A note to all the champagne socialists who don’t think Biden is ideologically pure enough

While it’s true the president-elect is far from an ideal progressive, the view that we shouldn’t celebrate the end of Trump’s presidency is one only privileged people can afford to have

Just let people celebrate for a minute, OK? (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

After the devastation of approximately 230,000 Covid-19 deaths in the United States, the profound tragedy of family separation at the border, and four years of white supremacist rhetoric and misinformation, America finally has a new leader. On Saturday, new broke that Joe Biden had garnered enough electoral college votes to make Donald Trump a one-term president. People ran out onto the streets of New York City cheering and crying. But in the background, progressive activists had a problem: Biden wasn’t their ideal candidate, and therefore we shouldn’t be celebrating. Cheering on a moderate Democrat was useless, foolish and, for some, a socialist betrayal.

To be clear, Biden is not my ideal candidate either — he authored the 1994 crime bill, which, according to advocates, was one of the main contributing factors to mass incarceration — but shaming people for their relief over his win points to a much bigger problem among activist circles.

In my purview as an activist for over a decade in a number of groups — something I left to pursue journalism — I found that the vast majority of people I worked with grew up in the wealthiest social classes of the United States. I met almost no one who grew up like I had, in a working-class family with parents who worked blue-collar jobs. Activism, which often does not pay a wage and takes up a good amount of time, can't be pursued full-time by those without a financial safety net. Some people I met admitted to me that they took part in labor activism to "meet people who they wouldn't otherwise meet."

I witnessed a tendency to strive for moral purity among these comfortable activists from wealthy homes. They were happy to shame those who celebrated any wins that involved "the establishment" they sought to disband. Some of these same people stated there was "no significant difference between Trump and Biden” during the election, ignoring the simple reality of the past four years and the effect a Trump administration had had on the vulnerable people they purported to represent.

Someone who can afford to strive for ideological purity may not understand the significance of a Biden victory. However, for those in dire circumstances, this win for the Democrats is monumental and well worth celebrating. And while a single-issue focus won't make for a movement, for someone facing deportation or someone risking sickness when others get to shelter in place, a single issue can mean the world.

Vernice, 24, repeatedly refreshed news sites, checking the internet for election results from Tuesday through Saturday. On Saturday afternoon, her sister brought her the good news: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had won. She was relieved.

"The presidency means that DACA recipients like me at least won't have to worry about the [Trump] administration taking our work permits away or reducing it even more," said Vernice.

Vernice is referring to the Trump administration's move to further limit work permits for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. This move, announced late July, limited work permit periods from two years to one, and was seen by many as a step toward phasing out the Obama-enacted program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Vernice came to the United States when she was seven years old and became a DACA recipient when Obama first enacted the program.

"DACA allowed me to go to college and graduate — something that seemed impossible before," said Vernice. "DACA allows me to have a driver's license. It allows [DACA recipients] to work in higher-paying jobs, but most importantly, it lets us work through our work permits."

Vernice talked about the positive effects of having a legal work permit and how "social mobility impacts our whole family and continues the chain of education."

Maria Blanco is the Executive Director of the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center, which provides immigration-related legal services for undocumented students at six schools within the University of California system. She noticed far fewer students in the DACA program this year, which she said poses problems for citizenship far beyond those in the program.

"We see students that are US citizens who, when they turn 21, can then petition for their family members to become [US citizens]," said Blanco. "Last year, we actually handled a bit over 5,500 cases of UC students and some family members. And they ranged from just renewing their DACA to visas you get when you're the victim of a crime to naturalizing family members."

Blanco explained that DACA increases the chance of citizenship for an undocumented immigrant who came to the United States as a young child, and this can benefit an entire family. She said that the Trump administration's move to decrease the working permit for DACA recipients has been damaging for many students within the University of California system. One of her main concerns was that there would be fewer students with an undocumented immigration status in the University of California system because even with state financial aid, students need to pay the cost of books and rent out-of-pocket. Most need to work to do this.

There’s so much to rebuild “after four years of this disastrous administration," said Blanco about the tragedy of family separation at the border. "We couldn't even get to progressive policies without first getting rid of the [Trump] administration."

Andy Kang, executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Chicago, echoed Blanco's sentiments, adding that grassroots activists still have a lot to do if they are interested in governmental change. It's okay to be dissatisfied with leadership, he said, but that this anger should be redirected into something productive. “My hope is, at least for the next two months, that progressives don't overlook the significance of those two open seats in Georgia, and how drastically the landscape might change… depending on the outcome of those two races,” he said.  No candidate in Georgia has reached the 50 percent threshold required to win, so there will be two runoff races in January. A divided Senate means the president needs cross-party cooperation to move most legislation forward, so the outcome in the coming months will be significant.

"I think, from a community-organizing perspective, from the grassroots perspective, even with Biden winning the White House, most progressives know that in order to push some of the changes that we would like to see, it's still going to take a lot," said Kang, reiterating that there's still work to be done.

Axel Eden is an artist and transgender rights activist in New York City, who had a similar reaction. They moved to the United States from Singapore in the hopes of living in a safer place that offered better healthcare for transgender people.

"A lot of my friends on the radical left, and I myself, can see the real issues with this election, and the fact that we have candidates that — let's be real — have never explicitly talked about transgender rights and the epidemic of violence faced by Black trans women specifically," said Eden. "But I'm really relieved that Trump is out of office. I think everyone wants a sigh of relief."

Eden recently posted a status on Facebook urging activists just to let people celebrate right now. After years of participating in activism, they are simultaneously happy with the mutual aid they've witnessed and disappointed in the culture of shame that is pervasive in so many activist circles. They described instances of exclusion when a member of an activist group shared an opinion that diverged from other members — or when a member showed a knowledge gap they were eager to fill.

“I think the radical left is so much more open to [transgender rights], which is why I find myself in that crowd,” said Eden. “But I don't think a culture of shaming and exclusion is effective, especially among the communities I've been involved with, which is queer and trans people of color. Especially when you're talking about minority groups, who already are excluded from society in such a big way.”

Eden added that they understand those who don't want to comfort someone who has expressed a problematic or hateful opinion, but much of the time, the discussions are "academic," and there is required reading that many people may not have encountered. One possible solution they shared was listening to those who mean well, empathizing, and welcoming people from all walks of life. Another is recognizing one's own privilege and how this may contribute to their personal circumstances and worldview.