By ann summers

The millennials’ remake of “up from socialism” might be embodied in the call to “Abolish ICE”.  The question is for whose cause is it more effective.

If one believed in the lessons of GOP marketing, “Abolish ICE” has a brand identity problem, except that it works better for the RWNJs, whose reactionary understanding tends to slogans rather than ruthless criticism, and whose manipulation of “free” media still dominates cultural hegemony.

The framing of Democrats as being in favor of “open borders” seems to provide yet another obstacle in the midterm campaign. Another unintended consequence of reactionary discourse. But what’s worse are the agents of such sloganeering, because it’s about the campaign not the slogan. Monikers are not movements and libertarianism is not “a phase”.

Remember how some progressives used to worry about how many CIs were in their organizations, dismissed as paranoid, and then discovered that they actually existed (see Black Panthers). One might worry that entire sects of the left had been manufactured by E. Howard Hunt narratives, so that the SLA and the RCP were created by what is now called the “deep state” as agents provocateurs, in the latter case, with better corporate identity graphics.

The new millennium’s Bob Avakian might be Sean McElwee if he were a bit less charismatic, but perhaps this BuzzFeed attention might be the thing he needs to achieve the same reframing power that repositions kneeling as an attack on superfluous anthem playing rather than racial injustice.

Ultimately the problem is that McElwee might consider that there is an artisianal phase in the manufacturing of consent.

It is amusing to think that the semantics of “abolish IRS” can be rendered identical to “abolish ICE”, but only if reactionary logic is at work, because the financing of an economy is not identical to immigration injustice.

OTOH McElwee has provided a Sherman-like statement about his political engagement: “He requested that BuzzFeed News put this on the record: If the Democrats do not flip the House, he will stop writing about or engaging with politics.”

Such ideological self-sacrifice, much like Trotsky opening up a taco truck in front of Trump’s Walk of Fame star. If only praxis really worked like that. We’ll see whether McElwee’s next gig is brand purity manager at antifa or Proud Boys.

Regardless, after the Democrats win the next two elections, there will be no ICE at least as a brand, because actual institutional change could occur.

“The debate was propelled into the mainstream by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old progressive who upset Rep. Joe Crowley in New York’s primaries last week on a platform that included abolishing ICE. And the calls come after weeks of stories about family separations at the border. Trump, who tweeted over the weekend that the “Liberal Left” wants to “get rid of ICE,” has only upped the ante.” (2 July’18 BuzzFeed)