Ratified Mission Amendment: Democratize the Republic!

Mission Amendment Proposal: Democratize the Republic

Comrades, there are several circumstances which compel me to propose this amendment to the mission:

• We live in a period of great disenchantment and justified skepticism about our political institutions. Yet, most popular criticisms of our republic tend to emphasize subjective characteristics such as the personalities of “our” representatives, the “integrity” of the election process, greed and corruption, foreign interference, etc. 
• Consequently, liberal and reactionary reformers alike have an individualized focus on issues such as voter disenfranchisement or voter fraud, elevating these issues to a position of primary concern, and in doing so sidelining criticism of the republic itself, of the class character of the state.
• The first-past-the-post (winner takes all) system, among other anti-democratic systems, makes it exceptionally difficult, if not impossible, for independent third parties to gain seats within the government, and, thereby, handicaps the socialist movement’s ability to fight for reform and to expose its program to the broader masses. These issues would be directly addressed, however, by a reformist program for the democratization of the republic, which is a demand that holds mass appeal.
• The continuing fascization of the Republican party, the threat of the “Project 2025” agenda, and the recent SCOTUS rulings are causing alarm and are tending to radicalize and activate broad swaths of the masses. At the same time, the Democratic party continually demonstrates its insufficiency and negligence in opposing fascism. A plurality of the country has independent preferences, yet feels “locked in” to helplessly voting for a “lesser evil.”

This conjuncture of events and circumstances presents favorable opportunities for revolutionary struggle even if it is, in the first instance, a struggle over reform. The (currently) liberal-led movement for electoral reform has programmatic unity with our interests, and therefore it is in our best interests to participate in and support this movement; at the same time, in doing so, it will provide an opportunity to agitate and propagandize about the class character of the republic and the imminent necessity of revolution as the ultimate measure in “winning the battle of democracy.” 

That really is to say that through this collective, mass struggle, we will advance a class-conscious criticism of the republic as a bourgeois republic, founded from the very outset to serve the interests of the ruling class, which can not and will not be resolved through reform. Critique of the republic — no matter how justified — that refuses to engage with a critique of the republic itself, that considers the question from an incidental rather than institutional perspective, remains reformist in character, rather than revolutionary. 

Nevertheless, revolutionaries should be encouraged by these efforts for reform: once questions of “integrity” are resolved, and yet the question of democracy persists, the bourgeois class content of the republic could be more readily exposed as a fundamental feature. In a word, such a struggle will create favorable conditions for widespread revolutionary consciousness; in the main, the majority will only accept revolution as an imperative necessity once it has become clear that all other avenues of struggle have been exhausted. This will not happen automatically or spontaneously: the bourgeois ideologists will, of course, continue churning out new problems and new reforms. A strong socialist movement, with links among the masses, with scientifically correct analysis of the present situation, and which demonstrates leadership in the struggle, however, will be more able to expose their demagogy than they are presently able.

So far as programmatic unity is concerned, I have two things in mind. On the one hand, the same reforms that are being proposed at this moment will enable the socialist movement, the Communist-party-to-be, to gain seats in office, opening up new avenues for parliamentary struggle, for fighting for reform and exposing its program to the broad masses. In a word, these reforms will strengthen the socialist movement, and grant it a more favorable foothold in mass politics. On the other hand, so far as opposing the fascist agenda is concerned, it should go without saying that socialists and anti-fascists of all stripes and banners must demonstrate leadership — true leadership — in defending the republic, as deficient as it is, from fascist dictatorship. It should further go without saying — yet I know that it doesn’t — that subjugating the socialist movement to the derelict Democrats, i.e. in the name of a so-called “popular front,” is not a tenable strategy or anti-fascist duty, but, rather, a liquidationist canard. Only by first prioritizing the democratization of the republic, by being the most resolute defenders of the republic, and thereby directly winning proletarian representation within the bourgeois state, can such electoral tactics become meaningful to the socialist movement. Certain sections of the Left, particularly emboldened by the victory of the popular front in France, have once again “forgotten” that France, unlike the US, has a multi-party parliamentary system, which enabled the “far left” to actually gain seats in their government. They mechanically and haphazardly adopt the “popular front” slogan, a tactical blunder with disastrous ramifications, even without any clear mechanism for how the socialist movement will gain anything from such an alliance.

Therefore, let it be proposed to add the following to our mission:

Democratize The Republic:

A mass movement for democratizing our federal, state, and municipal governments is becoming not only more necessary, but, simultaneously, more possible. Such a movement will aid our mission in several ways: firstly, by using this moment to win the allegiance of the broad masses away from the bourgeois parties; secondly, by enabling independent class representation of the proletariat in the bourgeois state; thirdly, by isolating the influence of the Republican party without subjugating the socialist movement to the Democratic party; and, fourthly, by pushing mass consciousness forward against the bourgeois republic itself and toward revolution.

Therefore we demand:

1. Substitute all first-past-the-post elections with ranked choice voting
   systems.
2. Substitute the electoral college with the popular vote.
3. Restrict all elected officials from buying and selling stocks.
4. Reduce the signatures required to gain a seat on the ballot.
5. Abolish the filibuster.
6. Replace the majority requirement for passing a bill in congress with a plurality.
7. Allow voters to cast an abstention vote.
8. Abolish voter suppression efforts such as (but not limited to):
   1. Restrictions on absentee or vote-by-mail voting.
   2. Gerrymandering.
   3. Restrictions on felons from voting.
   4. Restrictions on poll locations, numbers of polls, hours of poll operation, etc.
   5. Purges of voter rolls.
9. Require block-chain technology powered by open-source software and
   paper receipts be implemented for all digital voting applications to
   prevent tampering.
   1. Introduce an online portal to vote from home, the library, etc, in order to facilitate voting ease.
   2. Every voting application will be assigned a generic ID. Anonymous
      voting records will be made available on an online database that will allow voters to see the status of their vote (i.e., whether it has been counted and registered properly) in order to facilitate oversight. The votes become publicly available for review once the voting period has concluded. Data about numbers of registered voters, ballots cast, and ballots counted should also be included.

Other reforms that focus on other branches of government, like, for example, the Supreme Court, will also have to be part of any comprehensive reform to the existing republic, though the judiciary is out of scope for this amendment.

Signed,

– Rachel Nagant

Submitted for approval: 7/12/2024

Motions:

• [7/12/24] Tabled pending revisions over concerns over clarity of strategy and misrepresentation of reforms proposed by liberal organizations.
• [7/13/24] Resubmitted for review.
• [7/17/2024] Ratified with majority approval, minority abstention, and no dissent.