The Myth of Democracy: A Warning to the Shreveport Left
This is a warning to left forces in North Louisiana. The Democratic party is not going to be the vehicle for opposition toward Trump style fascism.
As the struggle against data centers intensifies, state legitimacy erodes, and popular discontent grows in our current historical moment, the Shreveport left should not succumb to the myth of American Democracy. What we have in Louisiana is an advanced form of plutocracy, where the state is configured almost perfectly for the benefit of the wealthy and not for the working class. This advanced forum of the dictatorship of capital does contain an increasingly thin veneer of democracy in the form of the ability to run for elections. Those elections are trapped in the confines of an overwhelmingly powerful Republican party machine and an anemic Democratic “opposition” party, both of which function as agents of capital.
As evidence of the December 18th city council vote, the support for the national tech plutocracy is bipartisan. Neither party is interested in increasing the quality of life of the working class, and neither party is interested in the implementation of true power for Shreveport’s black working class. The Republican Party is in open opposition to the black majority, while the black Democratic Party elite is focused on attempting to align the interests of a black petit-bourgeoisie with the national capitalist oligarchic class. The Democratic party are simply managers for the white nationalist government in Baton Rouge; we should not mistake it for a true opposition organization, that would be deadly. Anyone of conscience who has experience with the local and state-wide party will attest to this analysis. The “progressive” elements of the party are heavily marginalized and are seen as the primary enemies by the so-called moderates.
The current attempts of the left opposition to seize control of the Democratic party machinery will not work. The national Democratic Party is squarely beholden to the interests of the oligarchic/corporate donor class. As we see with the current left opposition in national politics, these people have been forced to the margins on almost every important issue, even if their positions are very popular with the Democratic Party base. Even simple two percent taxes on wealth or a public option are seen as anathema to the Democratic party elite. The national Democratic party would rather not exist as an organization than be beholden to any interest that challenges the vested interest of the American oligarchic class/corporate class. We on the left should push for the dismantling of the Democratic party altogether, which would be the best thing for any vestige of American democracy and opposition to Republican-led fascism.
The problems of the National Democratic Party are 10-fold for the regional party. The Shreveport Democratic Party is firmly to the right of the national party. The only real dividing line is race, as the regional Democratic party elite here is primarily black, while the Republican elite is solely white. The main locus of power for the Black Democratic Party is the black petit-bourgeoisie, the black credentialed class, and the increasingly degenerate Black Protestant Church. The Democratic Party elite has become increasingly alienated from the interests of the black working class majority. There is no real attempt to organize or mobilize this section of the population, but seemingly a deliberate attempt at demobilization. No major black Democratic party figure has put forward a platform that will mobilize the black population and is in their interest. There is no call for universal child care, black historical education in schools, or any other policy that aligns with the interests of an overwhelmingly poor/working-class subjugated nation. The black Democratic Party is solely focused on integrating the black bourgeoisie and elements of the petite bourgeoisie into a collapsing oligarchic system. These people are the enemies of the left opposition and of their own black working-class constituents. They will ally with the white nationalist Republican party if the left even remotely seems close to power, as we have seen in national politics.
What Should Be Done
The Shreveport Left Opposition should focus on building alternative institutions and working to dismantle the two-party system. Mobilizing and organizing the working classes in Shreveport and building a class and (among the black working class) national consciousness should be the priority. That building can only happen through education, public mobilizations, and open confrontation of the growing left-opposition with the regional pleutocratic state. Those mobilizations should always have a dialectical relationship with organizations. You mobilize to increase your mobilizations, which should always aid in the ability toward organization. New organizational structures should have the added effect of larger and faster mobilizations at times of crisis, elections, and ultimately revolution.
There is an obvious void in Northern Louisiana regarding the left. The significance of North Louisiana in the reactionary camp should not be underestimated. Shreveport was the last capital of the Louisiana State Confederacy and the HQ of the trans-Mississippi department of the Confederate Army. Caddo Parish and Bossier Parish were the epicenter of massive reconstruction and post-reconstruction violence, with 120 corpses reported pulled out of the Red River after one “Nigger Hunt” in 1868 alone (Read Black Reconstruction by W.E.B Dubois). This reactionary culture continued well into the civil rights movement, as it was a center of white reaction to the civil rights movement of the Southern Democratic Party. With the national dominance of the MAGA movement and one of its stewards being the Chief Regional Cracker Mike Johnson, the goal of the regional left to take power has never been more urgent.