Animals, Democrats and Anti-Fascism

My younger self, that tried to keep the Democratic Party at arm’s length, would cringe. My front yard is covered with no fewer than 10 campaign signs for Democratic candidates in the upcoming midterm elections. One sign is so big that it genuinely blocks our view pulling out of the driveway and represents a safety hazard.

I don’t know much about the candidates listed on these signs. One, Richard Blumenthal, I’m actively picketing in the hopes he will support increased funding for cultivated-meat research. I have no doubt few, if any, support the Bernie Sanders-like economic agenda I’d prefer. I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple are hunters and boast about it in their campaign literature.

Still, the signs are there. In the past, I didn’t keep my distance from the Democratic Party because I was undecided between them and the Republicans. I kept my distance because I was undecided between Democrats and voting for a third-party alternative or not voting at all.

Noam Chomsky was an early and significant influence for me, and I tried employ his recommendation of voting for Democrats in competitive races and third-party candidates in safely-Democratic elections. I’ve always lived in solidly blue states. So, for instance, when Bernie Sanders lost the Democratic primary in 2016, I voted for the Green Party in the general election.

For a variety of reasons, I’ve stopped doing that. Perhaps most significantly, I’ve come to realize — or perhaps, more accurately, come to accept  — elections in the United States are a binary choice for the time being. Third parties have no realistic path to exercise power. Would I support efforts to move the country towards a more parliamentary model? Absolutely. But that’s not the America we live in now.

Any positive change in the United States, including change for animals, will come through the Democratic Party, absent a massive realignment of coalitions. Bernie Sanders’ two campaigns have shown me that while there are powerful actors who will do everything possible to keep it from happening, the Democratic Party can be pushed in a more progressive direction.

Now, you could say all this and still vote for third-party candidates in safely-Democratic races. But, for one, I don’t think anyone’s real life or internet connections are limited to a single state or district. Any sort of advocacy for a protest vote is going to reach audiences which wouldn’t benefit from it. Perhaps more importantly, though, I think there’s an advantage of being seen as part of the Democratic coalition, however small, that needs to be catered to in some degree.

Also, if you want to see structural change to our election system, heightening the contradictions of our current system, by, say, running up Democratic vote totals in a presidential election that Republicans ultimately win, solely because of the Electoral College, makes reform more likely. There are also real benefits from running on the Democratic ballot line. I was struck by the following anecdote from Raina Lipsitz’s wonderful book, Rise of a New Left.

Jabari Brisport is a vegan socialist who ran for city council on the Green Party line. “Brisport’s 2017 showing, though impressive for a third-party candidate, netted him only about 29 percent of the vote,” Lipsitz says. “When he ran for a state senate seat as a Democrat in 2020, he won the primary with nearly 60 percent of the vote and the general with over 99 percent.”

The choice of whether to vote for Democrats or whether to vote for a third party or whether to vote at all has to be put in the context of our political moment. Republicans in years past have been dangerous. But, in my view, Donald Trump and the movement he leads represent a unique threat that would stamp out what little democracy we have in this country if given the chance.

I’ve written elsewhere that animal liberation is my political priority. It’s not that I don’t care about other issues. It’s just that — because of the number of animals we exploit and the depth of suffering we inflict  — I view it as most important. But here’s the thing. There will be no progress on my political priority, or anyone else’s, in a fascist America. In fact, there will be terrible regression.

For that reason, I believe we need to emphasize anti-fascism to some extent, while not forgetting our political priorities. The anti-fascism I’m talking about isn’t about street fighting. Whatever the morality of beating up random neo-Nazis is, I don’t think it’s very effective. The only way to truly defeat this authoritarian threat is to crush the Republican Party at the polls and prosecute their criminal leaders.