It is proclaimed that Trump is a successful businessman, and that Hillary is a champion of social progress. These are of course, facades to win votes from poor working people. Trump made his wealth by giving his workers as little as he possibly could, by denying them union rights and essentially robbing them blind by taking everything they made for himself and giving back to them only enough to survive. In essence Trump did not make himself a billionaire, his workers did. And what did they get for that? Not a damned thing. It’s no wonder his own employees have spoken out against him, that he’s been sued thousands of times by both them and his business ‘partners’ who he exploits for his own personal profit as mercilessly as his workers.

But then it is proclaimed that Trump is ‘generous’, giving money to the homeless, offering them jobs, offering flood relief supplies. Once again these are merely facades at best, at worst it is a way of appeasing his own bourgeois guilt. By putting a band-aid on the wound that he and his class inflicted on society. Indeed Rockefeller and Gates both give a large portion of their wealth over to society, but the expropriation of wealth on account of the capitalist class itself is the only thing which systematically maintains poverty in modern society- for it is essential to the capitalist system. Indeed it is merely a way to attempt to fix a problem that he himself and those like him systematically create and maintain by extracting capital from those who actually produce the wealth- who themselves are impoverished in the process. But why does this occur? Why do those who produce the wealth have nothing and those who do not actively contribute to society have everything? Because those like Trump own the means of creating wealth and use it to extract the most amount of profit possible from working people. In short to say Trump should be president because he is a successful businessman is like saying we should elect a slave owner or feudal lord because of the amount of profit they extracted from their slaves/ serfs.

So then one turns to Hillary, she seems like a viable alternative, yes? Wrong again! Hillary is the living embodiment of the inseparable relation between the capitalist and the popular republican/ democratic politician. Hillary proclaims that she will be a “president for everybody” when Bernie said that “wall street would not like him very much”. What this proves is that Hillary is in the pocket of wall-street, something already firmly established that doesn’t seem to bother most Americans. You cannot be for wall street and for working people. You cannot be a business man and for working people. These are irreconcilable contradictions. Of course the average American who is not class-conscious in any sense of the word sees no issue here. But material reality does not lie. The reality of class antagonisms is crystal clear for he/ she who cares to analyze society in a scientific way. Hillary is for wall street, and Trump is for big business. Both their priorities are filling their pockets, their friends pockets, and the pockets of the ruling elites at the expense of hundreds of millions of working people- so long as they get to stay in power. These petty ‘progressive’ moves are nothing but a facade to maintain her popularity. It’s no secret that no less than 10 years ago she was militantly opposed to same sex marriage, something she now brags about being a ‘champion’ of.

Then there is the issue of foreign policy. Hillary will pass international trade deals which give corporations power over the law. They will cripple the struggle for workers rights and unionization. Hillary and Trump will both continue the legacy of all the previous presidents, to mercilessly act as the imperialist ‘policemen of the world’ so long as American corporations make a profit. War is indeed a very profitable business, and profit in capitalist society comes well before human life.

If the past 300 years of human history have taught us anything it’s this: Political democracy without industrial democracy amounts to, in practice, virtual oligarchy. It is fundamental to the ruling elites that this oligarchy maintain the facade of democracy- with elections and candidates preselected and funded by those with the money- the ruling class, and the living embodiment of the ruling class; the corporation to work in their best interest and not in the best interest of the American people. US democracy- so long as it is merely political and under the shell of capitalism, will continue to be a snare, a deceptive facade for the poor and the oppressed and a paradise for the rich. Between the two there is no choice, no compromise. As Eugene V. Debs once said, “I’d rather cast my vote for someone I want and not get it then cast my vote for someone I don’t want and get it”.

There is Jill Stein (who I am supporting), with the green party which stands a real chance of getting 5% of the national vote. This is a transitional demand of course, if the green party gets 5% of the national vote they will get 20 Million dollars next election cycle and on the ballot in all 50 states. This is a small step to ending the tyranny of the two-party capitalist system, but a step nonetheless. There is also Mimi Soltysik for the Socialist Party and Gloria La Riva for the PSL. But please for the love of God don’t vote Clinton or Trump.