I, like lots of you, am processing the outcomes of the latest U.S. election through which Donald Trump received handily each the electoral school and widespread vote. As pundits talk about, left mainstream media personalities mourn, and sure many Trump supporters cheer ecstatically, as a progressive Bitcoiner it’s completely clear to me: If the Democratic Social gathering desires a future in America, it should embrace Bitcoin.
Let me clarify what I imply. Not solely do I feel is it crucial for the get together to embrace Bitcoin if it desires to outlive, however after this decisive Trump victory, I feel many inside the get together, and people unbiased voters who dip out and in of voting for democratic candidates, want to make a drastic change and return to the drafting board.
Bernie is again, and he has one thing to say.
It ought to come as no nice shock {that a} Democratic Social gathering which has deserted working class individuals would discover that the working class has deserted them.Whereas the Democratic management defends the established order, the American persons are offended and wish change.And so they’re proper. pic.twitter.com/lM2gSJmQFL
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 6, 2024
Now that Biden’s time period is coming to an in depth, and Harris conceded the race in defeat, Bernie isn’t mincing phrases together with his criticism of the democratic get together and priorities. “It ought to come as no nice shock {that a} Democratic Social gathering which has deserted working class individuals would discover that the working class has deserted them.” Many inside the get together, and former Bernie supporters who maybe aren’t within the get together or supportive any longer, have been beating this drum for some time: Democrats favor coastal elites, who opine about progressive politics and “wokism” intellectually, whereas paying lip-service (and patronizing numerous different minority teams) to working class people. After dropping to Donald Trump twice, many democrats, progressives, and positively unbiased and democratic american voters are questioning, the place can we go from right here?
Trump is a tour de pressure. A charismatic determine that has actually altered the course of American politics in methods the GOP, strategists, journalists, and the political institution by no means thought was attainable. The democratic get together has been struggling to provide you with solutions towards Trump and MAGA populism after 2016. Whereas mainstream media could proceed to forged his victories because the product of racism, sexism, or different beliefs steeped in id politics, the identical they did in 2016, many inside the get together are accepting that the methods round id politics, anti-Trump, and a few ethical excessive floor are decisively ineffective.
Whereas all of us might be analyzing knowledge, voter profiles, tendencies, and so on over the subsequent a number of months, many journalists, together with some fairly influential progressive leaning media retailers together with Pod Save America, Breaking Factors, and past conceded that the Democratic Social gathering should return to being the get together of working individuals and concentrate on the economic system and inflation, which was one of the vital necessary points for voters on the polls this 12 months. The Democratic get together interval from 2016-present has targeted closely on id politics, what many deem as “wokism” and extra, which I wouldn’t discredit out proper. A lot of that is necessary. However, the load and prioritization of those points over financial and different hardships People face has been the difficulty. Many democrats and progressive knew this, however now we’ve knowledge and election outcomes to show that it’s not a profitable technique for the get together, significantly within the presidential election.
Being a progressive and Bitcoiner is kind of a novel place to be in, and it’s helped me analyze the world and predict sure tendencies and outcomes in fascinating ways in which usually occasions bitcoiners, or progressives outdoors of the bitcoin bubble, miss. Actually, I’m not alone. Most of the outspoken progressives and left-leaning of us within the bitcoin house had been former Bernie bros, impressed by Occupy Wall Avenue and different populist financial messages round wealth inequality, company seize in America, Huge Financial institution bailouts and the 2008 International Monetary Disaster. Many people have been turned off by the get together’s pivot away from these battles, even to the purpose the place Senator Elizabeth Warren has been working with and funded closely by Huge Banks, to not point out her and lots of others excessive hostile takes towards the revolutionary know-how born within the wake of the International Monetary Disaster: Bitcoin.
Right here’s my take: Not solely should the Democrats embrace Bitcoin to have a political future in America–I feel many present and former members can be way more open to it. Rep. Ro Khanna is one main instance of a progressive democrat who understands the place the Democratic Social gathering has been dropping floor to the Republicans on financial points and Bitcoin. On the Bitcoin convention in Nashville this previous summer season, Rep Khanna acknowledged, “Being towards Bitcoin is like being towards cell telephones or the laptop computer, or semi conductors, it is a know-how.” Bitcoin is for freedom.”
Bitcoin advocates and marketing campaign funding performed an enormous half on this 12 months’s presidential election. Whereas most democrats and the Harris marketing campaign selected to primarily ignore Bitcoin and the trade, with some impartial or imprecise help of know-how talked about right here and there, after a hostile 4 years below the Biden administration, this seems to be an error they could not afford to make. Many progressives and democrats could proceed to talk out towards the trade and the marketing campaign financing and superpacs that introduced in Huge Crypto Cash (which marketing campaign financing after which bitcoin the know-how are two various things), but it surely’s a problem that may now not be ignored, and nearly weekly appears to be rising increasingly bi-partisan (together with possession of Bitcoin in America, proven to be exceptionally broad and various throughout the political spectrum from a latest survey carried out by Colin Brown, Troy Cross, and Andrew Perkins).
Donald Trump and the GOP have used and garnered the one problem crypto voters in huge methods. Marketing campaign guarantees embrace defending the precise to self-custody, a U.S. Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, to help the crypto and bitcoin mining industries, Free Ross, and extra. We’ll see if he makes good on these guarantees, and it’s unclear how huge of an impression Trump’s pro-crypto positions had on the election consequence, but it surely’s not negligible. And if something, it additionally symbolized what we noticed was essential for American voters– a giant shift from the present administration, and large guarantees concerning the economic system and financial prosperity for America.
Because the Democrats head again to the drafting board to find out the way forward for the get together and their priorities, many are able to go huge, unburdened by what has been (sorry, needed to) with the Hilary, Biden, Harris neo-liberal coalitions. And there’s one good place to start out–the economic system, silly! Affordability, inflation, and hope in a brighter financial future for center class and dealing households are profitable priorities and what People on the finish of the day present up in enormous numbers to vote for. Bitcoin has a major position to play on this method and messaging, as an inflation hedge, unbelievable financial savings know-how for working households, censorship resistant funds (ought to progressive activists discover themselves in positions to want resistance cash towards Donald Trump’s authoritarian insurance policies), and past. If the Democrats are severe about getting again to a few of their roots because the get together of working class individuals, together with an olive department to former unbiased and Bernie helps who’re obsessed with combating for monetary freedom and a greater dwelling for working class People, Occupy, and past, they may discover Bitcoin is an unbelievable software to that finish. With Bitcoin there is no such thing as a barrier to possession, no intermediary, not dealer or financial institution you should use or be “accredited” by
Permissionless, freedom cash. Can this be a rallying cry for the subsequent chapter within the progressive motion and for Democrats to make the most of on the marketing campaign path? It nearly appears inevitable…a when, not an if…that the Democratic get together capitulates to Bitcoin and the American individuals’s calls for, or face extinction. Myself, Margot Paez, and others from The Progressive Bitcoiner will definitely be right here to advocate for a rebirthing of the progressive motion, powered by Bitcoin.
This can be a visitor submit by Trey Walsh. Opinions expressed are completely their very own and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.
