A problem in social justice and left circles is a hesitancy, even a silence, in expressing a positive attitude to the Biden administration. I realize that on some issues – especially internationally – the administration’s posture is more than problematic, but on many other issues, it is breaking with neoliberalism and challenging white nationalist authoritarianism. It success in doing so will in large measure determine the outcome of the midterm elections, not to mention the day to day living circumstances of tens of millions.

Thus to take a standoffish or relentlessly critical position toward the Biden administration isn’t principled politics. It is, instead, a failure to understand the dynamics of left center unity and what is will take to successfully surmount the existential dangers of this conjuncture.

In the 1930s, the Communist Party, which evolved into the largest organization on the left at the time, didn’t make these mistakes. It made mistakes for sure, but not along these lines.

The divisions within the ruling circles of the US are sharper than they have been since, I would suggest, the early 1930s. The singular event then that precipitated the split was the onset of the Great Depression and the contending and contentious views within elite circles as to how to surmount the implosion of the economy.

Today, the divisions are traceable, not to one event, but, in my mind, to four, occurring more or less coterminously. One was the near total meltdown of the global economy followed by a slow, uneven recovery; another was the historic, and to many unexpected, election of the first African American, Barack Obama, to the presidency. A third was the surge of struggles possessing a progressive, radical, and anti-racist nature and on a scale not seen for some time, in ever. And, finally, the reality and consequences of climate change.

Broadly speaking, two different approaches within ruling circles to this confluence of events (or social processes) have taken shape. One section of the ruling class supports an approach to this tangle of events (or social processes) along white nationalist, plutocratic authoritarian lines. The other favors – and not without contradictions – its antipode, that is, a renovated capitalism, that is more egalitarian, democratic, ecologically sustainable, and responsive to popular democratic pressures. It embraces reforms that only a year or two ago it would consider anathema.

This split is (or should be) of more than academic interest to any individual, movement, coalition, and parties that have an interest in a more just, egalitarian, and ecologically sustainable world. Ignoring it would be folly and self destructive. The movements in the 1930s didn’t make such a mistake. They rightly adjusted their strategy and tactics to take into account these differences that are fundamental. Class against class was replaced by coalition politics that stretched from FDR to the Communist Party. And it made all the difference in the world. Let’s hope that today’s movement has such wisdom!

A challenge for the democratic and progressive coalition (I prefer coalition to movement because it suggests a formation that is looser organizationally and politically) is not to allow Biden’s old school foreign policy to sour its attitude towards his new school domestic policy. This isn’t an argument to strike a position of silence on the administration’s posture and actions on a global level; only a caution not to lose sight of the significance of the administration’s domestic legislative initiatives that, if won, will address many sides of present crisis in day to day living that tens of millions are experiencing as well as go a long way in determining the winners and losers in the midterm elections.

I have argued on many occasions against a “class (capitalist) against class (working class)” strategy and politics. Life, experience, and politics reveal its shortcomings. In bygone eras it didn’t work nor is there any reason to think that it would work now. At the same time, any strategy that writes off the role of class, class struggle, and the working class in comprehending and changing the world can only become a self inflicted wound too.

It is true that the great social movements of the last half of the 20th century and first two decades of the 20th century didn’t arise out of the labor movement. They were animated by other social constituencies and motivated by social desires that were not at the top of (or at all on) labor’s agenda. That reality, however, shouldn’t become the template for social change in the period ahead. Given the immense challenges facing people here and across the world, only a movement of great breadth and depth, only a movement in which a revitalized labor movement is an essential part in the leadership and on the terrain of struggle, stands a chance of emerging victorious and securing a sustainable world.

Last night Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo “painted his masterpiece” on the basketball court – 50 points, 14 rebounds, 5 blocked shots. His “for the ages” performance took the Bucks across the finishing line, winning their first NBA championship in 50 years.