Why is a socialist praising war criminal Colin Powell?

You could have expected leading figures of the U.S. establishment to praise former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who died on October 18. After all, Powell was a leading member of the foreign policy elite for decades as a four-star general, a national security adviser, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state.

He helped organize the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989, the destruction of Iraq in 1991, and the “humanitarian” invasion of Somalia in 1992. And as secretary of state, he provided the crucial testimony to the United Nations that shaped public opinion to support the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. The war, based on a lie that Iraq harbored “weapons of mass destruction”—of which none were found—killed hundreds of thousands. For that, Powell and the other architects of the war should have found themselves in the dock at a war crimes tribunal, rather than being hailed as elder statespersons.

So it might come as a surprise to read the tweet from Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), a self-described socialist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) on Powell’s death:

As a Black man just trying to figure out the world, Colin Powell was an inspiration. He was from NYC, went to City College, and rose to the highest rank of our nation. Sending love, strength and prayer to the family and friends of Secretary Powell. Rest in power sir.

Why is a socialist rendering homage to someone like Powell?

Bowman’s statement recalled that of another DSA “elected”, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who in 2018 issued a statement that lauded the legacy of the late Sen. John McCain—a conservative who never met a war he didn’t like—as “represent[ing] an unparalleled example of human decency and American service.”

Bowman’s and AOC’s statements per se aren’t as important as the fact that their issuers felt the need to make them. They joined with the rest of the professional political caste in performing the rituals of congressional decorum. But weren’t they, and the other members of “the Squad”—the small group of progressive representatives including at least three members of DSA—supposed to be different from all of the other run-of-the-mill representatives in Congress? Weren’t they “congressional rebels”representing the working class and social movements “behind enemy lines?”

It would be easy to list off a number of individual statements or actions to criticize members of the Squad. That most of them vote for gargantuan military budgets. That AOC voted “present” on bills authorizing spending for the Iron Dome missile system in Israel or for the Capitol police. That Bowman voted for “Iron Dome.” That most of them voted funding for the Department of Homeland Security after it put imprisoned immigrant children in border camps. Or that Omar voted for $3.3 billion in aid to Israel.

Each of these individual actions can be criticized in its own right. But what’s more pertinent is what they say about how these representatives see themselves and their role in Congress. And here, it’s clear that they don’t operate as socialists, but as “progressive” Democrats. In fact, Omar is the caucus whip for the Progressive Caucus, meaning that she is charged with making sure members vote the way the caucus decides.

So let’s look at what the Progressive Caucus is doing now. For months, it has held up as a major stand for principle its pledge not to vote for the Biden “bipartisan” roads and bridges infrastructure bill before voting to approve the administration’s “Build Back Better” bill, the American Families Plan.The progressives are holding out for that bill—that pledges to spend trillions in the next decade on health care, childcare, climate change and other social priorities—because they do not trust more conservative Democrats to support it if they first pass the infrastructure bill with progressive votes.Meanwhile, the progressives have positioned themselves as the biggest defenders of Biden’s agenda in Congress.

That includes the self-described socialists. Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation October 3, Ocasio-Cortez said: “Biden has been a good-faith partner to the entire Democratic party… He is in fact a moderate… he reaches out. He tries to understand our perspective. That’s why I’m fighting for his agenda.” Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has lauded Biden’s proposals as the most “transformative” since the 1930s New Deal, has, as chair of the Senate Budget Committee, acted as a virtual floor leader for Biden’s plan.

When the administration announced its plan in June, it floated a price tag of $6 trillion (or about $600 billion a year). Within a month, the administration cut the price tag to $3.5 trillion. Despite that, Sanders said it represented a “pivotal moment in American history.” At the time of writing in late October, the White House and the congressional leadership are actively negotiating the shrinking of the bill to somewhere around $2 trillion, or one-third the original scale. Will the progressives—or their socialist tail—finally draw a line against these concessions to win conservative votes?

Don’t count on it. In fact, Omar will be whipping votes in support of whatever “lesser evil” deal is reached. And by that point, it may not even matter whether “Build Back Better” or the physical infrastructure plan passes first.

The left-of-center blogger Keaton Weiss laid out this plausible scenario:

Whether they have it in them to do that remains to be seen. In the American Rescue Plan negotiations, House progressives didn’t put up a fight to keep Bernie Sanders’ minimum wage provision in the bill after eight Senate Democrats teamed up with Republicans to defeat it. So if past is prologue, there’s little reason for optimism.

If there is cause for hope, it’s that they have publicly dug in already on this infrastructure fight, and that caving now would be seen as yet another humiliating defeat for the Left. Pramila Jayapal instantly rejected at Joe Manchin’s ludicrous $1.5 trillion offer, saying plainly, “That’s not going to happen.” Whether she and her caucus can maintain that same level of confidence without clear support from party leadership is now the big question regarding the fate of the infrastructure bill.

With Democrats needing every vote they can get to pass the American Families Plan, the socialists should, in theory, have the same amount of leverage that House and Senate conservatives possess to bend the Democrats to support their priorities. Instead, we are left with the spectacle of the right and their corporate backers determining the ultimate settlement, with the progressives and the socialists trailing behind, while touting their commitment to saving the Biden agenda.It’s a perfect illustration of the devil’s bargain that socialists accept when they sign up to support the Democratic Party.