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Be honest about what the Democrats are

Published by marco on

I’ve collected a few notes from the last few months that I haven’t published in other articles. Clearing things out before the civil war makes it all irrelevant.

Why Joe and not Bernie?

A while back, I had a conversation with a friend who asked me why the Democrats chose Joe Biden over Bernie Sanders. How could they want to maintain a status quo that hurts so many people?

”Dr. King’s policy was, if you are nonviolent, if you suffer, your opponent […] will be moved to change his heart. […] He only made one fallacious assumption. In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.”
Stokely Carmichael

Given the overwhelming evidence, the only reasonable conclusion is that the Democrats don’t see a problem to fix. With Biden, they chose status quo because they actually don’t want anything to change. Everything is working just fine for them. They’re all multi-millionaires. Pelosi—just to pick a name at random—is worth about $120 million.

Bernie kept going on about change—jobs, health care, education—but the donors like things the way they are. Having lots of desperately poor, undereducated and underinsured potential employees for their donor’s businesses is very much a buyer’s market. If those employees are overeducated but burdened with massive debt or if they are dependent on employer-provided health-care, then that’s also an ideal lever.

Obama talked about change too—and hope—but he simultaneously assured the important people that he didn’t really mean it. They were reassured.

Bernie asked about as nicely as one can for the Democrats to hear the people. Twice. Both times they rudely declined. Instead, they went with Hillary—a tone-deaf choice that ended badly—and now Biden, whose fate is still up in the air.

”Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.“
Frederick Douglass

It won’t matter much if he gets elected. At least we’ll have a new band of idiots to disappoint us in different ways—perhaps more eloquently. Perhaps it will all be soothing enough that we go back to sleep and forget about all of the things we were so enraged about when Trump could be blamed.

We might not even notice as four more years fly by with no effective action on climate change or healthcare or education or economy. The bar is so low now that Biden will be heralded if he just manages to handle COVID-19 in an even halfway non-criminal fashion. The revolution will almost certainly be postponed, if not canceled (no pun intended).

 In the end, it was more important to Bernie to be in with the Democrats than to start a revolution. He might have been convinced otherwise if it wasn’t for COVID. I think that definitely put a stick in his spokes. On the other hand, he conceded incredibly quickly and effusively supported his pal Joe as if it was six of one/half dozen of the other whether we get Bernie or Joe, which is a nearly shockingly disingenuous if not outright mendacious betrayal.

The article Did Americans Want a Political Revolution? by David Sirota (Jacobin) cites Bernie,

““This struggle is not just about defeating Donald Trump — this struggle is about taking on the incredibly powerful institutions that control the economic and political life of this country,” he said in the speech launching his campaign.

“I’m talking about Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex, the fossil fuel industry, and a corrupt campaign finance system that enables billionaires to buy elections. Brothers and sisters: we have an enormous amount of work in front of us.”

Bernie Sanders

I can’t imagine any of that coming from Joe Biden. It’s more likely to come from Trump, to be honest. Even just before the election, Bernie’s throwing shade, but not explicitly at Trump, which is refreshing—he attacks the system.

 We could have had this guy (Bernie Sanders)

A pity the Democrats aren’t on board at all. The Greens are, though. Bernie should have run as their candidate—even though Howie Hawkins is a helluva guy, Bernie has more star power.

But Bernie’s not running. He might get a cabinet post, but don’t count on it. Instead, it’s Trump v. Biden. The video below provides an overview/prediction.

Election 2020: Pie's prediction. by Jonathan Pie (YouTube)