1. On Wednesday, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Michigan denied the Socialist Equality Party’s challenge to the state’s 12,000 physical signature ballot access requirement during the coronavirus pandemic. wsws.org/en/articles/20…
2. Cox issued his ruling as the deadly #coronavirus pandemic is spiraling out of control. More than 61,000 people tested positive yesterday in the US, a new record, and the daily death toll is approaching 1,000.
3. Hospitals in Texas, Florida and Arizona are overwhelmed, and nurses are again facing critical shortages of personal protective equipment and ventilators. Cases are increasing in most states, including in Michigan, where they are at levels not seen since the end of May.
4. The surge in cases and deaths is the direct and predictable outcome of the criminal policies of Trump and the entire political establishment. Even as the pandemic exacts its horrific toll, the White House is demanding that schools reopen in the fall.
5. Cox’s decision is not a serious legal ruling grounded in jurisprudence or reasoned analysis. It is a political decision aimed at barring socialists from the ballot, with the legal rationalization serving to justify a conclusion determined in advance.
6. Cox asserts that it is not the coronavirus pandemic or the governor’s stay-at-home orders that have prevented signature gathering, but the candidates’ own lack of “diligence.”In fact, it is the “diligence” of the SEP that required that it *not attempt* to gather signatures.
7. If we did make this attempt, we would have been violating our own political principles and our warnings of the dangerous consequences of the reckless policies of the ruling class—warnings that have now been completely confirmed.
8. The United States has the most restrictive election laws of any major capitalist country in the world. It has a population of 328 million people but a political system that has been dominated by the same two parties for 150 years.
9. Now there is the pandemic, which makes petitioning impossible if one does not want to risk countless thousands of people. If the a ruling had been made in a country targeted by the American ruling class, it would be seized on as a justification for “regime change.”
10. In a January 9, 2020 statement the State Department called on the Venezuelan government to “remove all restrictions on individuals and political parties to allow their free participation in presidential and parliamentary elections.”
11. Cox’s decision expresses the fear within the ruling class of the growing social anger among masses of workers and young people. The policy of the ruling class will lead to massive social explosions in the United States and throughout the world.
12. Wednesday’s ruling further exposes the fact that real change will not take place through the existing sclerotic and undemocratic political system. It must and will take place through the mobilization of the working class in the fight for socialism.
