is a free society that nurtures and protects all its people.
The way forward
“As working-class people, we are up against the most powerful forces in the world, and our mission is to take that power back. The deck is stacked against auto workers, educators and working-class people everywhere. But we have one thing that the billionaires in the corporate class will never have. We have solidarity. So, we have the power to come together in a common cause to defeat the forces of corporate greed. In the name of economic and social justice, we have solidarity.”—United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain
We agree with Fain. It’s up to the laboring masses to bring about change. To do so, they must have hope and faith in themselves. No matter how unreachable that vision appears to be, the working masses can bring about change. History has proven it.
When the yoke of the British monarchy became unbearable, Americans rallied and forged a movement to get rid of it. They fought hard and established a republic. This republic wasn’t perfect, but it paved the way for further change.
It inspired revolutions for democracy in Latin America, Haïti and México against the yoke of European (Spanish and Portuguese) imperialism.
Enslaved people in the United States rallied and forged a movement to get rid of the shackles of slavery. Slavery was abolished, though not without shedding rivers of blood.
When women couldn’t stand the subjugation of second-class citizenship anymore, they rallied and forged a movement for their right to vote, thus ending their second-class status.
These are only a few examples of what the masses of this country can achieve when they rally together in solidarity and fight for the nation they aspire to.
