USA: Mid-term elections

Electoral polarization, imperialist consensus

First published in El Impreso #83, December 2022 

There was no red tide on November 8, it was just a small wave. On that day, votes were cast to renew the chambers of the U.S. Congress, in the so-called mid-term elections. The vote was closer than expected, since forecasts predicted that the Republican Party (PR) would win both houses. This was not the case: in the House of Representatives, which was renewed in full, the PR won, but by a small margin, while in the Senate, the Democratic Party (PD) maintained the 50 seats that give it control due to the tie-breaking vote of the vice-president; it could even increase its margin if it wins the ballot for the senator from Georgia in December. There were also gubernatorial elections in 36 states and while the PR won the majority (26 to 24), the PD managed to regain 2 governorships. Voter turnout was relatively high, 65% of the electoral roll, an alarming sign for an imperialist democracy based on the political control of an elite.

The elections, which show an extreme polarization among voters, are taking place on the accelerated erosion of institutions due to the development of the world capitalist crisis, which has not stopped since 2008 and has been deepening due to the pandemic, the inflationary scenario and the shadow of recession. The layoffs in Silicon Valley technology companies in recent weeks are a sign of the times to come. The movements in the streets that tried to be assimilated by the coalition that supported Biden have led to the co-optation of its leadership (Democratic Socialists of America) but it has not been able to stop the mobilizations or the strikes of the so-called Generation U (for Union). The blow to the institutions of imperialist democracy that meant the seizure of the capitol at the exit of the Trump administration has not been closed either, although it is necessary to take note of the defeat of the Trumpist candidates in these mid-term elections. The latter has pushed back "outsiders" like Trump against other, no less right-wing, but more "institutional" wings of his party.

The outcome of the election, with the congressional chambers split, greater balance in the governorships and a muted defeat of Biden and the DP, will probably settle a line of agreements between the party elites. These imperialist consensuses were already shown in the keys of the campaign itself, which synthetically were the economic crisis in the case of the Republicans and the defense of abortion rights on the Democratic side. But the policy of support to Ukraine in the war, a great point of debate in all the elections held this year in different European countries, was not discussed. The fact is that there is a strong imperialist agreement in maintaining Biden's offensive on Russia, and mainly on China, a warlike policy that colors all international relations, but also the domestic policy of each member of the system of states. The acceleration of the assimilation of the former workers' states is clearly the axis not of debate, but of imperialist agreement. And these elections will try to show the need to strengthen the institutions to weld these agreements, with the difficult task of bringing back into the fold of imperialist policy a petty bourgeoisie more and more distant from production, but above all of reconstructing a labor aristocracy capable of sustaining the war policy. All this, on the decline of the productive forces determined by imperialist decomposition.

The task of revolutionaries is to fight for the development of the experiences of class struggle in order to draw from them the best conclusions in the light of the historical experience of our class. It is necessary to regenerate a communist vanguard. That is why the urgency of rebuilding the IV International, for which we propose an international conference of the currents that raise the program of the dictatorship of the proletariat.