althiest Americans so we can finally give tax relief to the middle class. I don't know what's next. By the end of the week he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten. I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich."
So all joking aside, the only "socialism" Obama supports is "Wall Street Socialism." Despite his promise to raise taxes on the richest 5 percent of Americans, the $700 billion bailout is a case of "socialism in reverse," a massive handout to the rich, which will have to be paid for by the working class either in higher taxes later on, or through even further cuts in our quality of life. But the fact remains: Americans are at the very least increasingly open to the idea of genuine socialism. This has important implications for the future.
Obama needed 270 electoral votes to win the election. As of this writing, with 96 percent of the votes counted, he has 338 electoral votes, more than double McCain's 163. In the popular vote, he has won by 52 to 46 percent. His victory came despite reports of fraud, voter intimidation and disenfranchisement, particularly of Black voters. In St. Louis, for example, text messages were sent out to Black voters telling them that Obama supporters should vote on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. The only part of the city to report breakdowns in voting machines was in North City, a predominantly Black area. Despite all of this, Obama's victory over John McCain was overwhelming, and the Republican conceded relatively early on election night.
In the absence of a mass party of labor, most of the attention has been focused on the two main capitalist parties. With "Obamamania" in full effect, it was a hard year for third party candidates. Nonetheless, Ralph Nader won nearly 600,000 votes (after raising an estimated $4 million for his campaign), and Cynthia McKinney won nearly 120,000 (with a campaign budget of just $188,000). Between them and several other left-wing candidates, they received more votes than the right-wing third-party candidates from the Libertarian and Constitution parties. And in San Francisco's District 8, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan challenged Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi whose complicity in the war has made her extremely unpopular. Although she didn't win, it appears Cindy Sheehan got 17 percent of the vote, not at all bad against a powerful and well-entrenched incumbent.
Along with Obama's decisive victory, this all indicates that while the country is increasingly polarized in both directions, there is a definite, albeit modest shift to the left. This highlights the potential for a mass party of labor if the unions would break with the Democrats. Just imagine if the $300 million spent by the labor movement on electing Obama had instead been spent on building a labor party and fielding candidates fighting in the interests of the working class?
The Democrats now have a commanding advantage in both the House and the Senate. After they won a majority in Congress in 2006, many thought they would at the very least move decisively to cut the funding and end the war in Iraq. They did no such thing. After Tuesday night, they have no excuses not to end the war immediately and to pass legislation in the interests of the millions of workers and youth who voted them into power. They have a clear majority in Congress and control the White House as well. Their domination of U.S. politics seems complete. And yet, just a few years ago, many political commentators went so far as to declare the party dead. How quickly things can change! As we explained in 2002, after the Democrats were routed in the midterm elections:
"As Marxists we have no illusions whatsoever in the Democratic Party, which presents itself as the 'kinder gentler' face of U.S. capitalism. They are tied hand and foot to the capitalist class, and will never represent the interests of working people. They may put up resistance on various issues of minor importance, but they will never in a million years side against capital in favor of the working class. They 