Electoralism/Democratism

Why an Anarchist is Supporting Bernie Sanders

From a discussion on Reddit.

My colleagues might disagree with me and call me too reformist however I do think it is in the best interest of anarchists to support and vote for Sanders if they want improvement for the oppressed instead of romanticize about abstract ideals such as revolution.

Of course Sanders doesn’t ideologically align with us long term but that’s not important…pragmatism is most important. I believe Sanders ideas of reform will make it far more easier to set up impacting anarchist institutions in the long term anyways. Don’t get me wrong it’ll be hard to get pass congress and senate however I do think a few critical things can occur.

Foremost Sanders values the ideal of democracy as the most important principle in a free society much like anarchists. Not just parliamentary democracy but genuine workplace democracy with his strong push for worker cooperatives. There’s also a strong initiative to recognize healthcare as a right which would imply universal health care for all regardless of someones wealth, ethnicity, pre-existing conditions and so on.

Sanders is pro feminism, PoC and LGBTQI+ rights as well. This is an obvious no brainer. Sanders of course cannot magically make society into an accepting loving society where no one is judged because of who they are but he can attempt to make things better than they are.

I do believe Sanders will definitely limit the military and won’t have an imperialistic foreign policy. I have faith that he will reform the militarization of the police and will strength privacy laws both governmental policies and private entities.

It’s nice that Sanders is not corporate at all so we can address climate change in a meaningful manner as well campaign finance reform which makes for far less toxic policies economically, socially and environmentally. This goes back to the first argument I’ve made about Sanders valuing democracy which means he is extremely consistent and has always been consistent in his ideals. He is absolutely pro union as well…combined with his passion of worker cooperatives…syndicalism might be a strong force again for the first time in a hundred years. He’s passionate about opposing TPP as well.

Sanders definitely isn’t perfect or a ticket to an ideal society however that shouldn’t stop us from supporting him. He can at least get a huge conversation going among law makers if not have major change happen and reduce quite a bit of state and private hierarchy thus making it easier for us to build our own institutions. Of course we should organize on all fronts still but Sanders is a worthy cause and shouldn’t be written off. Absolute idealism won’t get us anywhere but pragmatism again and again has been most effective for change.

3 replies »

  1. “Sanders is a deranged cultist and an establishment hack, therefore we should support him.” Anyone who thinks musical chairs is going to help anything is useless. Trump is much better than Sanders, and he’s 1) a buffoon and 2) irrelevant/won’t actually do anything useful. Spengler said that optimism is cowardice, but Establishmentarianism optimism is more fucking retarded. We may as well expect Napoleon or Jesus to show up.

  2. Basically every reason this guy gives for being an anarchist is the reason I hate the government, ‘reducing hierarchy’ and all these fucking cult code-words. Jesus Christ I wish the government and fake-capitalism were half as badass as these idiots seem to think they are.

  3. Also, “Bernie Sanders is an establishment hack, but I have no sense of scale and unrealistic expecations, so I am going to support him as a way of signalling to my Commie gayard friends that I am a GoodWhite, even though it will accomplish nothing and politicians actually have minimal power”. Fuck fucking ‘Activist’ wank. Optimism is cowardice, and Establishmentarian optimism is stupid cowardice.

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