Presidential Election 2024: A Marxist Perspective

The 2024 US Presidential Election

As we approach the 2024 US presidential election, with Kamala Harris representing the Democratic Party and Donald Trump running as the Republican candidate, many are once again faced with a familiar question: Which side should working people support? For many, these elections are seen as an opportunity to prevent further harm by electing the "lesser evil." However, from a Marxist perspective, electoral politics—especially in the context of capitalist democracies like the United States—cannot be the means to liberate the working class or fundamentally change the conditions of exploitation under capitalism. A “lesser” evil is still evil.

Electoral Politics in Capitalist Society

Under capitalism, the state operates as an instrument of the capitalist class (or bourgeoisie), maintaining and perpetuating the system of class domination. The government, regardless of whether it is led by a Democrat or Republican, ultimately serves the interests of capital, not the working class. Marx and Engels argued that the modern state is nothing but a "committee for managing the common affairs of the bourgeoisie." Electoral politics are a way to provide the illusion of choice while maintaining the structures of class rule and oppression.

Harris vs. Trump: Two Sides of a Coin

The 2024 race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is often framed as a battle between two radically different visions for America. Trump’s campaign is based on a far-right agenda that calls for a return to some mythical American past, marked by xenophobia, white supremacy, and extreme neoliberalism. This stands in stark contrast to the image Harris projects as a defender of democracy, social justice, and racial equality. Under closer examination it is clear that both candidates and parties represent the same capitalist class, despite their differences.

Kamala Harris presents herself as a progressive, but her track record as a prosecutor, and connections to the broader Democratic Party’s corporate interests, big tech, and Wall Street reveal the limits of her "progressivism." She has demonstrated this by backpedaling on her “progressive” views on fracking and her racist scapegoating of immigrants. The Democratic Party, while claiming to support the working class and marginalized communities, ultimately upholds capitalist exploitation by working within the system instead of challenging it. The party consistently prioritizes the needs of the ruling class—evident in their support for corporate bailouts, military interventions, and neoliberal policies that protect capital at the expense of workers.

Counterposed to Harris, Donald Trump represents a more open and aggressive form of capitalist rule, characterized by reactionary populism, deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, and attacks on immigrants and workers. His presidency from 2016 to 2020 showed that his style is cruder and more inflammatory, but his policies are also fundamentally aimed at maintaining and strengthening capitalist domination by appealing to the basest instincts of fear and sowing division among the working class. This is evidenced most clearly in Trump and Vance’s racist and dishonest smear campaign against the Haitian community in Springfield, OH.

Both major candidates share foreign policy that prioritizes the economic and geopolitical interests of the US capitalist ruling class rather than the needs of the masses, disregarding human rights and lives in the process. This alignment reflects the broader consensus within both major parties, where the focus on maintaining global dominance and strategic alliances takes precedence over solving global challenges like climate change, ending violent conflicts, or providing support to legitimate liberation movements. The US’s long history of orchestrating regime change in Latin America, Africa, and Asia shows that it will oppose legitimate liberation movements for profit.

Further, Harris and Trump are noticeably aligned in their support for Israel, even as the Palestinian people suffer a dramatic escalation in a decades-long ethnic cleansing campaign perpetrated by the State of Israel. Both Trump and Harris, like much of the US political establishment, continue to back Israel’s actions, offering little more than finger-wagging and foot-tapping in response to many thousands of civilian deaths, demonstrating the bipartisan commitment to a foreign policy that turns a blind eye to atrocities when capitalist and imperialist interests are at stake.

Electoral Politics Don’t Lead to Liberation

A Marxist analysis shows us that the liberation of the working class cannot ever be achieved through the ballot box in a capitalist society; no exploitative system of political economy would willingly offer its populace the means to abolish it. Electoral politics, as practiced in bourgeois democracies like the United States, are therefore designed to uphold and perpetuate the status quo. While elections may bring changes in the form of laws or policies, they do not alter the fundamental relationship between labor and capital—the cornerstone of capitalist exploitation. Elections provide a temporary shift in how the capitalist ruling class manages society, but they do not lead to genuine emancipation for poor and working people.

Participation in bourgeois elections often leads to the illusion that the state can be reformed from within. However, as long as the state remains an instrument of the capitalist class, it will continue to serve capitalist interests, regardless of which party is in power. The limitations of electoral politics are clearly seen in the failure of progressive figures, such as Bernie Sanders, to secure nominations or enact meaningful change once inside the system. Even if well-intentioned, these figures are constrained by the very system they seek to reform.

The Need for Revolutionary Change

Marxists argue that the only way to overthrow capitalism and liberate the working class from capitalist exploitation is through revolutionary means. This requires the working class to build its own institutions of power—labor unions, workers' councils, tenant associations, socialist organizations, etc.—outside of the capitalist political system. These institutions must be dedicated to dismantling capitalism, not reforming it, and to establishing a socialist society in which the means of production are collectively owned and democratically controlled.

While participating in bourgeois elections may sometimes seem like a tactical necessity, it is not a strategy for long-term change. The poor and working masses must understand the limitations of electoral politics and focus on building a revolutionary movement based on the unity of all oppressed and exploited people. Only then will we be capable of confronting and liberating ourselves from the rule of capital.

Organizing Beyond 2024

The 2024 presidential election is yet another reminder that the interests of working people cannot be represented within the confines of electoral politics. Whether it’s Harris or Trump in the White House, the exploitative capitalist system will continue. The task for socialists and the working class is not to place hope in electing the "right" candidate but to organize and fight for a socialist alternative that puts power in the hands of the working class.

Building that alternative requires education, organization, and collective struggle. Workers must unite across racial, ethnic, spiritual, and national lines to challenge the ruling class’ divide-and-conquer tactics. The goal must be to create a world where resources are used to meet the needs of the masses, not to enrich the few.

Conclusion: The Working Class Needs Its Own Power

The 2024 US presidential election highlights the limits of electoral politics under capitalism. From a Marxist perspective, both Harris and Trump represent different factions of the ruling class, and neither will address the root causes of exploitation, inequality, and oppression. The working class must look beyond the ballot box and instead focus on building its own power to dismantle capitalism and fight for a socialist future. The only path to true liberation is through revolution, not reform.

“Educate, agitate, organize!”