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I, like many of you, am processing the results of the recent U.S. election in which Donald Trump won handily both the electoral college and popular vote. As pundits discuss, left mainstream media personalities mourn, and yes many Trump supporters cheer ecstatically, as a progressive Bitcoiner it’s entirely clear to me: If the Democratic Party wants a future in America, it must embrace Bitcoin.
Let me explain what I mean. Not only do I think is it imperative for the party to embrace Bitcoin if it wants to survive, but after this decisive Trump victory, I think many within the party, and those independent voters who dip in and out of voting for democratic candidates, are looking to make a drastic change and go back to the drawing board.
Bernie is back, and he has something to say.
It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 6, 2024
While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change.
And they’re right. pic.twitter.com/lM2gSJmQFL
Now that Biden’s term is coming to a close, and Harris conceded the race in defeat, Bernie isn’t mincing words with his criticism of the democratic party and priorities. “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.” Many within the party, and former Bernie supporters who perhaps are not in the party or supportive any longer, have been beating this drum for a while: Democrats favor coastal elites, who opine about progressive politics and “wokism” intellectually, while paying lip-service (and patronizing various other minority groups) to working class americans. After losing to Donald Trump twice, many democrats, progressives, and certainly independent and democratic american voters are wondering, where do we go from here?
Trump is a tour de force. A charismatic figure that has truly altered the course of American politics in ways the GOP, strategists, journalists, and the political establishment never thought was possible. The democratic party has been struggling to come up with answers against Trump and MAGA populism after 2016. While mainstream media may continue to cast his victories as the product of racism, sexism, or other beliefs steeped in identity politics, the same they did in 2016, many within the party are accepting that the strategies around identity politics, anti-Trump, and some moral high ground are decisively ineffective.
While we all will be analyzing data, voter profiles, trends, etc over the next several months, many journalists, including some quite influential progressive leaning media outlets including Pod Save America, Breaking Points, and beyond conceded that the Democratic Party must return to being the party of working people and focus on the economy and inflation, which was one of the most important issues for voters at the polls this year. The Democratic party period from 2016-present has focused heavily on identity politics, what many deem as “wokism” and more, which I wouldn’t discredit out right. Much of this is important. But, the weight and prioritization of these issues over economic and other hardships Americans face has been the issue. Many democrats and progressive knew this, but now we have data and election results to prove that it is not a winning strategy for the party, particularly in the presidential election.
Being a progressive and Bitcoiner is quite a unique position to be in, and it’s helped me analyze the world and predict certain trends and outcomes in interesting ways that often times bitcoiners, or progressives outside of the bitcoin bubble, miss. In fact, I’m not alone. Many of the outspoken progressives and left-leaning folks in the bitcoin space were former Bernie bros, inspired by Occupy Wall Street and other populist economic messages around wealth inequality, corporate capture in America, Big Bank bailouts and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Many of us have been turned off by the party’s pivot away from these battles, even to the point where Senator Elizabeth Warren has been working with and funded heavily by Big Banks, not to mention her and many others extreme hostile takes against the revolutionary technology born in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis: Bitcoin.
Here’s my take: Not only must the Democrats embrace Bitcoin to have a political future in America–I think many current and former members would be much more open to it. Rep. Ro Khanna is one leading example of a progressive democrat who understands where the Democratic Party has been losing ground to the Republicans on economic issues and Bitcoin. At the Bitcoin conference in Nashville this past summer, Rep Khanna stated, “Being against Bitcoin is like being against cell phones or the laptop, or semi conductors, it's a technology.” Bitcoin is for freedom.”
Bitcoin advocates and campaign funding played a huge part in this year’s presidential election. While most democrats and the Harris campaign chose to mainly ignore Bitcoin and the industry, with some neutral or vague support of technology mentioned here and there, after a hostile four years under the Biden administration, this appears to be an error they couldn't afford to make. Many progressives and democrats may continue to speak out against the industry and the campaign financing and superpacs that brought in Big Crypto Money (which campaign financing and then bitcoin the technology are two different things), but it’s an issue that can no longer be ignored, and almost weekly seems to be growing more and more bi-partisan (including ownership of Bitcoin in America, shown to be exceptionally broad and diverse across the political spectrum from a recent survey conducted by Colin Brown, Troy Cross, and Andrew Perkins).
Donald Trump and the GOP have used and garnered the single issue crypto voters in big ways. Campaign promises include protecting the right to self-custody, a U.S. Bitcoin Strategic Reserve, to support the crypto and bitcoin mining industries, Free Ross, and more. We’ll see if he makes good on these promises, and it’s unclear how big of an impact Trump’s pro-crypto positions had on the election outcome, but it’s not negligible. And if anything, it also symbolized what we saw was very important for American voters– a big shift from the current administration, and big promises regarding the economy and economic prosperity for America.
As the Democrats head back to the drawing board to determine the future of the party and their priorities, many are ready to go big, unburdened by what has been (sorry, had to) with the Hilary, Biden, Harris neo-liberal coalitions. And there’s one good place to start–the economy, stupid! Affordability, inflation, and hope in a brighter economic future for middle class and working families are winning priorities and what Americans at the end of the day show up in huge numbers to vote for. Bitcoin has a significant role to play in this approach and messaging, as an inflation hedge, incredible savings technology for working families, censorship resistant payments (should progressive activists find themselves in positions to need resistance money against Donald Trump’s authoritarian policies), and beyond. If the Democrats are serious about getting back to some of their roots as the party of working class people, including an olive branch to former independent and Bernie supports who are passionate about fighting for financial freedom and a better living for working class Americans, Occupy, and beyond, they will find Bitcoin is an incredible tool to that end. With Bitcoin there is no barrier to ownership, no middleman, not broker or bank you must use or be “accredited” by
Permissionless, freedom money. Can this be a rallying cry for the next chapter in the progressive movement and for Democrats to utilize on the campaign trail? It almost seems inevitable…a when, not an if…that the Democratic party capitulates to Bitcoin and the American people’s demands, or face extinction. Myself, Margot Paez, and others from The Progressive Bitcoiner will certainly be here to advocate for a rebirthing of the progressive movement, powered by Bitcoin.
This is a guest post by Trey Walsh. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.