Conor here: A quote comes to mind.
“How many more of these stinking, double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote FOR something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?”
-Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
And the lesser of two evils—including whoever it is this go-round—often seem to get more evil.
By Thomas Neuburger. Originally published at God’s Spies
I’m trying not to comment much on the election, but I will say this: It’s Harris’s race to lose, and she might lose it.
Why?
A Change Election?
Some analysts think this is still a change election — I’m among them — and many voters are still sick of billionaires running their lives. So what can those who want change do in this election? Democrats are still the party of “keep things the same, only better.” Not much change in that; or at least, not enough.
So what’s left to do? Voters who want change can support an agent of chaos (that’s definitely Trump) and upset the cart entirely, or they can stay home. Trump already has all his voters (see below), so the choices become either Harris or stay at home.
Unstrategic? You could say that. But angry people, in the main, aren’t perfect strategists, and the very very angry aren’t strategic at all.
The stay-at-home strategy hurts Harris the most, since Trump, as I see it, maxed out his voting ranks a long time ago — his peak is always near 48% — while Harris could still grow hers among undecideds. Yet instead of gaining new votes, her growth has stopped or receded. (See chart above.) Undecideds aren’t breaking in her direction, at least not in good enough numbers. Her campaign has stalled.
Working Class Voters
To try to determine why Harris has stalled, a survey by the Center for Working-Class Politics, YouGov and Jacobin magazine, tested various messages with workers in Pennsylvania, a key swing state. They chose five gleaned from her actual campaign and two alternatives, trying to see what worked best.
The real messages tested (those based on her campaign) were these:
- The Soft Populist message acknowledges that most businesses are job creators and play by the rules but calls out big corporations and Wall Street for price gouging and not paying their fair share of taxes.
- The Moderate Economic message focuses on Harris’s economic vision of an “opportunity economy” that achieves broad-based growth and emphasizes tax cuts for middle-class Americans.
- The Democratic Threat message calls on voters to defend democracy and liberal norms against the threat posed by Trump, highlighting his felony criminal convictions.
- The Defend Abortion message emphasizes Harris’s support of abortion rights against Republican proposals to enact a nationwide abortion ban, a position she attributes to Trump.
- The Immigration Critical message underscores Harris’s support for increased border security while facilitating a path to citizenship for immigrants who play by the rules.
The messages that weren’t from her campaign were these:
- The Strong Populist message more aggressively targets economic elites for getting richer while working Americans suffer, sets up a strong contrast between the working class and the billionaire class, and blames not only economic elites and Trump (as in the Soft Populist message) but a wider cast of Washington politicians for leaving workers behind.
- The Progressive Economic message foregrounds progressive economic positions, some of which Harris has already endorsed but often fails to emphasize, along with some policies that fall outside the campaign’s current policy proposals. These policies include reshoring American jobs, guaranteeing jobs for all those looking for work, and expanding Medicare access to include younger Americans who lack adequate health insurance.
Matt Karp summarized the results. The solution is clear. Nonpartisan populism beats all other messages, including partisan, anti-Trump populism; and the “threat to democracy” message actually loses some voters.
Apparently people still hate the billionaires. Yet Harris and her strategists persist in the partisan populist message and “threat to democracy.” To working class voters convinced the system is (still) rigged, she doesn’t look like the answer.
Democracy Under Threat
The failure of the threat-to-democracy message deserves comment. Trump has indeed let his strongman flag fly, proving to liberals that this threat is real. So why doesn’t this message work with the working class?
The answer is implied by the discussion above, but some writers make it explicit. Working class people are the primary national victims of billionaire greed. So what do they see as the threat, Republicans or billionaires?
Here’s Carl Beijer’s take: “‘Democracy is at stake’ messaging only works in a democracy”. From the paywalled part of his piece:
I would argue … that “democracy is at stake” messaging only works in a functional democracy. And since most people don’t think of the US as a functional democracy, most people don’t think that it’s actually “at stake” in any meaningful sense.
He explains, referencing the survey discussed above:
[W]hen Democrats start going on about how Trump could suspend elections or crack down on free speech or launch all kinds of other attacks on liberal democracy, a lot of people just shrug because they already think they have nothing left to lose.
The advantage of this explanation is that it also explain[s] the popularity of the Strong Populist message — which, again, emphasizes that DC actually answers to the powerful rather than the people. [emphasis mine]
So yes, people might believe democracy is at stake. But maybe, just maybe, they define the problem as bipartisan, and Harris, in doing not much to “take on the billionaires” (to quote a once popular populist), fails to look like the answer.
Of course, we’ll find out soon what worked and what didn’t. But the “embrace Dick Cheney and comfort the rich” approach could cost her a lot.
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Uhh… vote third party? Jill Stein, perhaps?
Or is that too much outside the box for Mr. Neuburger…?
Change that to: So what’s the Left to do?
Then the choices boil down to either go all Kerensky or go all Trotsky.
You’ll probably see many of us at the barricades soon since very few of us can afford brunch.
Barricades are so 19th century and all they do is provide the State a convenient target. Even back then it was so, such as when the workers got hammered on the barricades in Paris back in the 1870s-
https://www.gettyimages.com.au/photos/barricade-1871
But it’s 2024. A great many freeways and essential roads exist in the US that someone could drive a truck or two across and park them, blocking that road from side to side; then refuse to move those vehicles, or blow them up/set them on fire and leave them there. Think of that done on the bridges into Manhattan or the major routes into DC, or on vital interstate connectors.
Back at the start of the century, there was an amusing SF novel called Distraction by Bruce Sterling, W. Gibson’s erstwhile collaborator, which opened with a scene where, in a context of a 2040s-era US where 60 percent unemployment exists, a local US Army group has driven its tanks onto an interstate and runs a toll road on passing motorists so as to get paid.
You don’t have to wait to the 2040s. Cops have been doing this for years by stopping motorists and stealing their cash and their cars without charging them for anything. The future is now-
https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/03/12/cops-use-traffic-stops-to-seize-millions-from-drivers-never-charged-with-a-crime/
My last girlfriend’s ex, sold these, to supplement income. BMW M, Nissan Z & Infiniti equivalents (NJ troopers took from mostly Black & Latino owners). Israeli trained NYPD isn’t alone in a civil forfeiture business model? We will likely see antisemite, eco-terrorist & BLM protestors fined & assets, indentured earnings upwardly redistributed by MAGA Sturmabteilung anti-terrorist consulting firms?
https://theintercept.com/2017/10/22/the-u-s-will-invade-west-africa-in-2023-after-an-attack-in-new-york-according-to-pentagon-war-game/
Various legal enforcement departments all over America have been doing civil forfeiture shakedowns and highway/backroads robbery for decades.
Someone should do a study on how many of these legal enforcement departments received Israeli training and when they instituted their civil forfeiture shakedown and robbery model . . . before or after such training.
And whether departments which never received such training also practice civil forfeiture.
Actually I believe such a scenario – police goes rogue to preseve their constituency and station – is used as plot for a Netflix movie, Rebel Ridge, with the great Don Johnson and a couple of other excellent actors. The film itself is a bit odd (it tries to build on that 1970s feeling in movies, with villages feeling detached and abandoned by the government and thus acting as “rogue” states and insurrectionist.)
So none of what legacy media are so worried about is anything new.
Just think “Parallax View” from 1974 and a whole bunch of what is termed “conspiracy thrillers” first with Fritz Lang, the dark series, later Hitchcock and then into a genre of its own.
It´s of little surprise that this content has mostly vanished from the big screen and been transformed and funneled into sci-fi/action, regarded as less “political”.
Mr. Michaelmas, those violent acts are not necessary to shut down the interstate. A woman standing naked on the berm will do the same. I know this because I have seen it. Another tactic is to drive the minimum speed limit. I was once caught in a miles-long back-up on I-95 in Florida caused by an elderly couple in a Cadillac driving 55mph. The minimum on that stretch of highway was actually 45mph, but
I think that speed is meant for hauling oversize loads and are usually accompanied by escorts with flashing lights.
That might be a way for conservation vigilantes to enforce conservation driving. But they had better travel in well armed well organized convoys if they wish to protect themselves against the road raging driver-masses who find themselves thereby slowdowned.
( Though maybe someone could program a self-driving car-of-tomorrow to do the same thing on the superhighway).
That’s not funny at all. I’m a union carpenter in Florida. No work= no pay. Interstates and toll roads are my only reasonable way to get to work. I am not the only construction/ maintenance worker who does this.
In any state that’s not a battleground, voting third party should be a no-brainer. It sends a message–dissatisfaction and dissent. Not voting conveys disinterest.
This! writing in Stein
would do same if nyc were a battleground
the Dems have not earned my vote
Not voting may convey disinterest. In my case it conveys revulsion at support for genocide.
But we only know that because you informed us.
Not voting creates fraud opportunity, a big opaque pool of unused votes. “You don’t want your vote? Great! Mind if we use it?”
Which makes more of a “statement”? Double digit non participation (happens every four years. 2020, 34% of voting eligible Americans declined to participate) or double digit Green Party results (2020, the Greens managed 0.26% of the vote). Imagine if the Greens took 12 to 15 percent of the vote. That could be the real left finally getting a voice.
What if they held a sham election and no one showed up? What if folks protested instead with a list of demands? It will never happen, but worth a thought experiment.
In a battleground state and I’m voting for Stein. Sends an even louder message.
This is an interesting Stein-blessed strategy. It assumes whacking the D establishment with the 2 x 4 of losing a swing state will a) get their attention, and b) get them to do something different. The odds that bet would work are pretty long, but I guess you’ve decided to accept them. Good luck!
If the Democrat party doesn’t get the message or gets it and refuses to change, well then even more reason to keep voting third party.
Yep. When people say things like “I live in a safe state so I’m voting third party” says to me you don’t have any real conviction about it. I’m not naive enough to think it matters anyway, but if you’re only will to vote third party if it doesn’t hurt the Dems, what’s the point?
exactly, thank you.
Me too. It’s another Ad Reinhardt election, trying to differentiate shades of black. Which is darker? And I’m supposed to feel so strongly about who’s worse that I lend my voice to mass murder? No thanks.
If half of us just voted their conscience, or their opinion about policy, or their gut, or even a beauty pageant ffs … no way DT of KH wins.
But nope. The only serious way to frame this choice is strategic support for one or another brand of brutality. And send a message to the elites that they can do anything… anything… and still expect my vote.
Sorry, the genius Dems never get that message: see Nader 2000. The message the get is the message that the Stalinists always got…anybody not on-board is a wrecker. They are impervious to messaging.
that’s what I did. I saw the choices on my ballot (Harris, Trump, Kennedy, and the libertarian whose name I can’t remember). Only the libertarian called it genocide, so he got my vote.
Message to who?
Sorry – what’s left to do that will accomplish something.
Such dilettantish ennui is all very well.
Given the heroic efforts by Jill Stein to get on the ballot everywhere it would be churlish not to vote for her while you have the chance.
If only to keep a clear conscience afterwards.
Please wake up in America! A vote for either mainstream duopoly candidate is a vote for the circus.
True, but political bribery is now legal and formalized – the US is a de-facto oligarchy, there is no “democracy” other than a superficial PR stunt. It is the Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
America wants genocide, kleptocracy, oligarchy and authoritarianism and that’s what they will get.
Feel lucky if you have the knowledge and resources to flee the Imperial Homeland while it slowly implodes. Maybe we should “go East young people” as Michael Hudson has said.
RFK, jr. still on lots of ballots. In my state I will vote for him and some school board candidates!
No wars and healthy regulated healthy food and drugs is a good place to start, right? Why could democrats not engage with that?
My wife thinks I’m crazy not to vote against trump but the whole point is we are going to have to tear this MF’er down if all we have is nothing to represent 98.9 percent of us for eternity. The bad guys won a long time ago ( see u.s.a as 4th reich comments in Russia post!).
Yes we are in debt to the kings and queens of the past forever unless we stop thinking we owe them anything in this system. They have done nothing for us when standing armies do not protect us but are turned on us when we question things like, oh I do know, quarter trillion in aid to Israel to kill control and hate a group of people for decades for resource control. Bailouts of creditors, not write-downs or jubilee for debtors. Every industry turning basically into a big 3 (or less) cartel that conspires to keep it that way though owning representatives in government to write their laws. Regulatory agencies that are just industry trade representatives that do what the industry desires for their benefit not the people’s. Violent Crackdowns on pipeline protestors domestically, you know, stuff like that.
Wow. Why do I live here? If the us is like this, isn’t the world all like this now? Where do I go? It’s awful and sad. So, yeah we got that going for us.
100s of millions spent on marketing and public relations pays off. At least half of the eligible voters will bother to vote. Of those most will vote D or R and continuing genocide and atrocities will result.
We have legalized political bribery, rampant institutional corruption, lawless, rogue foreign policy, no meaningful choice, yet most still believe in the myth of US Democracy.
Why did “good” Americans continue to vote for these assholes? The US is just as bad or worse than any regime in modern history, yet we pretend we are the beacon on the hill and all that.
Even Ed Bernays would be in awe.
There are several reasons why the USA is a declining empire (all empires end, of course, just a matter of time). Four come to mind.
1) The national security state has exploded during my lifetime (I am old). From the birth of the CIA, leading to Eisenhower’s prescient warning about the growth of the “military industrial complex”, the US government almost always used violence instead of diplomacy in its foreign policy. I would challenge anyone to refute the fact(s) that the US government has been/is responsible for more death, destruction, and misery internationally than any other nation state. And it’s not even close! Vietnam, Cambodia, various coups south of the border, more recently Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, plus our proxy wars in Ukraine and Palestine. The death toll is in the millions and the misery of many additional millions forced to flee their homes is just as important. The war machine has evolved to what former CIA agent Ray McGovern calls the MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank) complex. Other terms are “the blob” or the Deep State—which term Trump has used recently because he sees himself as the victim of such.
2) Aside from the rampant corruption of the nation’s government representatives, one could argue that the late 18th century structures of the republican entity are now thoroughly obsolete. For example, a Representative, a position designed to be closest to the beliefs and will of constituents and so reelected every 2 years, used to represent a bit over 30,000, now it’s nearly 800,000 and so true representation is a near impossibility. (And this without discussing the US Senate or Supreme Court).
3) The dominance of neoloiberal capitalism which simply has no limits on the greed and ever-increasing fortunes of the oligarch class, which has great power over virtually all government officials. As Warren Buffett put it many years ago, ‘Yeah, there’s a class war in this country, and our class is winning’. Two key statistics of note: a) the large increase of the financial sector as a % of the total economy; and b) the resulting transfer of wealth from the working class, the 99%, to the hyper-rich. In the Republican Eisenhower period, the top individual income tax rate was over 90%! One could be rich and have a very good life, but not become too rich unless you inherited a fortune. The very concept of a billionaire is stupid.
4) An ideological narrative, continually reinforced by media, that the USA is the greatest, most exceptional country in the history of the world (by what measures?), and that there is no alternative. All the bullshit terms like democracy, communism, fascism, left, right, have no meaning within a cultural narrative that we are all exposed to from birth, like a religion, but which is believed by fewer and fewer Americans.
There will be implosion, dissolution, devolution, a combination of some, or all. Hopefully nonviolent, but I wonder about that.
Well put. Not to sound overly pessimistic, but violence looks almost inevitable. We have millions of desperate people with declining quality of life. The US population is notoriously heavily armed. I know people who have huge stacks of ammo and dozens of weapons stockpiled. No matter what the outcome of the election farce, conditions will continue to worsen and the likelihood of violence increase. Even now, the US is the most violent country in the so-called developed world. Few want violence, but it seems inevitable – I hope I am wrong about that.
Or take steps to build momentum to move the system away from electoral/representative politics. This election being a perfect demonstration of why we should, such a move would probably have widespread support after this, so now is the time.
Good point. More direct democracy where we vote on specific issues would be nice. Banning or strictly regulating political ads, like many countries do, would be helpful as well. Humans are never perfect, but we could do much better than the farce we have now.
Worked for a company that owned a couple TV stations. Ad revenue in presidential election years was off the charts. Our CFO used to joke that if anybody asked us who we were voting for, we should tell them we were undecided and could only make up our mind with more TV spots.
He was aware not too many people were actually swayed by these often ridiculous ads, and I wouldn’t mind seeing them banned at all.
Jill Stein is a card carrying phony. She’s all in on the Ukraine fiasco.
Committing a genocide and demanding that the voters affirm the support for the genocide is also probably not doing her any favours.
Far as I can see from my little corner of the internet:
* People like to vote for candidates they like.Remember when being the most popular candidate was important? Now it is all about being the least unpopular.
* Biden’s approval rating had been stable at minus 12-13 for some time until the genocide started and he slowly worsened to minus 19-20 (then the debate and him being pushed aside). Harris approval and favourability ratings seems to have peaked a month ago. Joy only brings you so far when doing a genocide.
* The usual badgering backfires when used against anti-genocide voters:
– Trump will endanger minorities! – Harris is doing genocide right now!
– Trump will be worse on Gaza! – Worse then genocide?!
– Vote the lesser evil! – How can genocde be a lesser evil?!
– We can push her left after the election! – No you can’t, and the genocide shows it!
I don’t know how many percentages this is, in particular as US media dutifully diverts their eyes and protestors are promptly removed from the public view. But if Stein gets more voters then the margin of losing, remember that the choice to get the genocide done was more important then winning the election.
Trump seems to get it that genocide is bad for business. He’d probably be Netanyahu’s “tough” buddy, who gives him what he wants but also gives him the hard talk he doesn’t want to hear.
“Hey, Bibi, cut this out now and I’ll give you a casino and some land in Florida. Plus some more beautiful F35s”
Harris would just dither and send Blinken on his 89th trip to Egypt, while more and more bodies pile up.
Slow death vs. quick.
I’ve heard a few versions of this type of thinking, on both sides, speculating about how one will be better than the other. In terms of argument, I lean towards Glenn Greenwald, who has said that, even if you want to push whichever candidate left on genocide, you give up all leverage by committing to vote for them. In real world terms, if you’re looking for predictive power, you don’t listen to what politicians say, especially on the campaign trail, you look at what they do. One moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and sanctified the theft of the Golan Heights; the other is currently in an administration arming, funding, and playing défense for a policy of extermination.
If one is intent on voting, there are 3 candidates who have expressly stated that they will enact an arms embargo, namely Jill Stein, Cornel West, and Claudia de la Cruz. Personally, I won’t be voting.
Probably everyone who visits this site could write a long and convincing treatise on the fatal problems with American procedural (bourgeois) democracy. Several people I know in what they would call the Peace and justice movement have been frightened into committing to Harris by either mainstream news or mainstream friends, neglecting both their hard-won knowledge and their Palestinian friends. Some others have been angered into committing to Trump, because the Harris campaign and the Ds have been so open in their hypocrisy, and in their supercilliousness. Interestingly, perhaps, this anecdotal sample is split by age, with the younger being spurred by anger into throwing a Trump at the machine which hates them, and the older being susceptible to fear.
I don’t think we can pretend to know how whichever administration will respond to real world crises when in office. I hope we don’t fall victim to wishful thinking to the benefit of one or another cynical party.
Among organizers, we have lost people to the “Trump Bad” scare machine, and we didn’t want to know them anyway.
Back a few years ago, if you went to a demonstration or teach in on the topic of Palestine, you could be assured you’d be among some of the most informed and seasoned people around, with no illusions, only dedication. One effect of the popularization of the cause, unfortunately, has been to dilute it’s quality. It didn’t used to need to be said that imperialism is bipartisan, and the distinctions we need to make to be able to focus on decision-makers are not on the basis of party.
This all said, it has been fun to follow the outrage machine that has been the Harris campaign, and, as Orwell said, propaganda tends, in the minds of thinking people, to produce support for the enemy.
“Orwell said, propaganda tends, in the minds of thinking people, to produce support for the enemy.”
good one
Sad case here is that these three candidates are not united with a common platform instead of personality-centered campaigns. As for the Left, even small parties running presidential candidates are a mixed bag- the Socialist Workers Party, formerly Trotskyist, has a presidential candidate emphasizing defense of Israel and not emphasizing Palestinian rights. It says a ton about how Leftist parties run by PMC hopefuls get led into political abyss’s.
They have zero chance of any significant votes. They do not appear on all ballots, they don’t have 100s of millions to saturate airwaves, they don’t have recognition, then there is the electoral college. US democracy is a cruel joke. It is like religion, it is a matter of faith, not reason.
I think Gaza is the elephant in the room. Not just ongoing, enthusiastic support for ethnic cleansing but similar support for having protestors beaten and tear gassed on college campuses.
I’d make the bold statement that like 90% of Harris problems with the left could be made to go away if she simply took a more aggressive stance against Israel. Even something as lukewarm as, “I do not necessarily agree with the views of the students, but these students have a right to protest and to express their views.” Frame it as a first amendment cause. She could also just say, “Israel may have a right to defend itself but its actions in Gaza are abhorrent and a clear violation of international law. We will condition any further financial or military support based on proper respect for human rights and will push for an immediate ceasefire.”
We all know that won’t happen, but those two statements would basically patch things up with the left even if AIPAC would have her number and probably be out for blood if she dared to say that in public.
Says something about yougov and Jacobin, that they couldn’t even phrase using coded language a genocide question (or any foreign policy question) – very deep state friendly of them!
Yep. They had a chance to patch things up when Joe was defenestrated and Harris got slotted in, but the party made it clear the donor money was the top priority.
So, as fjallstrom says: the Dems decided that getting the genocide done — gotta keep that donor money flowing — is more important than winning the election.
Yup. For the Democratic Party, the current thinking is that assisting a racist apartheid state commit genocide pays better than winning a presidential election.
Thanks. Gaza doesn’t get a mention above. Odd that.
The reality is that “progressive except for Palestine” isn’t progressive at all. So while we do still have democracy we are as usual given the choice between two right wingers, one of whom pretends not to be. Americans aren’t nearly as stupid as the Dems think they are and get that and therefore approach the election for what it is, a choice between two personalities in which they pick the one they like better. For many women that’s obviously not the boorish Trump.
For those who dislike glib–or in this case not so glib–liars it’s obviously not Harris. There is a theory among some of us that if we just get rid of some of the lying the country will get better.
Of course Trump comes up with plenty of whoppers but in his case few feel obliged to take them too seriously–much of it is just shtick. When Dems lie it’s serious as a heart attack or a 2000 lb bomb. It seems inconceivable to me that the country will vote for four more years of these people. Guess we’ll find out.
Trump doesn’t always lie. He’s totally honest about his support for genocide. “You’ve got to finish the problem.” He’s also said to finish it quickly. This could mean accelerate the genocide, with the pretext of destroying Hamas, which is an excuse for genocide. Honesty v lying is pretty meaningless here. He’s basically agreeing with Biden, except to say Biden’s holding Israel back. Seriously? Isn’t that even worse? But, I suppose there’s always a non-zero chance Trump would negotiate a ceasefire immediately.
How do you know he’s not lying about his “support”? Trump says lots of things and actually follows through on some of them. But once elected he won’t need Miriam Adelson any more and will be able to do anything he wants. This must worry Bibi who needs a doormat like Biden.
Regardless, the claim that possible Trump genocide will be worse than actual and horrific and unrestrained genocide under Biden/Harris is less than compelling. And on Ukraine there are clear and stated differences between Trump and the Admin. If we want’ to stick to evidence and precedent then how many foreign citizens have died via US interference during Trump’s previous four years versus the four we’ve just gone through? It’s not even a contest. Ukraine is ruined and Israel is flirting with the same while trying to destroy its neighbors.
Yes. This survey has nothing at all about foreign policy, which is strange. Though the electorate as a whole is pretty ignorant and/or apathetic about foreign policy, I think the Palestinian issue is significant for progressive leaning Democrats. That, and Harris actually having to appear in public and demonstrate her vacuousness, can account for most of the decline in her popularity.
On the other hand, many of us who have contact with folks in the real world have been saying for years that the Establishment persecution of Trump is self-defeating. It’s easy to portray billionaire Trump as a “little guy” up against a unified “Deep State,” because he has been. And outside the blue corridors of coastal cities and college towns, people know it. It’s obvious. It’s a key reason the popularity of the media is at record lows. Every time a new lawfare case is announced his popularity goes up. It may be true, as Beijer says, that people know they don’t have democracy now. But what he and Neuburger won’t quite admit is that people outside Blue World don’t buy the “fascist” fear-mongering either; they see this screeching as just part of the Establishment’s hybrid warfare against Trump. They are definitely correct that the “threat to democracy” message is self-defeating. But they can’t quite bring themselves to admit the full reason why.
Of course I question whether labeling Wall Street shill Harris as a “communist” or “radical leftist” is the best strategy either, especially if the “populist” message is most effective. And relying on name calling at the level of 15 year-old boys (“she’s SO dumb…” “Yeah man, she is just SO dumb…” etc.) has got to turn a few potential Republican voters off as well. But that’s our “democracy” today, isn’t it?
I am still holding my mail-in ballot and will turn it in on election day precisely because I want to give Harris every chance to say something mildly reasonable about stopping the genocide. I wouldn’t really believe it, but it would still be the best offer available under the circumstances and would indicate a tiny amount of courage given the AIPAC repercussions.
She won’t do it, of course, so I expect to vote for Stein. Spouse is not happy about that.
I wondered why the Harris campaign has not pulled a play from the HRC playbook and have a “private position” vs a “public position” on Israel/Gaza nearer the election.
The donor class could be privately assured that nothing would change, while some voters could be swayed into believing Harris had seen the light on genocide.
There would be too little time to actually do anything before the election, so the new “public position” could play well with non-genocide supporting voters.
There are a few days for Harris to make a heartfelt statement on genocide that could later be made “in-operative” to borrow from Nixon’s press secretary Ron Ziegler.
Maybe I’m too cynical.
Not trying to argue for supporting Harris – vote, or don’t vote, for whomever you want – but things can always get worse.
I believe Jill Stein and Butch Ware have both called Israel’s actions genocide- Stein being Jewish, was very clear that being anti-Israel actions is NOT being anti-Semitic.
They are a fabulously odd pairing: Ware is a bootstrap inner-city black man that has a PHD in History (west africa), converted to Islam, and Stein is a white female Harvard – trained Jewish MD. Both with deep Green party roots back decades.
I have no idea who will be the next president. What will be distressing to me though is that there seemingly will be no accounting for a current Biden-Harris administration that has supported war in Ukraine, genocide in Gaza, bombings across regions and countries, even military encirclement and preparation for war with China:
https://nytimes.com/2024/10/29/us/politics/us-military-army-china.html
October 29, 2024
New Vehicles, Face Paint and a 1,200-Foot Fall: The U.S. Army Prepares for War With China
The big and cumbersome Army is trying to transform itself to deploy quickly to Asia, if needed. It is an inherently dangerous business.
By Helene Cooper
Photographs and Video by Kenny Holston
Calling from Planet Earth, calling from Planet Earth, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2024/05/01/americans-remain-critical-of-china/. 81% of Americans view China unfavorably, so they would approve of Biden’s handling of China.
81% is proof that the propaganda is working:
House approves $1.6 billion for globa anti-China propaganda campaign
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a controversial bill allocating $1.6 billion to fund overseas media campaigns aimed at countering China’s global influence. The funding, which is part of a larger appropriations package, is set to enhance the United States’ strategic communications efforts, particularly in countries where China’s diplomatic and economic presence is strong.
https://muslimmirror.com/house-approves-1-6-billion-for-globa-anti-china-propaganda-campaign/
The 81% would likely favor whichever candidate can hate on China the most.
And from 2013:
U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Government-Made News to Americans
https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/14/u-s-repeals-propaganda-ban-spreads-government-made-news-to-americans/
We taxpayers actually pay our government to lie to us, but I kinda doubt that this 81% of Americans are aware of this.
Biden has not handled China. He has gone out of his way to poison relations with China beginning with Blinken and Sullivan’s brain dead performance in Anchorage, Alaska in March 2021. China is not going to go away because the US keeps flipping through the tattered playbook looking for the a magic formula of sanctions and military huffing and puffing to teach China that it had better do what we want. 81% of Americans may view China unfavorably, but do they actually know anything about China other than the propaganda they are fed?
I don’t believe the Washington Blobsters care about China, Ukraine, Russia, Iran and so on. They just need an enemy to stay in power. If you look at American history as a flow rather than, as the churlish Mr. W. Churchill said that history is “one damn thing after another”, you will see that war = growth in Washington’s power. Washington depends on war and warmaking. An entire industry has been built around war and Empire. That industry includes, as a critical part, the mainstream media. At the same time, that media, by exagerrating “threats” expands its readership/viewership. In short, it’s an ecology of violence that gives power to the powerful and a kind of meaning to the populace. The populace may not “like” a war but they will fall all over themselves to “thank” veterans for their service (to what?) as people who are “defending our freedoms” which, in fact, is the very opposite of what they do. In fact, these “heroes” destroy countries, murder (essentially) millions of people for no reason other than growing the war industry and expanding the power of Washington.
The reason I voted for Trump was that he and those around him are the only ones in either party, other than George McGovern, to critique the whole system at least a little bit since the Deep State formally took power in ’63.
“Calling from Planet Earth…81% of Americans view China unfavorably, so they would approve of Biden’s handling of China.”
After Chinese workers helped to build America’s transcontinental railroad, prejudice was fostered against the Chinese, leading America to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Chinese Exclusion Act remained until 1943. Prejudice against the Chinese was fostered through the McCarthy years, but was much reduced by the Nixon-Kissinger visit to Beijing in 1972.
The legacy of prejudice against the Chinese was again used during the years of Secretary of State Clinton to give America the Wolf Amendment of 2011 and to bring President Obama to China containment policy…
The Biden-Harris administration in turn fostered prejudice against China from the beginning. So, I really do understand the growing unfavorable popular view of China. However, I think the matter should be a prime focus in the campaign for the presidency and I wonder if voters really want American soldiers face-painting to prepare for war against China.
Chinese were brought in to work on railroads to keep white and recently freed black railroad workers from getting together and coming up with dangerous ideas that robber barons might not like. Discussed in this very good book – Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America.
The last thing the wealthy want is solidarity among the working class, so they divide and conquer instead. One could make a pretty good case that racism as we understand it today was an invention of 19th century US plutocrats.
Your Chinese oriented viewpoint has made you blind against other historical realities. The United States was built on violence, do you see any efforts being made to return the country to its original owners like the Indians and the Mexicans? Why should there be any special dispensation towards the Chinese?
胜者为王, 败者为寇 (the strong lives and the weak dies). It’s true before, it’s true now, it’s true forever, whether we like it or not.
“What will be distressing to me though is that there seemingly will be no accounting for a current Biden-Harris administration that has supported war in Ukraine, genocide in Gaza, bombings across regions and countries, even military encirclement and preparation for war with China”.
I don’t see why that should distress you particularly. The same applies to every previous administration too, and they were responsible for mass war deaths in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, and illegal coups in Chile, Ukraine and etc. and illegal bombings and murders of innocents here, there and everywhere.
Tangential thought: They’re gonna have to whack Sahra Wagenknecht
She’ll prolly get the Merkel treatment.
Her phone and Internet will be surveilled. Some kompromat will be sussed.
The spooks will contact her, and… wink wink, nod nod… you know.
Yes, had the same thought a few months ago after some regional elections. If she breaches
15% it will be necessary to Corbynize her or worse. How the German “elite” do the deed, I have no idea.
And, by the way, Annalena Baerbock: is there any other European politician whose stupidity in policy matches her mien?
I don’t know about mien, but she does dress like a vampire, so you can’t accuse her of false advertising. Sort of like Donald Trump, except without the modesty and the genial attitude towards minorities.
Pivoting to a supposed threat in China while practically losing against alleged “threats” (can I air quote hard enough on this phrase) in the Middle East and Russia is just asinine. I read a summary of a study by Raytheon earlier this year – which I cannot locate through google now for some reason – in which it stated there was not a single system it produced now that did not have some critical components made and imported from China. In short, what do folks in the military expect will happen to Raytheon’s ability to rearm in a war with China?
This.
The US has entered its era of full-on ‘Norma Desmond aging malignant narcissist’ mode.
Great image–thanks and it works.
I’d suggest the USA’s leaders need to walk in the shoes of the USA’s consumers.
Go to any electronics, hardware, big box store or sample the online wares from EBay and Amazon.
“Made in China” rules.
Then there are industrial metals sourced from China.
I’ll hazard that the USA’s consumers did not see many “made in Deutschland” on items for retail sale in 1940.
Lawyer politicians guided by financial engineers and hegemonic think tanks have put the USA and the world in a bad state.
Maybe the rest of the world will sanction the USA?
When you fully digest the word “racket” as being a fair and accurate description of US National Security policy and add at least a half-a-dose of the word “Orsellian” you get the perfect description of the policy of “full-spectrum-dominance” that is at the heart of the System. The US has become the most deeply corrupt country in the developed world other than Ukraine with Europe struggling to keep up. Yes, it’s that simple.
On an individual and group level for the Blobsters being a martinet gets you plaudits–the more criminal your intent the better. As we in the contractor community used to chant “no good deed goes unpunished” you can figure out the result of that sort of consciousness. That’s why the arrow is alway moving from bad to worse.
Many thanks for this. I would hope that the future is not of two establishment candidates vying with each other and exploiting the tyranny of small differences, but of an establishment candidate in opposition to an insurgency candidate. After all, there are now plenty of votes to be had in insurgency policies. Although a dynamic of that type did not succeed in the past (viz. the Goldwater and McGovern disasters of 1964 and 1972), it did – just – succeed in 2016 and might – just – succeed in a few days’ time. The question is therefore whether a Harris defeat will finally discredit the DNC and allow the ‘progressive’ wing (to the extent it has not been debauched by the corporate establishment) to wrest control, or whether a Trump defeat will permit the GOP corporate establishment (to the extent it still exists) to reassert control over the RNC.
For me another interesting dynamic is the neocon one. After all, the two main candidates are effectively titular fronts for underlying interests, and the neocons have been in power regardless of party. They successfully infiltrated Obama and usurped Trump. Latterly they have drifted decisively into the Democratic column because of Trump’s real or imagined unreliability, and his failure to dress blatant warmongering in elegant rhetoric (for the neocons simply cannot forgive his ‘honest vulgarity’). To be a neocon is to have a nose for power, and presumably they will drift back towards Trump in order to ‘save the government’ (i.e., to tame him, as in 2017-21). Absent Israel and Iran, where his natural instincts are strongly neocon, I wonder how dependent Trump will be on the neocons, assuming an uneven spread of neocon assumptions, ideology and predicates across much of the bureaucracy? My fear is that, for all his bluster, he will be as much in thrall to them as ever.
First, I don’t think there are genuine “progressives” in the Democratic Party left–they have, through endless fellatio sessions for the powerful, become what the late Alex Cockburn used to call “pwogwessives.” Forget the DP, it is now a full-fledged criminal organization moving rapidly to new lows in morality much like Mike Pompeo.
The only hope is in the Republican Party under Trump who at least is making noises of sinking the neocon dominated ship of the Deep State. I can’t think of a less-qualified, empty, and whorish type ever nominated by the Democrats–yet pwogwessive are sticking with her because they’ve become her cousins. Yet, she is even with Trump and may well be the next POTUS and then the whole thing will descend into some kind of slow-moving chaos which, for me, would kind-of be a good thing.
Crudely put: there is no way to vote against the interests of the oligarchy. Political bribery is formalized now, Congress is openly on the take. Both factions are fully behind the genocide and ramping up hostilities with Iran, China and Russia (despite the hollow rhetoric and media miasma). US elections are a public relations stunt to give the illusion that the plebs have a choice.
Will US “voters” be complicit in the genocide?
Absolutely they will be complicit. They truly do not care for anything other than what they perceive as their own personal well being and what maintains if not improves it. It’s popular to say the american people “don’t know” about the genocide and blame the media. But the information is out there, and it’s very accessible if one has even a slight interest in the world outside one’s own personal well being. Witness this site among thousands of other sources of information. Before the internet people there large amounts of well informed people who stoked the civil rights and antiwar movements.
There are many people who are struggling to provide for themselves and their families who literally have no time for anything else – but they are still a large exception (sadly growing tho) among the vast US populace who will be voting for Harris or Trump. As I say, they are complicit and good with their complicity.
off my soapbox.
The Democrat Party had a chance with Sanders to offer voters real Populism and the ensuing contortions they went through to eliminate any chance of that message being sent out to the voters was both edifying and depressing.
It suggests to me a variation of that old 2nd Amendment talking point: They’ll get “Our Democracy” when they pry it out of the hands of the Oligarchs.
I think your point about populism is important in this discussion. The Democrats, who used to claim to be the party of the People, have now overtly demonized the very term “populist,” basically equating it with “fascist.” The Republicans, who used to be the party of elites and big business, have now fully claimed the “populist” label. We know this is false at the level of actual power and policy. But here we are talking about elections and appearances. It doesn’t really take a bunch of surveys by pollsters and academics to explain what has happened to the Democrats.
The DP establishment…all functionaries. Don’t pronounce it the way an anglo would pronounce it. Pronounce functionaries the way an Italian would pronounce it in order to get the true, scathing, visceral feel for the lot.
The Democrat Party had a chance with Sanders
don’t forget how obama bailed out the worst people in history
Sanders is an I, but supports the Ds. He had no intention of winning, he’s a Sheepdog for the Democrats. This is an old article explaining how it works, but it was the same exact tactics this time as well. Fool me once… but there aint gonna be a second time
https://www.blackagendareport.com/bernie-sanders-sheepdog-4-hillary
While this is framed as Harris’ election, it ignores that she was a backroom puppet hoisted onto the public and would in all likelihood never made it past the starting line in a robust actual primary system. I don’t think you can go with this having been Harris’ election to lose and put aside the fact that Harris has never played well to the big room. Nor can you ignore that her entire tenure as Vice President, admittedly a largely ceremonial job, came across as possibly the most inept and useless since maybe Agnew. True Biden putting her in charge of the border was probably vicious payback for owning him in the primary debate, but rather than taking it as a challenge she disappeared. So it may be nitpicking about an article I find supportive of campaign premises that are popular here, but this was the Democrats’ election to lose.
And I would also posit that one of the reasons they are losing is that they think the public is stupid. Might that threat to Democracy position being a net loser be because they themselves engage in actions that are not Democratic, the most obvious of which was the selection of Harris to be the candidate? That people notice that their ability to talk freely is under great threat today from top Democrats as much or more than from Trump and his Republican allies. I should have made that Democrats and their Republican allies but this way I get to point that their choosing to embrace the more established of their opponents not only doesn’t play well in a change election but truly is edifying to a public who was wondering why Democrats never achieve the change they have promised in earlier campaigns.
As for the strong populist message, well most of us here know why that will never be the choice.
> Might that threat to Democracy position being a net loser be because they themselves engage in actions that are not Democratic, the most obvious of which was the selection of Harris to be the candidate?
“Saving democracy” is, in their mouths, code for “saving Democratcy”.
It’s a small Inner Party, and we aren’t in it.
Your first paragraph sums it all up. This article seems to me to be more of the “we just have the wrong messaging” nonsense that I’ve seen since Hillary wiped out. It’s not the messaging. It’s what you’re selling. Kamala couldn’t make it to Iowa in 2016 despite being signal boosted by the media and powers that be. I believe it was said then the more people saw of Harris, the less they liked her. Voters aren’t as stupid as the Dems think. They just don’t like her.
The only thing I’d add is the author posits this is a change election and then wonders why the candidate who says she can’t think of a single thing she’d change from the current administration is teeing up a loss. Hmm..’tis a mystery!
lol, Democrats are trapped in their own hall of mirrors.
Kamala literally tossed out jargon salad when asked about change at friendly venues like ‘The View”, “Colbert Show”, “60 Minutes”….then of course that verbal wreck versus Brett Baier
Well Kamala has made it this far and is currently polling at 50% so that should tell you something. She may well win and then what? We will have a continuation of whatever group, mainly the CIA, is ruling us now because Harris is the worst possible candidate I know about in US history and will likely invite chaos.
Yes, it tells you propaganda works.
And the fact that Harris is doing as well as she is points to the US being primed for a true fascist government.
Projection is real.
Unfortunately if Harris becomes President and does actions her supporters despise, they will say “But Trump would have been worse”.
I’m already hearing this from lukewarm Harris supporters.
” Kamala couldn’t make it to Iowa in 2016 despite being signal boosted by the media and powers that be. I believe it was said then the more people saw of Harris, the less they liked her”.
Witnessed that first hand here when she launched her 2020 presidential campaign in front of city hall. OPD/guys in suits had rope stanchions to kettle crowd (news said 15K but seemed less) so all had to pass single file to actually enter the area. Wasn’t an Oakland-ish crowd. Those of us protesting had great difficulty hooking up with each other. Sort of a reverse-Occupy scenario.
Yeah, that’s the real issue here. Trump is not going to roll out the welcome mat for immigrants. Putin is not going to throw open his borders and invite Western capitalists in. Billionaires are not going to give back their money or lobby for higher taxes. And Harris is not going to act against the billionaire class, after being the first to court their vote on the Hamptons circuit during the 2020 primaries and (more recently) rolling Biden in a soft coup with their full support.
Imagining that the current Democrats might run on an anti-billionaire, anti-inequality platform, no matter how well it polls, is nothing more than wishful thinking. People are who they are. Saying that Harris might win the election if she were a completely different person ignores the fact that she would never have ascended to her current position at all if that were true.
Biden putting her in charge of the border was probably vicious payback
The invisible elephant in the room is that the pmc thinks the majority are dumb as rocks
I agree with urdsama above re projection, they’re the censors and assassins after all…
If people are ok with voting for genocide, I can only hope for the speedy demise of this country. I’m not wishing harm or pain on anyone, but this AngloAmerican imperial project has run its course.
Not speedy enough; I’ve been hoping since the Vietnam War.
Me too–however, the reality is that the American people want to be told what to think and what to do–this is always the missing critique as if the politicians and oligarchs are the only problem–this was, in fact, a key part of George Carlin’s critique of our situation and it hasn’t changed in twenty years. If change is to come it has to come from the top whatever that may be–most Americans just want to be able to pursue the religion of radical-materialism-consumerism with a high dose of radical ignorance.
Yes, many people ignore the genocide, the atrocities, lack of health care, housing, environmental crises. I guess folks are OK with kleptocracy: using our public resources to mass murder children instead of providing basic infrastructure and public services in a decaying empire. Look at how many otherwise intelligent, brilliant people become raving idiots when one of “their” candidates are criticized. Both sides make pathetic excuses, engage in wishful thinking and irrational thought.
The empire is collapsing, let’s throw some more fuel on the fire and watch it burn! Unfortunately, many innocent people will be harmed in the process, and violence here in the Imperial Homeland will increase as well. Fun time ahead!
With over $2Bn spent just this summer, for which the media thank the politicians for keeping them solvent, it is clear that the US is run by and for the rich.
Much is made of Trump not being involved in wars but he was. From the bombing in Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen to arming Ukraine, the low level wars in 20 states across Africa. Biden might have signed for more expansion but the negotiations took years and involve all US politicians.
What of the economy? WallSt profits heavily from both parties while the workers struggle marginally less under the Democrats .
With over 40 million not voting, this election is like all others not bothering to deal with a marginalized many
> Much is made of Trump not being involved in wars but he was.
I think there’s a difference between pots on the back burners at a slow boil, and pots on the front burner boiling over, with the flame set to maximum.
The same Blobbists who were frothing for war (two wars) under Trump brought it about under Harris/Biden. So where did the difference lie?
Who cares? Do we really believe this BS represents meaningful choice? Is legalized bribery “democratic”. Let’s get real here and stop believing in fairy tales
Or not, no matter what the outcome, the empire is falling and more fuel will be added to the blaze.
Thanks Conor.
I haven’t read the article yet but am inspired to comment straight from the top.
Beautiful to see Hunter Thompson quoted but you limited him to his (prescient) comment from 1972.
I still remember “Generation of Swine” and others which don’t seem to be listed anywhere anymore.
Poor old Hunter took it all very seriously and paid the ultimate price for it. If only we had him here now to comment on Kamala. Or Trump!
What fine prose we would be reading.
I remember his comment on Nixon’s death, something like he should be tossed into the Long Beach strorm drains to wash out to sea with the rest of the effluvia.
Forget what Trump may do, look at what Harris/Biden adminiistration are doing…sponsoring genocide with US taxpayer monies…Its unforgivable and “trumps” everything else…and if you cant see this, then youre either a retarded idiot or demonic…
Harris has a billion dollars, more than twice what Trump has, yet another cadre of a thousand or so establishment figures just endorsed her, and yet the election is 50/50:
I don’t think anyone know (but the problem isn’t messaging, or not only messaging). I predict continuing volatility.
You are right. The beast is being born and is reflected by the very deep cultural divisions. Volatility indeed! However, I believe an increasing number of people will turn away from the current national religion of radical materialism as a result.
50/50? Not really. Roughly half of the eligible population bother to vote. Then we have the so-called electoral college barrier. The BigMoney rigged game insures that only candidates with 100s of millions can get recognition from the gatekeeper MiniTrueMedia. The whole thing is a farce turned into tragedy.
The end result is that less than 25% of the population determine the outcome. Despite the hysteria, the Washington Consensus and genocide will prevail no matter what.
> 50/50? Not really. Roughly half of the eligible population bother to vote
I think it is fair to say that those who do not vote are not part of “the election” because — follow me closely here — they’re not voting in it.
So, the election is 50/50.
Had Biden remained the reelection candidate, the elections would have been decided long ago. The fact that Harris is where she, bodes well for her for a variety of reasons, including the abortion ban, deliberate deaths of women, and the fact that contraception will be deemed an illegal substance, is a good stimulant for women. Women will provide the squeaker victory to Harris.
As for all other issues, economics, “greedflation”, support of Palestinian genocide – all will continue. Somnambulant Biden has been incapable of helping Harris in any way – except by remining mostly quiet; until Biden made the “garbage island” comment that was walked back and clarified – some damage was done.
God’s Chosen oligarchs – and immutable professional victims – control the country – for now, so they’ll win no matter who wins. Under Harris, the genocide will continue, unless the so-called “militants” lob a fatal strike – possible. Oligarchs will continue making money from the military industrial complex. On the other hand, Trump will give the approval for ethnic cleansing of all Palestine and “gift” the grifters with the territory as he did with the Golan Heights and Jerusalem. The pogroms against a sizable US “undesirable” contingent population will ensue. The SCOTUS seems of that mind set as well.
The reason the Blob hates Trump so much is that he is the sort to be completely unpredictable. With “Harris” and her group of gangsters, they know they will continue being in charge.
Nothing fundamentally will change….
A balm to the ear and brain ache, no?
George Galloway, who legally can’t vote in the US election, said he would vote against the people committing genocide now rather than against people that might do so in the future.
Really? I don’t recall that. I have heard Galloway ridicule the US fake democracy. There is no meaningful choice to begin with. The emotional hysteria has suspended people’s rational thought. The DT takes millions from the Adelson family (Israeli oligarchs). He is just as rabidly anti-Palestinian as the rest. The media talk about Russia interfering, but it is Israel who gets the exception.
The DT had 4 years and he supported the low-level genocide already happening in Gaza, the WB etc. He also recognized the Golan as part of Israel. So you can believe in fairy-tales if you like, but the facts are clear. Ask Jared Kushner why he wants waterfront property on the Med
The relentless focus on the sham election, the result of which won’t materially improve the lives of most USians but rather will continue to make lives worse for many, both at home and abroad, is a giant distraction to keep the people under the spell of the illusion of democracy. The more debate around it, the more legitimate it looks to the people not paying close attention, which is most.
I would argue that debating eating feces versus emesis itself is thus a waste of valuable time and energy that should instead be directed towards organizing and mobilizing against the people that do this to us.
Anyone else as offended as I by a party that claims climate change is an existential risk (greater than nuclear war, according to Biden and perhaps Harris) and BTW one mustn’t use plastic straws… whilst destroying North Stream 2, using depleted uranium weapons in Ukraine (and probably Mideast), and most of all allowing Israel to drop more bombs than in all of WW2 (incl Hiroshima & Nagasaki) on a captive population in an area the size of greater London or perhaps Long Island?
Apart from the environmental destruction (including olive trees, water ecosystems, and so much more), Israel has leveled all of Gaza and is now doing the same to Lebanon — this includes the razing of UNESCO world heritage sites.
Biden is as bad as GWB (he allowed/promoted all the Iraq fiascos and war crimes) plus is probably the most corrupt POTUS ever.
Trump is a bloviating dishonest jackass and pro-Israel zealot but at least he’s not such a bloody hypocrite.
A pox on all their houses. I wish Musk would take Biden, Harris, Walz, Trump, Bibi, Hamas, and send them all off to Mars to let the rest of us live in (almost literal) peace.
(And make room for Ursula, Nulan, Starmer, Sunak, HRC, Macron… god the list goes on and on.)
Here endeth the rant. Happy Halloween, everyone!
This USian has been thoroughly desensitized to being offended at this point. The political class seems to be stuck in middle school where transparent motives are not up for discussion, and reality and that which is made up out of thin air are mixed at will. Apparently, you and I are not supposed to notice.
To sum up, “the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Yes, the candidates are different but each is repellent in their own way.
Trump at least has the same enemies as I do–the CIA, FBI, and the rest of the Deep State and most oligarchs are against him so I voted for him as we all should if we actually mean what we say on this site.
Sorry, I don’t believe in fairy tales or US democratic choice. Are we really that insouciant, naive and gullible? I won’t participate in the intelligence-insulting BS. Fk all of them!
Anyone who votes D or R supports kleptocracy and genocide. Haven’t you noticed that DT as well as BOTH parties in Congress all support Israel and the genocide?
Quit making pathetic excuses and believing the blah blah.
Nobody is forcing them to vote for either, so the inevitable conclusion I draw is that H and T voters have no real problem with genocide (as long as it’s not happening to them, of course).
Stop thinking that any of us have a chance to really have our voices heard or vote for anyone that isn’t who the oligarchs want. The corruption is in your face, and things are too far gone. Think local and act as locally as you can.
Harris may win, but its not her race to lose. You have a candidate that lacks charisma or any real record of accomplishments who has been anointed the nominee without securing a single primary vote. She has been hiding from the press for most of the campaign, and then conducting brain salad interviews. A weak candidate, trying to hide her weakness, which only ends up bringing more attention to it. She hasn’t even secured the Teamsters endorsement or the WaPo. Voters can smell blood and they are moving away before the sharks arrive.
In fairly land, she could endorse that strong populist message but she is beating Trump almost 3-1 on fundraising at this point. I don’t think the donors are throwing down all that money to elect someone who is going to run as a strong populist.
Its amazing that its so close, but that only goes to show how amazingly polarizing, divisive and morally and spiritually bankrupt Trump is.
The Democrat party is irredeemable at this point. If Harris wins, the Dem so-called leaders will declare a mandate and nothing changes. If Harris loses, the Dem so-called leaders will point to the gigantic pile of money they raised as victory and nothing changes.
We all saw what changes the Dems made in response to f***ing up the one-car parade in 2016, so expecting anything different today is ridiculous.
From ZNet:
Arizonan Palestinians On Voting For Kamala And The Election Aftermath
Interview conducted by Michael Albert
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/arizonan-palestinians-on-voting-for-kamala-and-the-election-aftermath/
The reason was this public statement which Albert suggests one reads first:
Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Progressive Democrats and Community Leaders Statement on Presidential Election
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/arizona-palestinian-arab-muslim-and-progressive-democrats-and-community-leaders-statement-on-presidential-election/
Michael Albert´s introduction:
Three days ago I received a copy of an article titled “Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Progressive Democrats and Community Leaders Statement on Presidential Election.” The document had a hundred co-signers/co-authors. I found it warranted, worthy, and compelling—an exemplary collective statement and all the more so with a hundred public signers. I was able to get in touch with one who I happened to know, and so emerged what follows.
I hope that if you haven’t already, you will click the above title and read the collective document before continuing with this article, because the intent in this “interview” is to get behind the article, not reiterate it.
I’m not convinced stay-at-home voters hurt Democrats more. I think there are some Republicans who have cooled on Trump because of the relentless propaganda against him from the mainstream media. Without Pence on the ticket maybe some evangelicals are among them. They won’t vote for Harris, but they might stay home or just vote for local Republican candidates. I’ve found it interesting that around where I live (much more blue area) there are some yard signs for the Republican state senate candidates but no Trump sign. Still more yards where there are signs for Trump and the locals, but it looks to me like the Republican base is not as solid as the party might want. Trump’s people have to make the case that it’s important for these voters not to underestimate how bad four more years of a Democrat in the White House will be. Although maybe Biden and Harris are making that case for them.
>>>Without Pence on the ticket maybe some evangelicals are among them.
Kamala, nominally a Christian, really put her foot in her mouth on multiple occasions trying to respond to Christian hecklers (using a stock “zinger” that her team probably provided). These clips have gotten lots of airtime on social media.
One of seemingly infinite needless own-goals by Team Harris
https://x.com/WykesZeiss/status/1848438887225380946
This was an excellent analysis of the underlying attitudes that Harris should take in her critique. But I’m more interested in how the candidates would change the underlying structure of the American political economy.
In Attitude, Trump has positioned himself as a change-agent, but structurally, his record shows hyper-support for the four horsemen of neoliberalism: 1. deregulation (which also kills any defense of the environment), 2. privatization, 3. cutting taxes for the oligarchy (and the social-spending austerity that ultimately follows), and 4. smashing unionization.
Add to this: 5. ideological take-over of the entire judicial branch, 6. ideological take-over planned for the administrative branch (“schedule-F”), and 7. promised mass-deportations (and think about the scapegoating, the theatrics, and the increase to the police state that will follow).
On war, Trump (and Vance) have said positive things about negotiating an end to war in Ukraine), but he still supports: 8. US imperialism (record military budgets, “coup-ing whoever we want,” ending nuclear agreements), and 9. supporting Israeli genocide against Palestinians.
Finally, I have to end the list with: 10. “Friend vs Foe” divisiveness and scapegoating — since this is really his ideological core. “Immigrants” reduced to symbolic objects of hate, as well as “the Left” — which he calls “Marxist vermin,” the “enemy within.” And yes, I take this rhetoric seriously.
This year, I am voting against the 10 structural themes listed above, which are embodied in Trump, and which would leave the world in an even worse condition…
This is from April:
Democrats Aren’t Campaigning to Win the Working Class
By Jared Abbott, Fred DeVeaux
A new study examines the Democratic rhetorical and campaigning failures that may help Republicans entrench their position as the new party of the American working class.
04.22.2024
https://jacobin.com/2024/04/democratic-party-working-class-campaigning
They don’t care, the interests of the oligarchy prevail, regardless.
As Bill Clinton chuckled when warned that he would “alienate his base” by signing off on NAFTA, CFMA, FSMA, the Crime Bill, Telecommunications Act etc.
“Whadda they gonna do? Vote Republican?” The joke is on us and people still fall for the lesser genocide routine.
Harris’s whole campaign pitch seems to be “Oh yeah? Well Trump is worse, so you’re stuck voting for me! Checkmate!”. No thanks.
Re “democracy at stake” and even explicitly comparing Trump to Nazis: sorry, but per Godwin’s law, you’ve already lost.
Democracy, how quaint
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jimmy-carter-u-s-is-an-oligarchy-with-unlimited-political-bribery-63262/
My vote has already been cast and I stood on the sidelines for the Presidential election,, not that it matters in Illinois. I see Trump as a moron but see Harris as an empty shell of a candidate with no real beliefs or valuable policies.
Financially, I probably do better under Trump. Harris has made it very clear that she lets Trump’s middle class tax cuts expire and her so called Middle Class Tax cuts do nothing for me. My children are grown. Trump’s tax cuts going away are probably a net $1500 to $2000 loss for me.
I’m for abortion and gay rights but it does nothing to move the needle for me. I’m for greatly increased legal immigration but watch the huge hit that illegal immigration has done to Chicago and the Suburbs both in general quality of life and increased crime. Biden / Harris ignored it until election time.
Stock market wise, Trump had record highs before Covid. Biden / Harris had record highs as well. I have ZERO doubt that whoever wins will likely have record highs as they should. Just the market segments might change.
So what does Harris get me? Not much of anything. What does Trump get me? Not much of anything.
The DemParty has no credibility on “defending democracy” because the DemParty suspended ( actually conspired to abolish) democracy in its own primaries, engineering Sanders out of his first primary and out of his victory path in his second primary.
So Bitter Berners in particular may not be moved by the “defend democracy” pitch, however much partial limited validity it may have.
The Rs did it as well with Ron Paul. Democracy is a marketing slogan and Elections Inc. are lucrative PR stunts.
Well … just here to register my disagreement with this thesis … :)
As I said here (via NC), and has been confirmed in liberal media, Harris is banking that suburban voters, particularly white women, are going to turn out for her, and in so doing make up for losses in the African American and Latino vote and push her over the line electorally.
Democrats have only fear (Trump is unhinged!) and sanctimony (they’re deplorable!). The data around how much better a populist economic message would resonate is completely lost to the stay-on-script Harris and her minders who are only there to ensure that the warmongering, finance profiteering, genocide and erosion of material conditions for those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder continues afoot.
While I’m here, let me also say that odds are good that Allan Lichtman is gonna take an “L” for the first time in a long while this election. I revisited his video explanation of his 13 Keys (via NY Times), and I think he wrongly gives the majority to the Dems. If you watch till the 6:17 mark, you’ll see he concludes the following:
To my reckoning, you could take away Short Term Economy and Challenger Charisma from Harris and put them in Trump’s column. Trump has charisma despite the fact that he is divisive. Even if you don’t want to give that tip of the hat to Trump, you could also argue that economic expectations are adaptive, i.e. people will expect the future to mirror the present – all other things being held constant (a.k.a. if Democrats hold office), so Long Term Economy could also go to Trump as an extension of short term economic concerns. You end up with the keys going 7 – 6 for Trump – again, it’s close but a reasonable read on reality.
You can count me among the very, VERY angry. And, yes, my fury is directed to the Democrats and not at Trump. It’s not that I like Trump, or that I’m voting for him but at least he is what he is, and isn’t waving his stink in our face like the Democrats are knowingly, doing, smirking all the while. And you don’t get mad at a rabid dog like Trump.
When I can’t get decent health care even while being in the top two thirds of pay, where rent is a small king’s fortune and yet, while victims of hurricanes die and drown, the top priority of Democrats is to insider trade and rush more bombs to Israel, and John Fetterman LITERALLY waves the flag of Israel in a US veteran’s face and “Ice Cream Freezer” Nancy Pelosi tells protestors to “go to China” and the Biden administration, short of actually launching nukes, is doing its utmost to get us into a radioactive World War III, you bet I’m angry.