Claims have been made lately that in the upcoming tussle between the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party in Canada, the NDP will do badly at the polls.
Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that this prediction is well founded. That is, let us suppose for the sake of argument that the bourgeoisie are not blowing smoke up our asses to convince us, as they usually want to, that nothing even remotely leftist can possibly succeed.
What are we to make of this impending slaughter of this furthest left of our major parties, a party which, even at that, is scarcely Left and does not dare to be socialist?
Take a look at what has been happening in the U.S. for years. In order to prevent Republican victories, progressives and leftists of various sorts have been saying that while the Democrats have their serious faults (proxy war and genocide spring to mind) the Republicans are worse. This is the “lesser of two evils” argument . I myself have been undecided sometimes about this line of thought. I admit that had I been an American, I would have voted Democrat in the last election. Was it not so paramount that the Republicans be defeated that even the execrable Democrat party was eminently preferable? Is not the increasing madness since the inauguration an indication of just what a catastrophe it is that the Democrats did not win the Whitehouse?
Undoubtedly, Republican victory has not made anything better (even the promise of peace in Ukraine seems to fade with every passing announcement) and it has made many things a great deal worse. But counter to the “lesser of two evils” argument, which has been made for many years, is the fact that following the “lesser of two evils” practice makes that lesser evil more and more evil, with every passing election. Abandoning human principles on the basis that you are still better than your enemy seems to mean that while your enemy charges further and further through the gates of hell to embrace the devil, you, for all your intentions, end up chained to your enemy, and following at every step. But perhaps, when you finally meet the Lord of Darkness, you will embrace him not quite as tightly as your enemies do?
One advantage Canada has is that we actually have a viable NDP. And while it has never taken power in a federal government, it has sometimes had sufficient muscle to influence that government significantly, and has not infrequently won provincially.
But if we quash this party on April 28, though I reject any cowardly fatalism that would call this defeat permanent, we will be strengthening the Right in Canada—ironically, in our attempt to weaken it.
How shall we fight capitalism in its current Trumpist manifestation? Why, smash the closest thing we have to a Left, of course, what could make more sense?
If the NDP is sidelined to insignificance, Canada will be left in a Yankee-like spiral of “the lesser of two evils.” Our “democracy” will be democracy only for those who do not want to vote Left under any circumstances. Our “democracy” will be, in effect, bourgeois democracy: a choice between two factions of increasingly destructive capitalism.
Thus do we allow capital to make the rules. No wonder it keeps winning.