The U.S. presidential election—still undecided as we go to press—is exposing the chaos, decay, and decline of the U.S. ruling class for all the world to see. As arch-racists Donald Trump and Joe Biden jockey for power on behalf of the capitalist bosses’ two warring camps, and vigilante “poll watchers” storm the counting center in Detroit, the end game isn’t likely to be pretty. The world has changed since 2000, when the Democrats gave up on Al Gore and both parties still played for the same team. The stakes are much higher. The future of U.S. capitalism, the legitimacy of its democracy, the fate of the liberal world order—all may hang in the balance.
The U.S. empire is in free fall. As the pandemic rages unchecked in the U.S. and much of Europe, imperialist rival China, already the world’s largest economy, is gaining ground by the day. The isolationist domestic energy bosses—led by the Koch and Mercer families, with Trump as their pathological front man—have hijacked the Republican Party and its base of white racists and nationalist thugs. The liberal finance capital globalists—the blood-stained bosses who have ruled the roost since World War II—are on the ropes. Which makes them even more dangerous than before.
But while we can’t predict the final outcome of the capitalists’ election charade, there is much we do know:
We know that capitalism breeds alienation. Despite a record-breaking election turnout, roughly one of three eligible voters—about 80 million workers—decided not to vote  (USA Today, 11/3). Millions more went to the polls holding their noses, out of fear and loathing of Trump. They see Biden for the criminal he is: friend of gutter segregationists and killer cops, architect of racist mass incarceration, Middle East warmonger, and loyal wingman to Deporter in Chief Barack Obama.
We know that no matter who wins the election, the needs of capitalism will propel the U.S. to fascism and inter-imperialist war. After the bosses get their own house in order, and one wing smashes the other, they will escalate their murderous attacks on our class.
We know that the profit system, no matter who becomes president, can’t protect workers’ health and lives. For decades, Democrats and Republicans alike have shut down hospitals and gutted resources for public health. It’s the same story worldwide, which is why hundreds of thousands are dying of Covid-19 in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Most of all, we know that it’s more vital than ever to join and build Progressive Labor Party (PLP), to organize the international working class into a fighting force to destroy capitalism for all time.
Evil yes, lesser no
Leading up to the election, the liberal bosses drowned us in a message of lesser-evil politics. Though Biden wasn’t perfect, they admitted, all that mattered was getting  rid of the outrageously racist, sexist, and incompetent Trump. But in the current period, when the bosses can no longer govern in the old way, the job of the U.S. president—regardless of party or personality—is to manage the deepening contradictions of their system. For the bosses, fascism isn’t a matter of choice; it’s a necessity of capitalism in crisis.  The difference between the rulers’ two camps is strategic. The forces behind Trump, focused on short-term profits, are using open racism to mislead white workers, divide our class, and build a defensive, predominantly white, “Fortress America” armed forces. Biden’s backers, the finance capitalists, seek to defend their embattled empire with a multicultural, patriotic movement and military that might prevail in a war with China.
The presidential election circus has exposed the fierce fight between these factions. The events of recent weeks reveal a U.S. ruling class in shambles: Trump’s refusal to agree to the bosses’ sacred “peaceful transition of power”; the Republicans’ naked hypocrisy as they ramrodded anti-abortion zealot Amy Coney Barrett onto the Supreme Court; the fake moralizing from both sides about the other’s corruption. The upshot is a loss of legitimacy: “[T]he very concept of public trust in an established set of facts necessary for the operation of a democratic society has eroded during [Trump’s] tenure with potentially long-term ramifications” (New York Times, 11/1).  
The liberal finance capitalists know that this lack of confidence by workers will doom their chances to defeat their imperialist rivals. They see this election as an opportunity to restore their power and save their system. They’ve used Jim Crow Joe Biden and Top Cop Kamala Harris to try to convince workers of the lie that capitalist reforms can eliminate racist police terror, economic ruin, imperialist war, and climate catastrophe.
The working class fights back
History tells us that positive change for workers is generated by class struggle and militant mass movements, not by voting. Slavery and Jim Crow, sexist employment and abortion laws, unlimited work weeks and legalized child labor—all were defeated through class struggle. Workers didn’t vote in the advances of the civil rights movement. They didn’t vote to annihilate the Nazis—or to defeat the U.S. war machine in Vietnam. In every case, masses of courageous workers fought their way to victory, often under the leadership of communists. Unfortunately, none of these historic battles struck at the heart of capitalism. As a result, nearly all of their gains have been reversed. PLP urges all workers to fight back—on the job, in the streets, in the schools. But we also need to transform reform struggles into an attack on the whole capitalist system.
In place of capitalism, we will build a communist society designed to serve workers’ needs, not the bosses and their profit system. Workers are the ones who create all value! We’re the ones who run the machines, fly the planes, care for the sick, teach our young. We can run society better than the bosses because we’ve been doing the real work all along.  In a communist society, profit and money will be abolished. Everyone will be decently housed, fed, and clothed. In a worker-led society, racism and sexism—the capitalists’ essential tools to divide and exploit us—will be outlawed. Our communities will be integrated and freed of borders. While individuals will be developed to their full potential, collectivity will be primary. As workers gain the time to explore and harness new skills, instead of being worked to death for the bosses’ profits, creativity will flourish. Science will be used to create a healthy  environment and advance all society.
The past six months prove that the working class has lost none of its fighting spirit. We’re still fighting for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Walter Wallace Jr., Marcellis Stinnette, and so many more. We’re fighting against all the racist inequalities ingrained in this rotten capitalist system. Whether or not you decided to vote, you have a more important decision in front of you: to fight back on your job, at your school, in your neighborhood. And the most important decision of all is to join the PLP, to help create a world where the Trumps and Bidens and their masters will never have power again.