On What We are Owed

We are now less than twenty-four hours out from the vote in Michigan, a primary that may well decide the future of Bernie Sanders’ campaign. Why, then, are so many eyes on Elizabeth Warren? Scrolling through the fracturing remains of Elizabeth’s online army, I find that I can’t summon any response to the probing question, explicit or implied, carried like a soiled banner by a significant faction of her followers: Just what do you think you are owed?

The question, of course, is rhetorical, or at least the answer is implied. Warren, her movement — her surrogates, syncophants, and true believers — owe you nothing. They owe Sanders and the broader progressive coalition nothing.

Fitting that these discussions should always, seamlessly adopt the language of capitalism, of debts owed and dues paid. This language is the ultimate response to any invitation to join in solidarity. Because of course we aren’t owed anything. We are the poor, the hungry, the meek, and the desperate, and through the maneuverings of our exploiters we are rarely in a position to barter, let alone to give with only the barest promise of repayment. We are, in other words, unable to traffic in debt, and as such we are owed nothing.

True solidarity can never come from a place of debt. It must always arise from compassion, from trust, from engagement in a shared vision. The apparent failures of the Sanders campaign in recent weeks — to collect major endorsements, call in favors, or protest any suggestions of impropriety — are due largely to its inability to effectively wield threats or offer rewards. Such is the plight of the disempowered, who can only offer (and be offered) the promise of a better future, and only through faith in collective action. And so Warren scorns the frothing and fearful masses, jokes in popular media about her influence in shaping our future, and now it’s less than a day until Michigan and she still hasn’t committed. Because she doesn’t have to. Because we aren’t owed anything.

And now I’m out of things to say. I falter, same as I always do whenever that question is posed. What are we owed? Only what we can take together. Anything else is snake oil.

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