Even when genuine radicals are elected they are not permitted to carry out their campaign promises but must serve capital. Elections coopt dissident leaders & organizers and divert energy & resources away from direct action into pointless political action.

The electoral system coopts and weakens dissent in several ways.

A brief note on some aspects of Richard Nixon’s Presidency.

The CNT typically discouraged its members from voting, or simply ignored elections, and did not participate inside the Spanish political system. During the Spanish Civil War it compromised its principles, and the results were disastrous.

Effective campaigns using direct action and effective political campaigns using the ballot box tend to work at cross-purposes. Direct action and political action, when organized by regular people, tend to undermine each other.

The actions of the state are contingent on factors other than who wins the election, such as the status of the economy, the use of direct action by popular movements, interaction with other states, the needs & desires of the 1%, technological changes, etc.

To vote for anyone is to vote for a system in which politicians in Washington, CEOs on Wall Street, and generals in the Pentagon rule.

Review of Freedom Summer by Doug McAdams

Who wins elections makes no difference because all politicians must do what the elite want.  Elections are a scam whose function is to neutralize resistance movements and deceive ordinary citizens into thinking they control the state.

It is a mistake for radical activists to attempt to use the electoral system to achieve our goals. The way the system is set up whomever is elected must do largely the same things as his opponet(s). Elections empower the politician, not the voter.

States are not neutral tools that anyone can use for any purpose; they are autonomous organizations that develop their own dynamics & interests. They are a form of elite rule.