The People's Party, which made its national debut to much progressive fanfare a couple of years ago, is now ginning up enthusiasm for the presidential candidacy of YouTube personality and standup comic Jimmy Dore.
Why not? Ukraine elected a TV comedian as its own president, and Volodomyr Z. certainly has set establishment and media hearts a-thumping all across the A to Be duopoly back here in the States. Let's face it - after the electorate getting relentlessly regaled by matinee idol Barack Obama and tabloid charlatan Donald Trump, contemporary politicians almost have to be pre-existing celebrities in order to capture any public attention at all.
Donald Trump won in the GOP primaries because he acted more like a Borsht Belt comic in the Don Rickles genre than the standard noxious cutout Republicans on the 2016 debate stage. Even if you logically thought the guy was a clear and present danger to the earth and all humanity, you couldn't help but appreciate the zingers he aimed at Jeb! Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and that whole free-market gang.
Hillary Clinton certainly was no match for him. All he had to do was juxtapose his boundary-free media persona against this bellicose and humorless former Goldwater Girl, and the victory was his. As long as a life-long grifter can make you laugh right along with him as he makes your grievances and your darkest unspoken impulses his very own - with no punishment and with such an outlandish reward for him - then at least you don't feel so all alone in the world... for whole minutes at a time.
Joe Biden, sadly, is certainly no entertainer. He was able to beat Trump in 2020 largely because the pandemic kept him locked up in his basement most of the time. Today, with everybody insanely unmasking as the virus rages on, the Democratic Party is in a veritable frenzy of loud whispering about his lack of popularity with the masses. All of a sudden, they're discovering that he is incapable of telling a good story or selling their Narrative Du Jour. And these days, "stories" and acting ability are really the only qualifications that a potential president needs. So when, in a sort of desperate Hail Mary move, his handlers finally sent Joe to a pre-recorded late night comedy show to entertain the folks at home, he simply ended up parodying his own failure to even basically communicate, let alone regale.
"So there’s a lot of major things we’ve done," Biden garbled to Jimmy Kimmel. "But what we haven’t done is we haven’t been able to communicate it in a way that is ah um…make me say another way.”
Politicians like Obama used to say "Make me do it!" as a disingenuous way to gaslight citizens for their own failure to clamor loudly enough for such nice things as single payer health care and debt-free college. And since even the sympathetic Kimmel could not make Joe Biden form a complete sentence, he gave up completely and just cut to commercial from the political commercial.
In the most delicate kind of tip-toeing way to describe Biden's mental lapses (a/k/a "gaffes") the New York Times is obliquely urging him to fade gracefully into the sunset and not seek re-election. Former Obama adviser David Axelrod displayed his own skills at the glib doubletalk that his boss was so famous for, when he unctuously told the newspaper from both sides of his mouth:
“Biden doesn’t get the credit he deserves for steering the country through the worst of the pandemic, passing historic legislation, pulling the NATO alliance together against Russian aggression and restoring decency and decorum to the White House, And part of the reason he doesn’t is performative. (My bold) He looks his age and isn’t as agile in front of a camera as he once was, and this has fed a narrative about competence that isn’t rooted in reality.”
Translation: sure, the guy is senile, but if you think so, its a mistake on your part and you are an awful, awful person, unlike concern trolls like me, David Axelrod.
And that detour from the ostensible topic of this post brings us back, on the long and winding road of political propaganda, to the nascent Jimmy Dore campaign for president. The main reason that I still watch Dore is for his "telephone interviews" with vocal impersonator Mike MacRae, who does a spot-on, hilarious David Axelrod as well as a perfect obstreperously incoherent Joe Biden.
Otherwise, Dore's shtick has been hit or miss for the last year or so, not least because of his rants about the pandemic, largely focused on medications that liberals don't like. There's also been a decidedly misogynistic slant to the show lately, emphasizing the looks and dress of certain female politicians and celebrities. His guest list, which used to include a wide variety of pundits, politicians, labor leaders and academics, has been largely diminished to a couple of fellow male white comic sidekicks allowed to chime in from time to time to bolster Dore's opinions.
His interviewing style leaves a lot be desired as well, because these spots are all too often comprised of Dore beating a point to death, often bragging that he is the only guy to cover stories that put the establishment in a bad light, and then asking the guest to comment on the rant. When, for example, writer Chris Hedges appeared on the show last week, he was barely able to get a word in edgewise. More and more, the segments on the Dore show revolve around the latest mean Tweet that some liberal troll or media rival aimed at Jimmy and who was then severely "ratio'd" as a result.
I find myself tuning in less and less, and shutting it off as soon as Dore once again ventures into Covid rant territory, or Amber Heard or AOC territory, amidst non-stop whining that YouTube is going to yank his channel away from him any day now.
But with a million YouTube subscribers and a nationwide standup tour, Dore certainly has his fans. And that brings me to what appears to be a hastily written and unedited email that I got yesterday from People's Party founder Nick Brana:
Millions lack food and health care and live paycheck to paycheck. Poverty wages now gutted by inflation. Eviction and homelessness sweep every city. Desperation so deep it drives people to opioid addiction and mass murder suicide. The looming fall of the dollar and depression. A dying empire lashing out for war with not one but two nuclear powers. The major left wing party in this country leading the charge for annihilation and censorship.
Thankfully, I and many others have recently found real hope and joy in the prospect that Jimmy Dore could run for president of the United States.
Jimmy has been considering a run for president with the People’s Party for the past several weeks. We’ve been discussing it with him and Stef and have developed a fifty state campaign and ballot access plan with organizers and leading ballot access attorneys.
The crowds in Des Moines, Omaha and Kansas City erupted in cheers when Jimmy surprised everyone at his live stand up shows last month and said, “I’m thinking of running for president,” and took townhall style questions for the first time....
Jimmy would be the most popular comedian to ever run for president. He would be the first candidate with his own hugely popular online show — something that has only just now become possible due to the rise of the internet and independent media.
This missive goes on for almost the length of an interminable Jimmy Dore rant, so I'll give it a rest.
Despite the Dore candidacy being non-serious, disingenuous, and at worst, cult-like, it might even do some good. It would bring the whole class war cause of almost everything bad in this country right into the forefront. Since our whole society is tragically crumbling all around us anyway, what harm could a little more farce possibly do?
But if he wants to get any traction at all, I think Dore should ditch the struggling People's Party, which is actually registered as a fundraising political action outfit. He should run as a Democrat to get even a slight chance of getting on a nationally televised primary debate stage and insulting all the wannabes waiting in the wings - such as the insufferable Pete Buttigieg and corrupt New York City Mayor Eric Adams, to name just two of the centrists under loud whispering consideration by party bigwigs. If a New Age outlier like Marianne Williamson could get a podium spot last time around, why not Jimmy Dore in 2024?
After all, the Democratic Party is all about the spectacle, as the January 6 Capitol Riot series now playing on the small screens of America has shown. Even if you think that Dore is funny or informative less than half the time, we can still use all the laughs we can get. And the comfortable and the powerful certainly deserve all the affliction that we can hurl at them.
I'm interested in hearing what readers think about all this.
I think it is all a circus. While I hate him - I can understand why "liberals" cling to Obama when compared to the likes of Trump, Biden and now Dore. Obama might have been a consummate liar and willing to sell those who voted for him and gave time and money to his campaign down the river but at least he came across as intelligent and articulate.
ReplyDeleteDore is a jackass. I might agree with him on a lot of issues but I rarely have watched his show because he is so irritating. I tried to get the Hedges interview with him - oddly drawn to witnessing the train-wreck you described - but couldn't get it in Australia.
The only candidate I can see making a good show for the Democrats is Elizabeth Warren, but after dragging her into politics, she isn't treated well by the DNC. I think she would do a good job but crazies in the Republican Party hate her like they hate Hillary - something I don't feel is at all justified. But I think - because she is capable of doing a good job - she is a huge threat to the Oligarchy.
Sorry - I just don't see much hope for the country of my birth - and that deeply saddens me.
Chris Hedges did an amazing job with this video/podcast. You have to sit through some ads but it is worth your time. He explains why we will never get rid of our guns in the U.S. while at the same time doing an amazing job describing the plight of the working class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkJv3_dzGH8
We all know this - but at the same time, it is good to hear it so articulately explained.
Never knew there is a Jimmy Dore!
ReplyDeleteKaren someone please get Tulsi back, she is the only true leader. The dems or should I say “the Clinton/Obama party made her disappear from public life. If only one of these wealthy nut bags where for real, and truly cared about America, never mind I’m dreaming out loud.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteRush Limbaugh pioneered right-wing talk radio. Now Rachel Maddow is Rush Limbaugh in drag: she pioneered PMC cable news.
Rush used to call his listeners "ditto-heads" because they would ditto everything he said. They didn't take that as an insult. Rachel doesn't dare insult her listeners that way: they're mostly self-important and college-educated (meaning they bought CliffsNotes, "earned" a C average or even a B if they were wealthy enough to pay somebody to write their papers). They graduated and joined the PMC, but like Rush's ditto-heads, they never really learned to read. Systemic analysis and "long"-form opinion like Sardonicky is dweebish and beyond their interest in reading. They just want someone to hate and to blame.
So the great electoral division in the US is between these college-"educated" non-literates with bullshit jobs and the non-literate essential workers. Trump, the Republicans, and the Democrats, with the assistance of radio and television, have built and exploited this divide masterfully.
Jimmy Dore is pioneering YouTube socialism in same manner. I don't watch Dore much, so I'm not sure why Alphabet permits this. Perhaps because to these key swing demographics, Dore comes across as a dweeb -- or a "jackass" for acting college-educated but hating the wrong people.
Unfortunately, I don't think Dore or Brana understand all this, otherwise Dore would ditch the glasses. Who does he think he is? Chris Hayes?
Fwiw, I think this was Dore's best interview.
"the Democratic Party is all about the spectacle"
ReplyDeleteActually, so is the Republican Party.
The election itself is a political spectacle and, yes, it is "rigged" to assure the interests of the ruling class are maintained in a changing world. This was always the purpose of the Constitution, to give legitimacy to maintaining not the status quo, but rather the continuing hegemony, power and control of the country by the elite group of swindlers that "own" the largest share of the current means of production (originally land, then industry and now finance).
It is easy to fall into the trap of hoping for an end to this oppressive system through the "legitimate" process of an election. It is also easy to become cynical about it and say it is just an inconsequential spectacle but might at least be entertaining, like a horse race or a circus or a comedy show.
The fact remains that the oppression will continue until an alternative to a change in power and control is affected and it will not be through organizing around the elections.
Donald Trump's alternative of storming the Capitol will not work either, at least not for the diverse working class.
The historically proven approach of peaceful large-scale demonstrations by a broad-based united front organized around the pressing needs of the masses of working people with a principled understanding of the class struggle is our only hope and we need to be serious about it and commit to it.
Mr. Dore does not seem to have a grasp of this. He is an opportunistic entertainer. The People's Party does not seem to grasp this. To participate in the Democratic party presidential debates without using it as a platform to advance the class struggle on a principled basis would only help enhance the spectacle of the elections and sustain the legitimacy of an oppressive system.
We need to get serious about change.
Thorstein,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that link. It WAS a good interview. I noticed Dore mostly listened rather than take over the interview.
Karen,
ReplyDeleteThis link is only tangential to your post but with your permission, I would really like to share this link with your commenters and readership because I think it is really relevant to our times. With the war in Ukraine and the economic train wreck caused by the U.S. involvement and sanctions, I have been listening to a lot of videos and podcasts about the economy and environment as I work to organise our home after moving to a new town. I came across a very good speech, called The Race of Our Lives, by an investor named Jeremy Grantham. He is very well respected in the investment world for making lots of money but in his old age has turned his investment company to researching and investing in ideas and investments that fight climate change. He is often quoted and snippets of his thoughts are used but this is the first time he was given the time to lay out and synthesise the research and the direction we should be moving - which I felt was well worth listening to. I hope it is OK to share - as there are very few forums that would allow this. It is a 45 minute lecture with a Q and A afterwards. Thanks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gzkJxHbxCI
I guess I don't know enough about the People's Party to know whether they are the real thing or not. But it doesn't bode well that they have chosen Dore as their candidate.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete“A silver-tongued charlatan and a half-wit society are made for each other! When these two come together in an election, a great disaster happens: Charlatan comes to power!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan
Why I was repulsed by Jesse “The Body” Ventura when he ran for governor of Minnesota:
Predator (1987) - Jesse Ventura Tribute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPq6nurLhBI
Main Event Wrestling best intro —
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD24SxwXfSs
But, unlike the latest showman turned politician, how he governed greatly contrasted:
https://grist.org/article/ness-ventura/
https://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Jesse_Ventura_Energy_+_Oil.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Ventura
The Incredible Political and Media Journey of Jesse and Tyrel Ventura —
Interview with Substack's newest contributors, who may be the ultimate symbols of America's censorship regime.
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-incredible-political-and-media?utm_source=email&s=r
June 3, 2022 ~ by Matt Taibbi
Jesse Ventura ~ 63 Documents the Government Doesn't Want You to Read —
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pS1edpeGqI
May 6, 2011 ~ 55:51minutes -- well worth watching & hearing in entirety
Here we have and find ourselves in the utterly degenerate pit:
ReplyDeleteLiz Cheney for President?
Is she the person America will need?
~ by Robert Reich
June 13, 2022
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/liz-cheney-for-president?s=r
Robert Reich’s favorably comparing Liz Cheney to Paul Wellstone is goddamn disgusting, abominably despicable, and forever unforgivable.
It is so insufferably infuriating and insanely outrageous that I must take the 5th rather than explicitly assert what should be his excruciating consequence.