The purpose of protecting the life of our Nation and preserving the liberty of our citizens is to pursue the happiness of our people. Our success in that pursuit is the test of our success as a Nation.
At this time, we have witnessed what many have known was coming for decades: The death knell of American democracy. When Lyndon Baines Johnson gave this now-forgotten speech it was in the wake of the Kennedy assassination and at the beginning of his great society program to eradicate poverty throughout America - perhaps the most ambitious welfare program since the New Deal as well as the height of the American civil rights movement.
How did we end up here? We now find ourselves in a world where basic social security and long-accepted federal grants are under threat. The long-held compromises of democracy have been stripped away until all that remains is a mere facade of legitimacy that now is coming apart. We find ourselves on the path of Eastern Europe's authoritarians in Belarus and Russia. Far from the premier standard of democracy we once held ourselves up to, we can no longer keep up the illusion as oligarchs ascend openly in power and the media is reduced to mere mouthpieces of their nightmarish commands as we teeter ever further over the abyss. Many fear the Rubicon will be crossed soon when it has already. Our answer for how we got here lies in the speech of LBJ's successor;
And so tonight, to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support. I pledged in my campaign for the presidency to end the war in a way that we could win the peace.
We find ourselves here not because of the silent majority as Nixon conjured to justify his policy in Vietnam, but instead because of what I like to call the "silenced majority". These Americans have long been ignored by either party due to their prior irrelevance in their eyes. They were discarded to the side with the implementation of NAFTA and the failure of American Industry to maintain its competitive edge on the global market, a by-product of Neo-liberalism's failure. You only need to look at the ghost towns of the midwest. For these people, what remains of the American dream but abandoned homes and once lively streets? Where is their savior or their salvation?
In came Bernie Sanders, a champion of progressivism and left-wing populism with a reputation as an honest figure, a rarity in our politics. Out of left field, he overnight became a challenge to Clinton despite having been dismissed for decades as a figure who only represented the leftward fringes. He spoke of hope, healthcare, and revival. He presented a constructive revolution to rebuild democracy and revitalize those forgotten communities. Sanders experienced a groundswell of support among democratic voters, and he was ignored following his loss in the DNC primaries in 2016 despite securing 43% of the vote. The common refrain in the media is that it was nothing but hype and youthful energy now expelled, citing his lower showing in 2020. But this is a mere excuse to avoid reckoning with what Sanders had tapped into - something much larger and much more uncomfortable than the Democratic party was ever willing to give voice to. Yes, Sanders ran again in 2020 and won 26% of the vote, but that only showed there remained a sizable base captivated by his message. So, where did the remainder go? Simple: they stayed home. Who wanted to stand up for Clinton, an ally of the massive corporations? Who wanted to stand up for the very establishment and the oligarchs they wanted out?
Bernie was an independent, an outsider who spoke to these forgotten communities and provided a chance for the revival of liberal democracy and the American dream in their eyes, and he was shot down by the establishment and their calls for normalcy. His reforms and calls for change were ignored. Meanwhile, in the Republican primaries, a billionaire businessman by the name of Donald Trump took the forefront of the American populist movement, mobilized them, and called for a destructive revolution against “Wokeness, NAFTA, and the Establishment” which had ignored them. And with their hope for a positive revolution underneath Bernie, these working-class communities threw in their lot with Trump. A base of the forgotten, ignored by the parties, who cared little for the partisanship of the democrats and republicans. A base Bernie could easily have appealed to. Trump gave them not a voice for change but a voice for revenge against the institutions that had wronged them. So fell the Grachii and so now rises Caesar.
Who cares for healthcare when you can't access it? Who cares for flying when you've never been on a plane? Who cares for honesty and integrity when the ones who had it are gone? And who cares for democracy when it never cared for you? We are indeed witnessing the end of at least the old American democracy as the democrats remain hesitant to do what must be done to delay if not stop these changes. They have become too accustomed to power and their tradition of liberalism to recognize they must let go of their old norms to preserve it and their supporters.
I expect the Democrats to fail to learn from these experiences, just as Kamala Harris learned nothing from Biden's failures, and as we have come to see the previous status quo is no longer viable as a point of return. Far from the days of LBJ and Kennedy, the democrats have only fallen further into the control of corporations, consistently prioritizing money, and their re-election, over the people they represent. They regard their role of political dominance as natural now even when it is not. It lies upon us as socialists to pick up the Promethean Torch of Democracy from where it has been forgotten and raise it higher than ever before. The people must reclaim their voice so that we can have a true functional democracy rather than a 2-party diarchy or a populist dictatorship. We as Americans, should never again have to fear for their livelihoods or our communities. We can restore democracy and the American dream but one better and stronger than before. Not as the founding fathers envisioned, but as we were promised as children. Only through that idealized America achieved through socialism may we triumph.
It is thus in my eyes necessary to launch a new crusade against fascism, bigotry, prejudice, corruption, and poverty. An honest one, a just one, and a peaceful one, but one that nonetheless is a new and more radical change than anything before it. We now live in abnormal times and the old norms are no longer sustainable. There is a struggle before us from which we cannot back down and we cannot surrender. The leaders that people trusted to defend their rights have shown that they will do nothing in the face of this crisis, and all that remains for the people are each other.
We are the red embers of democracy which refuse to go out. We are the embers of this great flame of democracy that must be rekindled higher and brighter than ever before.