Democrat Joe Biden‘s empty and uninspiring presidential candidacy has become so obvious that the leftist “Not Him, Us” campaign has openly declared, “We’ve got our own reasons to vote for Biden, and Joe ain’t one.”
The campaign’s premise is that far-left, self-identified “revolutionaries” do not have a candidate to vote for after the failure of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. but that Democrats must vote against President Donald Trump.
The #NotHimUs movement shares “Strategic Maxims” and testimonials from supporters that reveal two truths about Biden’s campaign: The campaign lacks energetic and enthusiastic supporters, and it is being controlled by leftists.
One maxim is that “Democrats may deserve to lose, but working people can’t afford for Trump to win.”
Other rationales advanced at NotHimUs.org:
- “We can’t count on the Democratic Party to defeat Trump.”
- “Vote today for the candidate you want to pressure tomorrow.”
- “Things getting worse won’t get us closer to things getting better.”
This does not sound like the language of an ascendant movement, and yet the group desperately claims, “It might not feel like it right now, but our movements are starting to win.”
The testimonials, likewise, have a despairing tone that will not push enthusiastic voters to the polls.
If you’re as ambivalent about Joe Biden as I am, check out @NotHimUS
It’s not about electing Biden — it’s about setting up our movements to win.#NotHimUS #LetsGetToWork https://t.co/8UKDIBW6tY
— Jonathan Smucker (@jonathansmucker) September 16, 2020
David Sirota, who was a senior advisor and speechwriter for Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, affirmed Smucker’s analysis in a response.
This is good. This is the right message. It’s honest. It doesn’t try to pretend Biden is awesome. It doesn’t insult voters’ intelligence. It doesn’t try to insult or vote shame people into voting to defeat Trump. It makes a positive case. Solid. https://t.co/m9vQcqOrpE
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) September 16, 2020
Many Democrats blame the Bernie ‘Bros’ for Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016 because they treated her candidacy in a similar way, which weakened turnout among young socialists.
The #NotHimUs website contains almost no specific policy proposals, but it is filled with vague platitudes about “democracy,” “struggle” and Trump’s “fascism.”
The page’s featured quote from Harvard professor Cornel West, who espouses anti-white critical race theory and advocates for Marxism, gives away the group’s intentions.
“A vote for Joe Biden is … a way of preserving the condition for the possibility of any kind of democratic practice in the United States,” West said.
The group’s overarching concern is that four more years of Trump’s presidency will fundamentally change what radical leftists can achieve in American politics.
“Many people are now painfully aware that the United States is on the verge of falling under an iron fist of repressive rule, crushing basic democratic possibilities, if Donald Trump gets a second term as president,” columnist Norman Solomon wrote about #NotHimUs in Nation of Change.
Some posts in support of #NotHimUs suggest that Biden will allow Antifa and Black Lives Matter to continue their terror campaign, while Trump will end it.
Many Twitter users have reposted a statement from the website that employs Marxist rhetoric.
“Our struggle goes way beyond elections. We’re in the streets. We’re talking to our neighbors. We’re organizing our workplaces. But who controls the presidency profoundly limits or expands the range of what is politically possible for all our struggles. We’re voting for a more favorable terrain.”
There are multiple references to what’s happening on America’s streets, indicating that the group either passively supports or actively participates in the arson, riots, and looting.
“In the streets: one of the most massive uprisings in our nation’s history is unfolding, demanding racial justice and systemic change,” the group said on the website.
Smucker founded #NotHimUs in partnership with Solomon’s group RootsAction.
They reject liberal establishment’s worldview and the Democratic Party, but they seek a partnership with them in order to bring about their goals.
RootsAction, for example, says the Democratic Party’s “leadership is enmeshed with and compromised by corporate power.”
Smucker’s 2017 book Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals has been compared to Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, the ’60s era handbook that had a profound impact in shaping the political tactics of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Both books train leftists in undermining America’s culture, laws and institutions so that there are no obstacles to implementing single-payer health care, the Green Terror and the unlimited right to kill unborn children.
But Smucker has doubts about the future of the far-left movement.
“The bad news is that the Democratic Party’s corporate-friendly old guard won the presidential primary,” Smucker said. “Now we have a nominee that millions of working-class people and young people are not at all enthusiastic about, and this enthusiasm gap could spell a second term for Trump.”
Yet, Smucker said he thinks that the “old guard” Democratic Party may ultimately succumb to the new wave of radicals like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.
