Yves here. Tom Neuburger below takes a very hard look at the Democrats and concludes they are not redeemable.
By Thomas Neuburger. Originally published at God’s Spies
One of my favorite Nation writers, Dave Zirin, has a piece worthy of attention: “Why Democrats Won’t Throw a Real Punch.” I’m sure you can guess the reason(s). I’ll tell you why it matters in a second. Zirin starts with this:
Masses of enraged, terrified people are looking at the analog, slow-motion leadership of Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer and the zero-calorie rhetoric of House leader Hakeem Jeffries and want them replaced by people who know how to fight. As The Nation has reported, when Democratic politicians have shown up to protests, people aren’t cheering their presence. They are howling at them to do more.
The Problematic Hakeem Jeffries
Let’s look at Jeffries for a moment. It will teach us a lot.
First, on a related issue, the corruption of pro-Trump Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, Jeffries had this to say when asked to take a stand against him (h/t Ken Klippenstein):
Jake Tapper: You are one of the two leaders of the democratic party. Is it not important for Democrats, while criticizing Donald Trump for various allegations of corruption, to be able to call it out in their own party?
Hakeem Jeffries: … It would be premature for me to say anything about the charges that may or may not go away until then.
Zirin’s right; Jeffries won’t throw a punch. Why?
Jeffries is as corrupt as they come, in the Zephyr Teachout meaning of the word: “Placing private interests over the public good in public office.”
What’s Jeffries private interest? Staying in power, staying on top in the Democratic Party.
What public good that’s being ignored? Proving to voters that Democrats are the anti-corruption alternative to Trumpist rule.
How are Democrats ever to hold themselves up as the alternative to Trump if they travel the same dirty road, but in different cars? Answer: They can’t, and voters are responding accordingly.
November, 2023. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Sen. Joni Ernst, join hands at the March for Israel on Nov. 14, 2023, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Mark Schiefelbein/AP
A second problem with Jeffries: He’s rabidly pro-Israel (“Israel today, Israel tomorrow, Israel forever”), pro-Israeli genocide, and works with AIPAC to defeat progressives like Jamaal Bowman and Nina Turner (if you click just one link in this article, click on “Nina Turner”). Jeffries is also the all-time top recipient of AIPAC money at $1.6 million and counting. Genocide: not a reason to like a man.
Why would progressives ever support a ‘party of reform’ so-led? Answer: They don’t; they’re starting to stop.
The Mess We’re In
Thus the mess we’re in. In simple terms:
The rebellion against the rich and their misrule has been treated by national Democrats as a threat to the status quo, from which they get rich. Thus they force the rebellion to be led by Trump, where it’s badly misused.
In fact, Trump and Musk are about to complete the billionaire coup against the FDR State they began with the failed Wall Street Putsch of 1933, a literal attempt to create their own fascist state. Unlike then, today’s “party of the people,” also billionaire-led, choose not to interfere.
Zirin’s Reasons We’re Here
You can see my reasons above why we’re in this mess. Let’s look at Zirin’s; you’ll find an overlap (emphasis mine below).
The question then is why, amid this tornado of anger, are Democratic institutions so soft? …
1. They’d rather have peace with the billionaire tech bros—see Jeffries’s recent Silicon Valley visit to “mend fences”—than wage a struggle to get their money out of politics, have campaign finance reform, and, for the love of God, tax their obscene and unearned wealth. …
2. A wing of the Democratic Party actually supports the substance if not style of what Musk is doing, accepting the argument of bureaucratic excess and the need to stop “waste.” Several put themselves forward to join the entirely made up, extra-constitutional operation known as DOGE. …
3. The legacy of Clintonian triangulation and the corporate-centered rightward pull of the New Democrats means their top campaign consultants for a generation have been insulated, isolated, and utterly incapable of being left populists or the “brawlers for the working class” that AOC says they need to be. …
4. The legacy of Obama was that a coalition based upon “demographic destiny” would win elections in perpetuity as long as they were not Republicans. …
5. Israel. Israel. Israel. In 2025, marching lockstep behind Israel means defending ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and billions in weapon sales so they continue unhampered. It’s also taking the opposite position of what their potential voters, particularly young voters, want to see. …
6. Democrats are allergic to raising people’s expectations, and as a result, they cannot solve problems. Instead of codifying Roe legislatively after the Supreme Court killed it, they raised money off its death. …
Cash-addled, complacent, complicit. If voters continue to see Democrats in this way, the Party may be lucky to win one time in three, and in office they’ll change nothing of substance. This can’t go on.
‘It’s my nature. It’s what I do.’
Democrats blame Republicans for this mess. But a snake is always a snake, and a scorpion stings. In the famous fable of the scorpion and the frog, when the frog asks the scorpion why he delivered the blow that ultimately killed them both, the scorpion said, “Why be surprised? It’s my nature. It’s what I do.”
It’s the nature of the Koch-ruled party to corrupt the country; the pro-wealth Powell Memo has a Republican source. The rich, like parasites, can always be counted on to murder their hosts. Why be surprised by their short-sighted dangerous greed?
But the frog, the Democrats, had choices, or some thought they did. If so, they chose wrong. Poor frog. Poor those who depend on them.
Why This Matters
As I said, this can’t go on. The best the country can hope for is what Democrats offer: a return to the status quo ante, the world of Barack and Bill, when the rich drank everyone’s milkshake but some things seemed better. (In the scene below, by the way, Daniel is “capitalists.”)
Does America today want that? Do they want to go back? Or are they more hungry for hope, even from Trump?
All other outcomes are worse. Consider the poles the nation is poised between: a rigid and well-policed Republican state with FDR dead and Democratic “messaging” that replaces reform; or a rocking from failure to failure, from party to party, also policed, until climate makes government moot and we’re all on our own.
None of these outcomes are good. That’s why this matters. Zirin, at the end, talks about people he knows being “ready to throw [themselves] on the gears of this system.” That’s chaos, of course, something most people won’t choose. But the world goes to hell if they don’t.
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The Dems are indeed irredeemable and that’s now official by virtue of the James Carville chiming-in in the NYT on the best way for the Dem Party to fight back – play possum:
Dare to be dead in a time of great upheaval and the voters will flock back to us! I had to read the op-ed several times to make sure that it’s not an early April Fools joke, but Carville appears to be dead serious and the Dems appear to be dead-set on doing just that – playing dead and then rising up like the undead. The puns write themselves here. No reason is given why people will flock back to the [un]dead Dem Party other than Trump and DOGE doing unpopular things, but if I were to judge by myself, it would be to go to its wake and make sure it’s buried and stays buried.
Isn’t this an instance of the Dem’s favorite startegy: point at the other guys and say they are worse so you have to vote for us? It’s a key part of the ratchet mechanism that only moves towards more and more power for the oligarchs.
The Dem comms strategy relied too heavily on their old media friends. They have demonstrated little awareness of the shifts in society and the role of newer media. Ironic that democratization of journalism has crippled them and left them to point and sputter. Can’t have people thinking for themselves. :/
Next we may see
thoughtful gazing into the middle distanceaccelerated retirements of the super-annuated. With luck, that will reach across the aisle!Tapper has a new book out about Biden. Haven’t seen how much he earned for his selfless dedication over the years. He will serve as a role model of sorts to budding young J School crusaders for truth and justice. /s
Perhaps Carville’s recommendation was based not on analysis of what is most likely to be effective or beneficial, but on assessment of what the D Party is actually capable of doing. And he’s not likely to improve his standing within that institution by telling it to do something that is beyond its capacity to do.
Never interrupt your enemy when he is doing what you want to do but can’t be seen doing.
Carville’s strategy is firmly based on the motto of the Democrat party:
Now Is Not The Time!
Just saying it aloud invokes tears.
“Sometimes … dead is better.”
— Jud Crandall (Fred Gwynne) Pet Sematary (1989).
The Dems have been playing possum in the class war for decades so if they pretended to be different now who would believe them? Carville is probably right that the system will have to collapse before any real reform. When it almost did collapse in 2008 it was the Dems who joined some but not all Repubs in saving it. Even now their panic attack has more to do with rice bowls than justice. Polls show that the public at large approves of what Musk is doing because they disapprove of the likes of Biden and the fifty percent plus one strategy of the Dems to control a voter majority that they simply dislike. It wasn’t just Hillary who goes on and on about “deplorables.”
So our choice from one election to the next is two different flavors of arrogance. Collapse may be the only way.
Unfortunately, the Democrats are downright allergic to any policies their billionaire benefactors disapprove of, as the treatment by the Biden Administration of it’s amazingly successful anti-trust efforts. In one of the few bright spots, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Justice Department cracked down on corporate mergers and dusted off decades-old anti-trust laws as justification, but Biden and Harris treated this as radioactive. Billionaire Democratic donors Barry Diller and Reid Hoffman provided a clue for this behavior when they instructed presidential nominee Kamala Harris to fire FTC head Lina Khan for her successful efforts at blocking more economic concentration.
Thank you – as you noted, no signs of life for decades now already. And let’s not forget that during the financial collapse, the Republics initially refused to bailout the banks. I remember being rather surprised about that at the time. If I remember right, Obama was already president elect but still in the Senate when he did some major arm twisting to get the bailouts passed to save his banker pals.
From 18 years ago but still relevant: In The Vaults Where The Dry Powder Is Stored
The author, like so many progressives, was subsequently purged from the execrable Daily Kos.
The Democrat party: the only solution is the natural solution — death —, and it can’t happen soon enough.
Elite driven economics proceed everything else Acacia, applicable to both parties spanning pre and post WWII save a wee spot after FDR. All is rescinded now and its peddle to the floor.
It was interesting that such an incisive critique of the Democratic Party’s utter failure to respond effectively to its opponents was written by the magazine’s sports editor.
!
Calls ’em as he sees ’em.
I don’t know any of his current political affiliations, but in the past he was a member of the Steering Committee of the ISO (International Socialist Organization) – a now defunct Trotskyist group that disbanded over the repercussions of a sexual assault coverup by the group’s leaders ( I have no knowledge of any involvement on Zirin’s part in that ugliness, or even if he was still involved with the group in the years leading up to its dissolution in 2019)
Given my personal experience with that group (and Trots in general) and most members of it (I’ve never met Zirin, my experience was with opposition politics in the UFT) I’d be open to some of their insights – they are smart, hardworking people – but I’d urge anyone in radical politics to be wary: Trots are gonna Trot (I.e. inherently be divisive and intra-group struggle obsessed). It’s also their nature.
On the other hand, back in the Glory Days
Of the US Left – 1930’s and early 1940’s – the Daily Worker had a sports column, so good on Zirin for keeping that up. Unsurprisingly, longtime Daily Worker sportswriter Lester Rodney was outspoken for years about integrating Major League Baseball, since the CP was one of the only mass political organizations of the time actively combatting Jim Crow.
The ISO scandal was limited to the UK organization. The US grouping was influential at the street level in the 90s & early 00s. Like most of the actual left, it became increasingly irrelevant during the Obama years. Zirin remains respected by activists.
I don’t know if we’re speaking about the same thing: I personally knew some of the people in NYC who were involved in trying to cover up the sexual assault scandal, and the principals were all here in the States.
My experience in Labor-Left circles was that they – to a one Ivy League-educated and most of them leaving the classroom after a few years – were anything but irrelevant: they were an acute danger to unity and organizing outside clubby Left circles. They were incapable of talking with teachers from actual working class backgrounds – a large component of the UFT membership – and like most Sectarians are primarily interested in joining mass organizations to Build the Party. To do that, they won’t hesitate a moment in splitting their host apart.
Do Trots still exist? I knew a bunch in the late-1970s. The men all seemed to have curly hair and little round glasses. Yes, Trots are gonna Trot. Blind sectarianism is their way of life. Having said that, Isaac Deutscher’s three-volume biography of Bronstein is a very good read, if my memory serves.
Anyway, it is no accident Dave Zirin is a sportswriter. That is the only section of current “newspapers” where anything approaching “the truth” is acceptable to management, largely because the scorebook does not lie. The current Democrat Party is as effective as the 1962 New York Mets, with whom Casey Stengel, the Ol’ Perfesser, could do nothing!
Yea, they’re still around, and still busy for the most part turning small organizations into smaller ones.
Everything I’ve said notwithstanding, there are Trotskyist groups that do and have done good work, I can currently think of at least one that produces an important Non-Sectarian labor publication (I won’t identify it because it doesn’t self-identify as an explicitly Socialist publication). Still, between the decades of barren organizing (ISO was centered almost solely on campuses), frequent fed penetration, compulsion for factionalism, best to be
Big, big lapsus here: Russia.
The Democrats cooked up Russia Russia Russia panic so as to subvert Trump and to reinforce their own McCarthyist tendencies. See: Stacey “Simulacrum of Representative” Plaskett and her treatment of Matt Taibbi, who is now twice burned (IRS visit on Christmas Eve!) and exacting a sloppy revenge.
The Democrats seem to have decided that the issue with the Russian Federation is what was elucidated by Hillary Clinton: “Putin’s a man-spreader.” Of course, it is bigger than man-spreading. (!!!) The Democrats and their “intelligence community” constituency wanted to dismantle Russia into easily subverted mini-states like the Mari Republic and Bashkortostan and then steal resources, because the Democrats are so out of it that they thought that the Russians would fall for a new Yeltsin Years Asset Grab.
The genocide going on in Palestine, sponsored by the US of A, is testament to the vileness of the U.S. elites, bipartisan. It is also testament to the rottenness of U.S. culture, which has produced no peace movement, no pastors speaking against war (except the Pope), and no artists dissenting. In a sense, the stress in the article on support of the Israeli government misses the point of the Democrats and strategy-free, profligate, immoral, endless wars.
Let’s assess blame: The Russian adventure is largely an example of the sheer vileness of the elites of the Democratic Party. Blinken. Sullivan. Nuland. And so forth. War criminals all.
Yet 70 million people still voted for this vile party of war criminals.
I like elite bashing like the next person, but voters certainly aren’t blameless.
Unwashed voters too you jobs …
Jobs, I think you need to consider the mindset of the typical voter. The consequences of foreign policy are obvious only on the periphery of Empire, hence are practically invisible to most voters. The blowback at home is only getting started and is not yet felt acutely enough to move the voting window (and even then, can be manipulated to implicate external actors, e.g. Russia, China). Voters focus on close to home stuff like prices of gas and food. Moreover, they are susceptible to fear mongering because they are kept generally ignorant of foreign policy reality. They are easy to manipulate with peripheral “culture war” stuff and “Russia Russia Russia”.
I agree with you to a certain extent – there are monsters among the electorate as well, but my feeling is that unless US boys and girls start disappearing into the maw of a “land war in Asia”, voters will not be moved much by Gaza or Ukraine. As terrible as it is to say, it is easy to ignore tragedy when it is not happening to you or yours.
Thanks, BillS.
I see your point that voters don’t care about foreign policy because it doesn’t affect them directly, but I think it’s a problem regardless because the exploitation, violence and murdering is happening in their name. It’s “Wir wollen es nicht wissen”.
This apathy towards their government’s vile actions abroad is a problem, cultural, moral or however you want to classify it. It’s especially galling to me because at the same time many claim the US is the best country in the world, or they say they are proud of their country. That implies that they think that as long as their government isn’t doing it to them, it’s all good. That displays – besides a terrible ignorance about the country they claim to love so much – a stunning callousness, lack of compassion and solidarity with their fellow humans, if nothing else. I don’t think most are monsters, but I also don’t think this is the way decent people act.
And the tragedy IS happening to them. They could for example have universal health care like Israel, but instead they seem to prefer medical bankruptcies, murder by spreadsheet, Kafkaesque bureaucracy, enormous overhead enriching the people that screw them over, etc. But they keep voting for and thus rewarding people that – it should be clear by now, even to them – have no intention of providing it, even though it would be cheaper and more efficient / effective than the current rapacious system. And that’s just one obvious example, the pages of NC are filled with many more.
Yes, people are awash in propaganda. But they can do something about it if they choose to, like we are doing here, by trying to learn about the world and by engaging in critical thinking. Yes, that takes time and effort – too bad. Nobody said being a citizen is easy. The alternative is certain societal decline, because that’s where we are headed.
Apologies if this comes across as a bit of a rant. Thank you for engaging!
Not a rant — rather, a good summary of the problem. Thank you.
Thank you, Acacia.
Not a summary because not accounting for a patient of mine who is supporting herself and two grandchildren on one office slave salary (yes, she is Black). She also shops, cooks, cleans, does laundry, irons their school uniforms (having managed to get them into Catholic school on scholarships—and no, I’m an atheist but in her community it is often the church that does the most good), tries to keep up with their homework, takes them to church, rides the bus everywhere because she can’t afford a car. She is widowed and gets no help with any of this because their father is bipolar and in and out of jail. She has a daughter but she has six kids of her own.
but shame on her for not finding the time to read NC.
one might almost say this displays…a stunning callousness, lack of compassion and solidarity with their fellow humans…
Sorry, I don’t follow how this relates to jobs’ comment — are you saying that your patient voted for Biden and has no time for reading/thinking/sifting through propaganda because she has multiple dependents some of whose parents are MIA?
Not straw manning, just unclear on your criticism.
Thanks again, Acacia.
I’d like to know this as well.
My main point was that people voting for war criminals, no matter where the atrocities, is a big societal problem because it suggests something dark about millions of people.
People should try to do what they can to inform themselves about the world, because better information is often a prerequisite for making better decisions. In the case of this patient, spending this time is probably difficult to impossible. Which is sad and unfortunate.
Researching sites like NC could have shown her that neither Trump nor Harris was likely to concretely improve her life, instead almost certainly make it worse (e. g. Trump is talking about slashing Medicaid, SNAP and CHIP funding, really not unexpected for a Republican).
Lacking this information, if she did vote she probably did so against her own interests, since her vote likely went to the class of people responsible for the lack of a decent social safety net and support system for people like her that are struggling for one reason or another.
Barring that, best one can do is withhold consent. 90 million already do.
>no time for reading/thinking/sifting through propaganda
bingo
>suggests something dark about millions of people.
perhaps you mean something dark about the systemic oppression of millions of people?
>People should try to do what they can to inform themselves about the world
perhaps your intentions are good, but she knows damn well that whichever party is in power in DC it won’t make things better for her on the only time frame that matters. she does not live in your lofty world of abstractions
see Gulag below
>perhaps you mean something dark about the systemic oppression of millions of people?
My point is that BOTH are true. The oligarchs are certainly a problem, but consistently voting for vile actors is also a problem.
So I take it she didn’t vote for T or H. In that case I am not talking about her.
Yes, thank you jobs for a great summary! I agree with you. Your “Wir wollen es nicht wissen” is exactly what is happening. It happens even in the nightclubs of Kiev..much closer to a war than your average ignorant American. Some are catching on to how they are being robbed, but there is a long way to go to achieve the critical mass for political change. Many are just so demoralized.
I try to spread the word as much as possible in my neck of the woods.
Thank you, BillS, also for that link.Wow. Talk about being disconnected from reality.
I, too, feel demoralized, but I derive some comfort from knowing I’m not alone in this at least.
It’s like we’re all on the Titanic, a small number of us are yelling “Iceberg!”, while the other passengers tell us to be quiet because we are disturbing their enjoyment of the band playing.
I think it’s more of the case that Americans are so effectively propagandized to support a cartoonish version of foreign policy.
When you consider that the average person in ‘Murica gets their geopolitical world view from coming home, plopping down on the couch and watching 20 minutes of their favorite corporate media ‘news program,’ (or more accurately, viewer programing) where they are spoon fed a stream of pablum by attractive celebrities with soothing voices and perfect grammar, that always contains some repetitive ad nauseam “Russia bad,’ ‘China bad,’ ‘Muslims bad,’ ‘Ukraine good,’ ‘Israel good,’ qualifier that, not so subtly, injects propaganda into what’s presented as ‘news,’ it’s not surprising that there is zero nuance in the general understanding of what’s actually happening in the world.
Thanks Gregorio, that’s a pretty good description of the situation.
The irony is that people, likely thus (mis)informed and with 🇺🇦 and 🇮🇱 flags in their Twitter profiles, will often say that information that contradicts the narrative in their head is propaganda.
Where we perhaps differ is that I think people have a duty to themselves and society to make an honest effort to detect and resist manipulation of their point of view, as this manipulation is seldom to their benefit. The alternative is “Wir wollen es nicht wissen”.
Speaking of attractive celebrities and “Russia”, this is my favorite:
https://youtu.be/UPpyn3QwSj0
Jobs good summary of what’s going on with the average American, I have a brother that always votes democrat, believes everything that said on CNN or in Jimmy Kimmel monologue or the ever ignorant of facts Bill Mayer. My uncle on the other hand just listens to Fox and tells me they are the only ones that tell the truth. Of course they only peddle lies like CNN
But fox is a truth teller. He carried on about how great Israel is while they committed genocide and how much he hates Iran. Which he was unable to think of ONE a thing that Iran ever did to us, to make him hate them.
Neither of them watch any podcast or listen or look deeper into anything said by these people. These are always the people that vote and people like carville know this as well as politicians.
I’m afraid i know people like that too. The ignorance is appalling, disturbing.
Yes. ☹️
Thanks, for sharing, Nikkikat.
You’d think people have enough introspective ability, when confronted with “Why do you hate Iran? They haven’t done anything to us (although we have to them!)”, they would pause upon coming up empty and go, “Yeah, why DO I hate Iran…”.
But no.
I agree with you, jobs, but the Democrats I know THINK they are very informed. After all, they read the NYTimes, Washington Post, the Guardian, and yes, we keep up with foreign news! We read or watch the BBC! And we watch Rachel Maddow! If it’s from a source such as NC, or Consortium News, or pick any other alternative source of your choosing, they think it’s “fake news, deep fake news, disinformation, propaganda.” They are very ignorant, while thinking just the opposite of themselves. And I think there are millions of voters out there like that.
Oh, and BTW, I am considered to be a Putin lover, Russian lover in general, and I don’t understand how complicated Gaza actually is because I don’t have enough Jewish friends!
Yes, well said and true. On Gaza I actually got the argument that Might makes Right from someone! Israel (and the US) has the right to take what it wants by force, because they can.
Perhaps overthinking this, but I wonder why having the “right” is important when you can just take what you want, period?
Is it perhaps because they want the veneer of “legality” as cover for their brutality, which implies they know it’s wrong?
Buddy of mine listens to CNN quite a bit and doesn’t trust anything unless he’s heard it there. He’s under the very false impression than any non-corporate media is suspect and CNN exists to distill everything else and then present what remains as the truth.
When I point out all the known liars (spooks [James Clapper], corporate hacks, discredited “journalists”, etc.) CNN keeps putting on its payroll, and ask why he would trust a news outlet that employs people like that, I get crickets.
Bingo
For clarification; I was responding to Heather with the bingo.
You describe the demographic where I live. Very difficult to
explore ideas even as a way to understand what is real. Politics
are pretty pat or scripted and tight like a ball. I used to think we were
in a disillusionment process.
Thanks Heather, this sounds depressingly familiar. 😔
The blind certainty of people who cannot bear being wrong.
“This displays…a stunning callousness, lack of compassion and solidarity with their fellow humans, if nothing else. I don’t think most are monsters, but I also don’t think this is the way of decent people.”
In trying to build new coalitions in politics it seems important to keep in mind some kind of personal internal discipline against resentment and self-righteousness. It may be wisest to skip the rant and move to examine what is going on emotionally in our own beings that enables us to become so comfortable with conferring moral superiority on ourselves.
“In trying to build new coalitions in politics it seems important to keep in mind some kind of personal internal discipline against resentment and self-righteousness. It may be wisest to skip the rant and move to examine what is going on emotionally in our own beings that enables us to become so comfortable with conferring moral superiority on ourselves.”
Thank you, Gulag, for this very important point. You’ve just interrupted a self-righteous rant I was having with myself. It’s time for that self-reflection you suggest as antidote.
Thank you for this insight, Gulag.
My thesis is that perhaps if these people did care about the suffering their government inflicts in their name upon others, their government wouldn’t be inflicting that suffering in the first place.
Abortion, the end of democracy and king trump…
Without the media onslaught on those topics the dems would have gotten a fraction of 70 million, I am amazed they got as many votes as they did as the dems are clearly the party of the top ten per cent whose fortunes they have pumped to the moon.
And how many didn’t bother to vote at all? Estimates run close to 90 million. When I lived in Hawai’i years ago, during elections, people on the roadsides carried placards that
read, “no vote, no grumble.” Exactly.
So this is a benefit of voting in US elections?
One then has a “right to grumble”.
This should be promoted to the populace during the next “choose between two dull knives” election.
It might help the voters cope.
How about a third party that represented the people, instead of the corporations?
Nobody would vote for it, because it wouldn’t be “viable” and “nobody else votes for it, they can’t win and I’d be throwing my vote away”.
Policies don’t matter (except wedge issues like abortion and gunz), only whether you can win with your chosen party.
Winning is everything in the US.
Besides, FPTP makes starting a third party challenging, even if the establishment hadn’t thrown up all kinds of moats. Ask the Green Party.
Instructive and entertaining video about FPTP:
https://youtu.be/s7tWHJfhiyo
“I voted for [insert party of your choice] and all I got for it is this lousy ‘I voted’ sticker.” /end grumble
> exacting a sloppy revenge.
so well put. It has been painful for example to see him endlessly calling out in the name of free speech the labeling as disinformation of the death-mongering voice of Battacharya et al at the height of the pandemic.
Fine, okay, civil liberties, but make it clear this was akin to the Nazis marching in Skokie.
The key to the demise of the Democrats can be found in that image of the “March for Israel” rally. So who was it for? Democrat donors of course, specifically AIPAC and other Zionist organizations in America. That rally wasn’t for ordinary Americans when you get down to it. Most Americans have their own problems to deal with and the number of Americans that care about Israel anymore is dropping rapidly. This rally was to demonstrate the Democrat’s loyalty to Israel and in that way guarantee future contributions to the Democrat’s finances. And ultimately where do AIPAC and others get their funds to donate to the Democrats? Israel of course. And where does Israel get those spare funds? From the billions that the US sends to Israel each and every year. And who authorizes those funds to be sent to Israel? Why Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer of course. Not so much a virtuous circle as a vicious circle. Point is, while they pander to their financial donors, they could not give a rats for ordinary Americans in places like East Palestine, Maui or North Carolina. So when they went into the November elections last year, they had nothing to show for what they had done for American voters, especially those in need. They showed who they were on day one of getting back into power back in 2020 by cheating Americans of $600 and it was all down hill from there right up to and including playing with nuclear dice last year. Not that the Republicans are much better.
They’ve been showing who they are for decades, but many people will continue to vote for them, so why would they change, really? Not like people will vote in large enough numbers for a third party (“not viable”, don’tcha know) so the Democrat Party isn’t going anywhere, imo.
>until climate makes government moot and we’re all on our own.
I would say that even before the full on climate change hits we are all already well on our way to being on our own. Start with helping yourself and your neighbors in building resilience networks.
It is a feature of the Democrats not a bug. The Pelosi Clintobamacrats have long been captured by the common funders/controllers to run interference for the GOP and subdue the workers while keeping their snouts in the trough. The game is now highly visible to all at its end stage.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” – H L Mencken
Also: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
Thank you for that classic Mencken quote. IIRC, he wrote that sometime in the late 1910s and claimed his prediction was fulfilled by the election of Warren Harding in 1920 (who Mencken himself admitted having voted for).
I don’t think Mencken was all that clairvoyant in this matter; the US has had bigger morons in the White House both before and after that.
How long have H.J. & DCCC been on Musk’s payroll?
In case anyone still finds more than a “Dime’s Worth Of Difference”.
Very interesting link but it’s paywalled. You wouldn’t by any chance be able to access a link showing how much the DCCC took in from Palantir and SpaceX?
Two or three years ago at the time Sam Bankman Fried got busted, I had occasion to ask a Congressional Democrat whether they had encountered SBF at all personally. I was told that maybe they had crossed paths with him in a hallway once, but not really. As this person was a member of the DCCC, I didn’t believe that for a second.
Thanks for sharing on NC, Yves. I also went to Neuburger’s substack to give a Like there.
If people turned out for Trump and the Republicans as a protest vote then what they are protesting against must be rrreal bad. Idk if those voters see what Neuburger does but they saw something they could not vote for.
My default most pessimistic thought has long been that things will have to get worse before they get better. That obviously leads to questions like How much worse? In what way? and When? to which I have not had any answers. This article gives a sense of what we’re in for in terms of getting worse.
In terms of getting better, the exclusive grip these two political party corporations have on our electoral system is very secure. Discipline within the Democrats is effective. A massive popular protest movement like the general strike ongoing in Serbia (if I understood that right) is unlikely for reasons Yves has explained. What’s our route back to some amount of democratic representation?
We can all start small, by having some self-respect and NOT respecting politicians who have repeatedly lied to us and sold us out for their own benefit.
Too much to ask, I suppose.
I think that’s the first step and not too much to ask.
I heard a rumor (from butch ware) that the cali governor race will be butch ware vs kamalamadingdong and an unspectacular republican, maybe “my kevin” bwahahaha
so vote with a vengeance and at least get in a good poke in the eye!
As you’ve stated above the dems don’t deserve votes
Most all of the protesting is online, and the internet is really good at it making it look as if 1 person was the one doing the protesting-interestingly not all that good at garnering popular widespread support, and in the rare instances there is a protest of sizable numbers on the streets, all of the old school mainstream media does their best to diminish numbers of protesters by using clever angle camera shots, lest things ferment.
If the Donkey Show were a TV show, it would have been cancelled oh so long ago, but we’re stuck with it, for now. And its all reruns.
Thanks for the reminder to LIKE the original. I occasionally visit substack but had not noticed it, too, has a “like” feature.
A general strike requires a huge amount of organization and planning. Something that like must grow, naturally, organically, from smaller actions. I don’t think we’re anywhere close to being able to execute even the preparatory steps to something so huge and significant, and I don’t have confidence in our current union “leaders” to accomplish it. The people are not in solidarity. We need to get them there first.
We are a little bit rusty, not having really protested all that much as a nation since the 70’s, er 1770’s.
There is also the idea of no release valve on the lid of the giant cauldron of fear about to bubble over. Any serious protests have been diminished before they get going, such as ‘protest zones’ near the Pachyderm Party & Donkey Show conventions, boy howdy.
7. Ukraine Ukraine Ukraine.
Democrats obeisance to Atlanticist militarism
Sanctity of Stalin’s SSR!
With the enemy are evil
Zirin seems to have forgotten his history. The GOP isnt the only Koch ruled party.
Koch brothers, Bill Gates, the MIC, and other similar degenerates founded the Democratic Leadership Council back in the 80s.
The DLC is what turned the Dems into neoliberal carbon copies of the GOP.
For his analogy to be accurate, both political parties are the scorpion and the American people are the frog.
👍 The boiling frog, in fact.
Thank you for saying something I tried to point out much less succinctly. Oh, and doing it better.
The Democrat party is the poster child for the Iron Law of Institutions:
The problem is more what rather than who. A sentence from another of todays’ post, COVID-19 in Context… is apt. “My priors are that the only way to address a scientific problem correctly is to go back to the beginnings so that the foundation of current research is as strong as possible.” Or Aristotle, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” We should look at all the ways money drives the system. From corrupting the actors, to how the requirement for big money to comply with ballot access laws and the lack of campaign finance make alterative choices impossible.
Jeffries is the worst.
He initially earned his bones by serving as an attack dog against the public schools and teacher’s union during the Bloomberg/Obama era, when public schools were being broken up, closed, and replaced by charter schools. He replaced Roger Green, an actual radical, in his Fort Greene district, and has been a loyal servant of the Overclass ever since.
There is no hope for a Democratic Party led by such people.
As for some good news, for the first time in over sixty years, there is a realistic chance that the leadership of the United Federation of Teachers in NYC, the largest union local in the country and a long-standing pillar of the Democrat Party as we know it, may be voted out. Should that happen, it could have the potential to impact not just local politics but the national union – historically, whoever controls New York’s UFT controls the national American Federation of Teachers – the AFL-CIO. and the national Democratic Party.
I’m a longtime, disgusted member of the AFT through the institution I teach at in Boston. When the “manufactured consensus” method of union governance trickled down from the national to my local chapter, I stopped paying my full membership dues and went to the minimum contribution possible. I figured if they were working against my interests, no point in paying them, and I sent them a letter explicitly saying so.
On the possibly of the NYC leaders getting canned: would the new board give Randi Weingarten her well-deserved walking papers? I’ve never felt like a right-wing lawyer who makes 6 figures a year could represent me.
Unity Caucus, which has been a one party state (and one of the last significant urban patronage machines), is in a panic over internal divisions, rank and file discontent, and anger among retirees over leadership health care betrayals. Michael Mulgrew, UFT President, is an unpleasant mediocrity who is widely disliked even in his own caucus.
I imagine Weingarten is very worried, but she’s a very smart lady, and might be able to hold on. The people behind the rising opposition candidate, Amy Arundell, would certainly want a her out.
Gee, I wonder what Malcom X would call Jeffries? And I agree with you about the Democratic Party, it’s always being led by the worst people/frauds. ‘The disposition of injustice is always in the right hands,’ as someone once said.
I believe a case can be made that the Democrats are the scorpion. Or even that this is really six of one.
There is no frog. Both parties are deeply corrupt, self serving, and by nature undemocratic. One of the biggest revelations of my life was to discover that the Republican Party structure was in fact more democratic than that of the Democrats. But both have actively worked to strip citizens of their ability to vote and of choices to vote for. Because it is all the same big club. And they dislike new members who might shake things up. I would also posit that both egg each other on in bad behavior. Even when it is ill thought out, like the blatant manipulation of January 6th and the lawfare, both of which have now come back to bite the Democrats in the behind.
I think a case can also be made that the last decade has been a time where the newest members of the “we buy politicians for fun and profit club” hatched a plan and made unprecedented inroads in the Beltway. They found chinks in the edifice, they read the public better, chose the candidate better and are now in the process of changing the system in a way that could mean cutting the well paid politicians out entirely. Think of it as H1B1ing Congress and the US Government. It isn’t just Trump that Musk and Thiel and DOGE are emasculating. Even though posing is the nature of the Democrats, they aren’t even doing that well because the game as they know it no longer exist. They clearly do not know how much posturing is allowed. Everyone is struggling wondering where the next shot is coming from.
Unfortunately none of it is about the country or the public. And the way things are being dismantled doesn’t mean tearing any part of it out is going to change that.
Pat, if the metaphor is interpreted that way (Democrats are the scorpion), then Dem voters are the frog.
Thomas
This 2004 Oliphant cartoon seems appropriate. / ;)
https://www.gocomics.com/patoliphant/2004/01/05
Commenters here bring to mind Gary Stevenson and his analysis on why Labor in England (and Trump in the USA) will both fail. They are ignoring the real problems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCnImxVWbvc
I would not be so harsh on Democratic voters. There is significant gerrymandering and voter suppression here. All you have to do is google it.
Gary Stevenson’s videos are very good and his book, The Trading Game is excellent.
I’m blaming the DNC and Dem estab, not the Dem voters.
Due Dissidence guys at Workers Strike Back Conference in Seattle.
utube, ~16+ minutes.
Due Dissidence SPEAKS at Workers Strike Back Conference in Seattle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIFcnTyk1xQ
Obama has not gotten nearly enough blame for his corrosive impact on Dems and American life.
Nuland, Hillary and so many others were acting on his watch. Some steward he turned out to be.
His notoriety is destined to increase, as the arc of calling out Bulls**t continues to curve toward reality.
I don’t believe Nuland should be identified with either party. She has floated between them, working for the Bush jr. administration and Dick Cheney.
She has stirred up trouble, internationally, in a Bi-partisan manner for many years.
But, of course, she doesn’t work in isolation, and there must be many in government, the MIC and elsewhere who support her efforts.
They like what she does.
Blame? Dems spawn and incubate these people. Bright, independent, tough and compassionate people need not apply. O’B and all the rest are the excretions of an open sore. In my little (D) state a long-time US Rep retired a short while ago. An articulate, well dressed black guy appeared out of nowhere and was quite literally installed in the seat. I go, “Who is this guy?” He was never on a Parks Commission or a City Council…never elected to any local or statewide position. He was simply a well-groomed Dem functionary with the ready-made talking points. When I say “functionary” think of the Italian word and pronunciation…funcionario. Now you get the full effect.
For some reason, I’ve always preferred the version of fable told in the excellent Stone film Natural Born Killers:
https://youtu.be/RuHK8iROgJ0
I don’t know exactly why the Stone telling worked better for me, but I think it’s the contempt the snake has for the victim – rings true in real life too.
Even though I haven’t seen the film since it was regularly run on cable, I have a feeling it has aged only too well.
My first introduction to The Snake fable was through music.
Al Green singing The Snake
Yes, I’m cynical and bitter but: I just can’t believe in the myths and fairy tales of “democracy” in the USA. Members of SCOTUS take bribes and have open conflicts of interest. Congress crooks are paid for puppets, and the exec branch routinely abuses power. There are no “checks and balances”. Some would call the constitution just “a goddamned piece of paper”.
“The US is an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery”
The past few US regimes should have made this obvious, and the current DT2 regime is oligarchy-in-your-face. Yet millions still believe in the civil religion
The corruption is deep-seated and institutionalized. Sometimes the actions of govt. are flagrantly illegal, yet our lawmakers choose to turn a blind eye. War crimes, the largest financial crimes in US history etc. are ignored. The Sycophant-Stenographers in our mass media also ignore it, or make sorry excuses.
So yes, get rid of BOTH political parties: Don’t vote for them, ever. Don’t take it personal, the corruption is institutional.
I hear you, JonnyJames.
Well said, JonnyJames!
Terrible people, who do not deserve our support or vote, not even our respect – because they do NOT respect us.
“Or are they more hungry for hope, even from Trump?” If true, what what would they be hoping for from him?
That sounds familiar. Hope and Change. Wasn’t that Obama’s PR and ad slogan?
Trump learned a few things, looks like. Encouraging hope is a political winner distracting from . you actually stand for.
Oh, OHHhhh, I remember?
https://theintercept.com/2019/08/13/koch-brothers-third-way/
It broke my heart to find that after all this time, Bernie didn’t spend the time mentoring enough of a next generation to carry that wing of the party forward.
I don’t know if it would have helped ultimately, but it’s certainly not going that way without that kind of leadership.