Channels, Spring 2017

P age 70 Schwartz • Inspiration or Distraction? ballot box. All American workers had to do to end their misery and the mistreatment of women, prisoners, and minorities, was vote as a bloc for Debs or other Socialist candidates who would seize property peacefully and return America to its Founding values of freedom and equality for all. Unfortunately, Debs allowed these campaigns to distract him from the internal party squabbles that resulted in regular schisms and policy conflicts, undercutting the support he built with his message. His campaigns and the labor actions he supported drained and exhausted both Debs and the Party. As time went on and factionalism continued to divide the already small Socialist base of support among the workers, the majority of workers remained entrenched in support of major parties. The Socialist ideology never became mainstream or accepted in America as it did in Europe because Debs and the Party of his day never coopted a majority of workers or successfully appealed to the broad range of other class interests. Bernie Sanders has taken a very different path from Eugene Debs because he faces unique circumstances and embraces a separate ideology within the Socialist camp. Facing a general conservative resurgence in America and the unpopularity of Socialism during and immediately after its fall, Sanders had no national organization supporting Socialism. Instead of attempting the tough slog of forming just such an organization or political party, Sanders decided instead to classify himself as an Independent and seek lower-level political offices. First as a mayor, then as a representative, he demonstrated moderate, reformist Socialism. He was able to win elections as a result, but his consistent critiques of both parties as capitalist establishments prevented him from accomplishing much. Therefore, he compromised even further, allying with the Democratic Party in Congress in order to receive prominent positions so as to have a greater influence on American politics. This provided him with the recognition and respect to have the opportunity to be a key candidate for the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary. Unfortunately, he has compromised so much in moving toward the Democratic Party, seeking similar goals but abandoning Socialism’s hard ideological roots, that it is unclear if the support he receives actually stems from support and acceptance of Socialism in America or simply a combination of free-college seekers and Democrats who dislike Hillary Clinton. By watering down Socialism so much, Bernie Sanders neutralized any opportunity he might have had to found a labor-oriented, revolutionary Socialism in America based on the utopian, scientific principles of earlier thinkers. While Debs emphasized ideological distinctiveness and popular appeal, Sanders focused on practical reform and steady office-holding. Nevertheless, barring an extremely unlikely Sanders-led schism of the Democratic Party, neither man will have successfully founded a durable American Socialism. Both Debs and Sanders failed to accomplish the necessity of establishing a recognized, broadly based political party of Socialism. The history of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom is instructive. After roughly 20 years of scuffling, gaining less than 10 percent of the popular vote, when the suffering of the two World Wars and the Great Depression struck England, the Labour Party made massive political gains. America, too, saw a great expansion of government and a popular leftist coalition in this period. But because the Socialist Party had crumbled, liberal Democrats were the main beneficiaries. The Socialist Party in America was too dependent on Debs’ popularity and