The United States is in for some dark times and I find it hard to be optimistic right now. Over the past four years, neoconservative and neoliberal factions of the ruling class previously at odds (at least publicly) have put aside their subtle differences to form a united front against Trump. Establishment Democrats and Republicans view both Trump’s right-wing populism and Bernie Sanders’s left-wing populism as threats to their globalist trade, surveillance state, and imperialist ambitions.
Bernie Sanders was the most popular Democratic candidate in decades because he offered things the working class needs like healthcare, higher education, a living wage, etc. Instead of embracing aspects of Sander’s platform, Democrats actively chose to move in the opposite direction by embracing anti-Trump Republicans — and it worked.
This united front now preparing to take power includes notorious neocons and war criminals like Dick Cheney, Jeff Flake, John Kasich, John McCain’s family, and Collin Powell among many others. But that’s not all. Intelligence organizations such as the FBI, CIA, and DHS have also joined establishment Democrats and Republicans against Trump. Nearly 300 members of the intelligence community penned a joint statement of support for Biden during his candidacy.
While people rightfully rejected Trump’s far-right rhetoric, they fail to acknowledge the fascist superpower forming right before our eyes under a Biden-Harris administration. Neoliberal corporatism carries all the same characteristics of fascism’s economic aspects: class collaboration, misclassifying workers as contractors, mass surveillance, allowing corporations to dictate laws and regulations, etc. As the Biden-Harris administration comes to power, artificial intelligence will be exploding as well — stripping more Americans of their jobs and enhancing the surveillance state to a dystopian degree.
Without any policies to improve our material conditions, people will only become poorer and more desperate. Without any hope or alternative, divisions among the people will widen and we’ll all be much worse off in four years than anyone was under Trump. Unfortunately, that seems to be the direction we’re heading.
Conflict in the United States has been brewing for some time. Over the past 30 years, globalist neoliberal trade policies have exported jobs abroad while driving down wages at home.
Corporations and Washington have worked hand-in-hand to dismantle the little safety net we had through privatization. Everything is privatized here and living is very costly every month: rent, water, gas, electricity, internet access, medicine, news, food. Millions of Americans (myself included) do not have health insurance, money for retirement, a college degree, or even enough money for an emergency car repair. Rent prices have skyrocketed with most people paying over half of their monthly income towards housing alone and much more for utility bills.
On top of it, we live under the control of a racist, exploitative, and violent police force. When police aren’t killing civilians, they’re arresting people for non-violent crimes to extort money for the state.
Without any prospects and no control over the political process, people are angry, frustrated, and chronically stressed. The US is very well on the verge of serious unrest. People are also confused and don’t know who the real enemy is because our news functions as propaganda for the state and corporations.
Instead of looking at the corporations and government for deteriorating their quality of life, people point the finger at each other. This is why we saw Trump win the 2016 election. Trump exploited those fears and underlying racism by pointing the finger at immigrants, Muslims, Mexicans, etc. Now, Biden exploited those same fears as well by blaming Trump and his supporters for all our problems and portraying himself as the only protector between us and a looming fascist state. But again, neo-fascism is still building regardless of whether a Democrat or Republican is in power.
Half the country feels wronged and outraged over Biden’s upcoming presidential term. The other half of Americans feel like electing Biden will bring everything back to normal. Unfortunately, “normal” doesn’t necessarily mean “good” and Biden won’t do anything useful to de-escalate tensions between the people. His words are hollow and people have already lost faith in the government, especially career politicians like Biden and Kamala Harris.
A Biden-Harris administration will no doubt continue neoliberal trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, escalate wars abroad, continue deportations, and use civilian income tax to fund the military instead of providing any material support we need. Tensions between the people will just get worse under Biden — not better.
With Biden in office, protest attendance will significantly shrink as well. However, right-wing militias and similar racist groups will be as angry and strong as ever. With police always taking the side of the right-wing groups, things will no doubt turn ugly. It’s only a matter of time. We already saw some of this violence take place over the summer with shootings at protests and cars driving into protesters. With a Democrat holding office, however, we won’t see these stories blown up on the nightly news because there’s no benefit for them to do so anymore.
I see a Biden-Harris administration reacting more aggressively towards protests than the Trump administration has. When asked about police violence during his campaign, Biden repeatedly condemned protesters as violent looters instead of even answering the question about police violence.
On top of this, Kamala Harris held a job as District Attorney before her tenure in the Senate. As San Francisco’s District Attorney, Harris skyrocketed felony conviction rates from 50% to a shocking 76%. Harris also kept prisoners locked up past their parole dates so California could use them as cheap labor, such as fighting the California wildfires.
Both Biden and Harris are right-wing politically. That’s why they’ve absorbed mainstream Republicans into their campaign and cabinet.
We’ll see this manifest when protests eventually erupt again under their administration. I expect to see a Biden-Harris administration send National Guard troops to cities much faster than Trump did over the summer and ignore state governments to do so as well. And with the intelligence agencies united again behind a Biden-Harris government, surveillance of protesters and kidnappings could get much worse.
In the wake of the Michael Brown murder by police and nationwide protests that began in Ferguson, Missouri, political organizers and protesters have ended up dead under mysterious circumstances. People have conveniently forgotten about these gruesome deaths when they claim a Biden-Harris administration will be a safer place for protesters than Trump’s America.
It’s hard to say how the security state will respond to unrest in the streets between different groups. Police always take the side of right-wing groups when the question comes up. But at the end of the day, the police and government want stability and they’ll do whatever it takes to get it. The government is seriously afraid of people losing faith in the electoral process and government institutions so I can’t imagine unrest from any side will be tolerated well.