The morning of November 4th, 2016, was jam-packed with Monday morning quarterbacking as the election-predicting community danced about, attempting to explain to their viewers why they had failed so miserably in preparing the nation for a Trump victory.

While plenty of competing theories emerged, one of the most persistent claims which remains to this day was that of the “white backlash.” The story goes that the white working class of America -- particularly in the Rust Belt states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that shocked election whisperers and handed the election to Trump -- are far more racist, homophobic, and generally un-woke than we had realized and that after living under a black president for eight years, their fragile ego simply couldn't take the idea of being led by a woman for another four.

While this theory is not without some grains of truth, it commits every single classic liberal mistake in the book, and is therefore dangerously incomplete.

Firstly, it lacks any self-awareness whatsoever. Of course much of the opposition to Barack Obama's presidency had roots in racism and conservative extremism, but to pretend that his presidency was without legitimate faults, or to boil all opposition down to some sort of antiquated, ignorant bigotry is just absurd and simplistic.

The sweeping victory of the Democratic Party under Obama in 2008 was a historic mandate during a time of political and economic upheaval. It was a mandate that could've been used to radically transform the American economy into one that works for and defends the working people in this country. Instead, we were treated to massive bailouts for criminal banks, a watered down healthcare reform, and near constant efforts to compromise with a party that's ideology had been so thoroughly rejected as to be near obsolete. This was a failure that was thoroughly rooted in the “Third Way” ideology of the neoliberal era, an ideology which had died in the minds of the populace with the '08 crash.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, it ignores all sense of historical and sociological context.

Did your average, blue-collar factory worker head to the polls in November 2016 with a long-winded criticism of Third Way ideology in the back of their minds? Of course not! But this doesn't mean that they were unaware of its failures.

For leftists and political junkies, such criticisms may take the form of detailed commentary on the nature of capital, but it is not the intelligentsia which feels the rot of neoliberal capitalism in its most visceral form. It is the working class and the working class alone, and lacking the vocabulary to correctly identify their issue, they're left with a general sense of anger and abandonment by the leadership class. In 2016, this presented itself perhaps most prominently in the spread of anti-intellectualism across American culture.

For me, it was an almost shocking abdication of duty on the part of our mainstream political punditry to fail in recognizing this.

To quote the late, great Black Panther, Fred Hampton, “You don't fight fire with fire, you fight fire with water.” One may also say that we can't fight militant bigotry with woke language and militant anti-bigotry, we must fight bigotry with solidarity.

Joe Biden's campaign, which I begrudgingly endorsed with all of my heart, is based on a promise of “healing the soul of America” and treating the wounds of division that Trump has wrought upon the country. Yet he and the majority of the Democratic Party fail to speak to the only force with the ability to do such a thing: Working Class Solidarity.

To be clear, I thought it likely that Joe Biden would win in November. Not certain, but likely. However, this still leaves us with a large portion of the country, drawing heavily from the white, rural working class, which is dangerously off the rails to such an extent that they would risk a global pandemic to watch an orange-faced, 74-year-old billionaire stumble through a poorly improvised stand-up comedy routine and call him the savior of the working class. This is fertile ground for a far more dangerous, far more competent strongman to come to power in 2024 and decimate Biden for an Obama-esque mandate. And make no mistake, Republicans will not waste such an opportunity as Democrats did.

Ultimately, there is only one answer to breaking the fascist fever which is rising across the world. We have already seen examples in the MAS party in Bolivia which successfully unseated its fascist coup government in the recent election, or the powerful opposition by Lula da Silva and his supporters in the PT party against Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.

The Democratic Party must embrace the working class in economic solidarity!

We should be clear that this does not mean aligning with or excusing any bigotry which does exist. There should be no budging or rhetorical change on the social issues which are near and dear to the Democratic base and which are unbelievably important, despite being often derided as simply “identity politics.” A bit more understanding and attempts at explaining the concepts in a nonjudgemental space to those willing to learn could be quite fruitful, though.

To be clear, trans women are women, trans men are men. Systemic racism exists and must be confronted and defeated. Black lives do, in fact, matter, and women's rights are human rights.

However, each of these statements, true as they are, are often found slipping from the lips of those who only understand half of their meaning at best. Not a single social issue can be understood or solved without recognizing and fighting the influences of capital upon each and every marginalized community. These issues are entirely intersectional, and cannot be confronted in the atomized, technocratic manner which neoliberal governance exemplifies.

Additionally, we must realize that we will never build a strong enough coalition to defeat the rising far-right and ensure equality for marginalized groups without cooperation from the mythic “white working class,” to the extent that that monolithic phrasing has any meaning.

This also doesn't mean that the Democratic Party must embrace some Marxian socialist platform, which the general populace is generally not ready to accept. Only that we must take seriously the economic concerns of all working people and oppose the relentless attacks upon them by the forces of capital. Protecting social security, Medicare for all, targeted jobs guarantees, and other programs would be excellent steps, but ultimately, we are talking about a fundamental reorienting of the party toward the concerns of labor, fighting on the side of the working class at any opportunity as it once did.

How many hours have been spent by the likes of Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon appealing to the aggrievement of white workers in order to turn them against immigrants, Muslims, Democrats, or any other boogeyman they can muster. This only succeeds, of course, in dividing a working class which, if united in solidarity, would do serious damage to the likes of Tucker Carlson, heir to the Tyson chicken nuggets fortune. Should we really let these country club reactionaries wear the language of the working man like a pair of pristine, unused boots? Ask them about the right to unionize and collective bargaining and watch them squirm as their elitism grasps their tongue tightly, and they fail to formulate a meaningful statement.

The American left is heavily disorganized at the moment and will be for the foreseeable future. Frankly, we're lucky that we got Trump in 2016, a buffoonish man-child whose incompetence is unmistakable, and not, say, Tom Cotton who could've done far more damage and retained the support of the “Never Trumper” crowd with a few patronizing allusions to “conservative values.”

I don't love the Democratic Party or Joe Biden, but their commanding November win is a godsend. Biden didn't just oust Trump, but he beat him commandingly. Now is the time to usher in some kind of relief for the 30 years of neoliberal rot which has dragged this country to the abysmal state in which we find ourselves today, with millions uninsured during a pandemic which has killed more than 400,000 Americans at the time of writing this piece.

The working class is divided and politically homeless. If the left wants to win, we must give them a home and fight for them viciously as we once did.