... brought to you, once again, by the Democratic Party. which spent billions of dollars doing its damnedest to lose this intra-oligarchic contest. Let us count just a few of the ways:
--Setting up Kamala Harris to take the fall. Her failure to win even a single primary vote in the 2020 contest made her a shoo-in for defeat, which is what Democrats wanted all along. Their whole purpose is to fund-raise by blaming everyone but themselves. You almost have to feel sorry for Kamala at this point. I don't imagine that she'll follow in the footsteps of her predecessors, the Clintons and the Obamas, cashing in with Netflix deals, speaking tours and self-glorifying charitable foundations..
--Their implicit goal of achieving lifetime status as martyred elite losers was cemented in the final weeks of the campaign. To ensure that Harris would lose, Bill Clinton told Muslim voters that Israel had a right to commit genocide because the Bible essentially had declared the zionists to be the chosen people. That was meant to supplement Michelle Obama waving her blue-taloned finger at men - who apparently do not empathize sufficiently with their womenfolks' menstrual cramps and the horrors of menopause to cast a vote in solidarity for Kamala Harris. It was really quite a retro argument, when you think of it, because the patriarchy has always pointed to female biology as the excuse to not grant them pay raises, promotions or even basic respect. Barack, for his own part, reverted again to his habit of denigrating Black men. His audience was not so much Black men as it was the white liberal burbs who feel more comfortable when it's a Black former president who utters their race stereotypes for them.
-- Ignoring the dire economic straits many if not most people are now facing. Ignoring homelessness, sickness and despair. Championing a genocide.
Now, if you're imagining that the return of Trump will cause the Democrats to do a little introspection, think again. If the march of the scapegoats hasn't already begun, it will get underway with a vengeance very soon. The usual suspects will vie for supremacy: racism, sexism. Jill Stein, Russian interference, social media... you name it.
There may one silver lining to this debacle. With the Senate now in Republican hands, a President Harris would have made all kinds of deals to keep the government open - cutting Social Security and other social benefit programs would have been at the top of the agenda. Such back-stabbing of regular people can only succeed with bipartisan complicity and cooperation. No one party is accountable and therefore no one party need take the blame.. It is why Republicans failed to pass NAFTA until Clinton came long. And the only thing that prevented him and his GOP partners in triangulation from privatizing Social Security was the Lewinsky scandal.
Make no mistake. If Trump is a fascist dictator, it was Democrats who opened the door for him and his movement. They are the ones who abandoned their disaffected constituents and chose instead to serve financialized capital.
Cynics and cowards, they have delivered the population to corporations and oligarchs. They should fade away with pathetic whimpers that nobody will listen to.
The way forward, if we are to survive this dark age, is to band together in acts of mutual aid, both large and small, both loud and quiet. Any resistance movement must be from the bottom up and remain as far as possible away from the Democratic Party and its various veal pen think tanks and its corporate media partners.
"We in America do not have government by the majority.
ReplyDeleteWe have government by the majority who participate.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
(It took a helluva long time for "the home of the brave and the land of the free" to allow non-whites and women to participate.)
Jim Hightower reports:
"Election analysts hurl a blizzard of election statistics at us, but here’s one that I think tells the real story:
Despite the intensity and importance of this year’s presidential election,
some 20 million FEWER people voted than in 2020.
Kamala Harris drew 14 million fewer votes than Biden did back then.
And, despite Trump’s grandiose claim of unprecedented popular support, he actually got 3 million fewer votes this year than in 2020."*
* Number of votes is as of midday on November 6th, 2024.
“Cure the evils of Democracy by the evils of Fascism! Funny therapeutics.
I’ve heard of their curing syphilis by giving the patient malaria,
but I’ve never heard of their curing malaria by giving the patient syphilis!”
~ Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
Agreed, Erik. For this democracy of sorts to work, it depends on numbers of active voters with a clear idea of who they are and what their situation is. Their reality is obfuscated by a persistently propagated The American Dream. Those of us who do things other than develop capitalist instincts don't get there. Our instincts were about avoiding the values of exploitation. I recall that even as a child I felt the wish to live out my life in love with my community, whoever that might be.
ReplyDeleteI hope the comments to Karen revive. Commenting is necessary as it serves as a mortar of solidarity.
The big revelation of this past election for me was the fact that 66% of white American women voted for the world champion of female degradation. Kamala relied on a presumed solidarity of women. It went bust.
The Democratic party is now, even maybe for the gullible, exposed as the fraud that it has always been behind its disguise. It's been signaling to various identity groups for a long time. Now we see that the identity group that counts in the electoral sense is socio-economic class. American politics is solidly class warfare. Political campaigns make it about everything else. Why else is socialism continuously demonized and vilified by them. Biden's only 2020 campaign flourish of conviction was when he was compelled to declare, "I am a capitalist!".
That 66% is to me all about class, eschewing anything womanhood. To protect their class affinities, these women practiced pro-misogynist. Class warfare consciousness will grow organically I hope through the course of the Trump term, as the genocidal American empire falters both economically and by moral rot. There's only so much shame that even a white supremacist can take.
I think there were fewer votes this time due to both candidates' support for genocide in Gaza. That could be one factor. It'll be interesting to see how many votes Jill Stein got.
ReplyDeleteDr. Roger Gewold nails it in his interview on Sky News Australia: Why is Biden still allowed to be president, given his obvious dementia? Kamala Harris should have become the president on July 21, 2024 under the 25th amendment after Biden dropped out of the race. Then she would have had the advantage of being the incumbent against Donald Trump, and able to make her own policy decisions to persuade voters. Dr. Gewold argues they were afraid Harris would screw up before the November 5th election. How telling is that observation? Who is actually running the country now?
ReplyDeleteJoe and Jill Biden deliver final 'kick' against Kamala Harris on election day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1mU0KAJkEQ
Who IS actually running the country now?
ReplyDeleteWho is actually running the country NOW? Same people who were actually running it THEN. Duh.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, Crazy Uncle Joe is just the same sock puppet that he has always been. DUH.
DeleteTrump's America First movement won every swing state, the popular vote, Electoral College, Presidency, Senate, and likely the House despite the entire mainstream media, Pentagon, National Security cabal, Hollywood, and the rest of the Establishment gunning for him relentlessly for the past 8 years.
ReplyDeleteI'm relieved to know that a majority of Americans have common sense in spades and applied it to their votes. It's not Morning in America, it's High Noon at the OK Corral. Ride or Die for country.
Loyal partisans might want to check assumptions about everything the parties and corporate media have been spewing for years, not just about Trump but about fellow Americans. Social media such as TwiXtter allows citizens to compare info from corporate media to on-the-ground accounts - straight from the horses mouth vs hind-end droppings from legacy media for a change. Voters could even smell the difference!
America First voters won handily across the board and that's a great start, with battles ahead of course. You might even call it a revolution: a (re)union of the Ron Paul Revolution, Bernie's Revolution, Occupy, independents, and others just plain sick and tired of the traditional GOP and Dem imperialist agendas.
Say what you want about JD, Elon, RFKJr. Tulsi, Tucker, and Joe R but they're bringing new perspectives to Trump. Out with the old, in with the new.
It's not darkness that I see but light at the end of the tunnel for a *change*. Voters put America First, i.e., Country not Empire. Many admitted they didn't even like Trump personally but voted for ending endless wars, putting our own dilapidating house in order, ending Gov't-Media censorship and protecting Constitutional rights.
Now hear this! (or read transcript available in link … through 43:26 minutes) -
ReplyDelete"The Mourning After" - Ralph Nader Radio Hour
https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/p/the-mourning-after
Real mask off moment there "thought criminal". I suppose it is what I would expect from someone who says "America can go back to being just a country" as if our history is not one long string of imperial conquest.
ReplyDeleteI believe what people are talking about here when they talk about identity politics is what is usually characterized by leftist historians as the politics of representation. There was one campaign that went all in on identity politics and it wasn't Harris's. That you don't recognize it as such is pretty telling.
ReplyDeleteTo one of the Anonymouses:
ReplyDeleteI don't know what mask is off. I've been an Independent for decades. I've never claimed to speak for or represent Dems. I usually voted Dem at least until ntil Hillary took over the whole operation, from appropriating all states' Dem money to her own campaign to the deplorables comment to advising Kamala how to win!
Although genocide has always been in our DNA, empire has not except in the wealthy. Our ragtags in the British colonies here in North America won a momentous and hard-fought battle for independence from the British Empire. They didn't risk all to become an empire. That was the merchants' dream, eventually to come true. Here we go again!
George Washington didn't aspire for us to become an empire either (nor believe in keeping a standing army nor having political parties) and Americans never VOTED to become an empire.
Yet here we are reunited with the British Empire and NATO military alliance to serve with our tax dollars and hard work the ANGLO-AMERICAN WHITE SUPREMACIST COLONIALIST EMPIRE that's cannibalizing our country. The imperial chickens and warhawks have come home to roost and feed off the carcass.
Many Americans are recognizing that the USA (i.e. Country) has become just another colony for the Anglo-American Empire to exploit and are not happy about that one bit. It's a threat to our freedom and way of life.
But look who championing the Empire and claiming it as theirs despite losing many elected offices- the CIA/Cheney warmongering Democrats. Dems are making themselves synonymous with Empire. That means America First is a threat to Empire and vice versa. Enemies.
"Six ways to Sunday" applies as both a warning and a threat. Dems still consider Trump to be dangerous as do their partners-in-crime, the war profiteers. They both still have their bloody hands on the bloody levers of power until/unless there's a purge. Can't come soon enough.
The height of the New Deal coalition was 1946. The price of the New Deal was the maintenance of Jim Crow. The Civil Rights act was the last nail in the New Deal's coffin. McGovern is the only major party presidential candidate that ever tried to put together a multiracial, economically progressive, anti war campaign. How'd that go?
ReplyDelete