Like you, and everybody else, I do not know in reality if dumping Biden is a net positive or not. I tend to lean dump because I can’t see how playing defense for four months can ever bring out the energy required to win this election. But I know there are risks to switching it up at this point and remember vividly what the Eagleton affair did to McGovern’s chances.
But, that said, I think a bigger takeaway is that we need to recognize a lot more openly that Biden or Harris or whoever are just ciphers for the thing that we really care about, small d democracy and the chance to lead dignified lives. A decision must be made and it must be made soon, but what that decision is, is less important than our recognition of what it represents.
It’s like we’re in a landing craft off Omaha beach trying to pick a platoon leader. The reality is that the doors will open and all of us need to act as one to gain the beach. If someone falls we’ll adapt and move on.
My bigger concern is the battle plan. This election is winnable but it won’t be won with caution or mealy mouthed recitation of economic statistics. We need to clearly define the danger Trump represents and we need to make sure our less involved countrymen get the message and understand the stakes. The press is not going to do that for us. We need much bolder messaging and we need to make this a referendum on Trump and Heritage and Supreme Court and the whole of the criminal fascist bandwagon.
True, except Trump and SCOTUS are merely symptoms of the actual problem. It’s the long term goal of corporations and oligarchs to reduce The People to serf like conditions that’s the actual problem.
Got it. Massively broken and unfixable system controlled by oligarchical greed, top vs. bottom, the leaders on both sides are genocidal maniacs, and that Trump’s election is a foregone conclusion have led y’all to principled no vote protests.
Some questions:
Will the revolution begin before or after Trump is elected in November, when he takes office in January, or will it start when he begins to implement America 2.0 under P-2025? (I’m assuming y’all are familiar with P-2025 in asking this.)
Does their intention to use bloodshed and violence to stop any resistance impact anything? (as stated on July 2 by Kevin Roberts, Heritage Foundation)
P-2025 has been constructed over at least ten years in anticipation of a Trump character and this iteration is specifically tuned for him (with lots of vindictive military tribunal trials, purges and wholesale loyalist replacements). How does it get stopped if he’s elected as a de facto dictator? If it does get implemented how is that undone?
Or, is all of that left to ensuing generations to figure out?
All good questions and one reason I encourage people to study resistance movements and get clear about their own values.
One thing for certain, given the FULLY bipartisan acceptance. collaboration and participation in the manufactured war in Ukraine, Nord Stream bombing and obscene genocide at the behest of Zionist big money, BOTH parties are fascist and will do whatever they want/need to to enrich the wealthy few.
The Republicans are taking us off a cliff at 95 mph and the Democrats at 75 mph but the destination is the same with either.
The issue is not Right vs Left or GOP vs Democrat, it is -- as it always is throughout history -- an issue of TOP vs BOTTOM. It's about class exploitation and control.
As to who is responsible to resist, the answer is simple: All of us, young and old, now and into what looks to be a dark future.
It's a Corporate Uniparty in service to the corporatocracy. From genocide to enriching the corporations the two parties wear the same dirty diapers. The evidence is plain to see.
Do a little reading on the Princeton study:
"The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite.
"So concludes a recent study, external by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page.
"This is not news, you say.
"Perhaps, but the two professors have conducted exhaustive research to try to present data-driven support for this conclusion. Here's how they explain it:
"Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.
"In English: the wealthy few move policy, while the average American has little power."
We canNOT fix the Democratic Party this election: in so attempting to do, Trump could be elected. Kill the Fascist Beast Dead. THEN reform the Dems, we'll have 4 more years to make those excellent progressive inroads.
If you think that electing another neoliberal will kill fascism, or set the stage for doing so, please reassess. Neoliberalism *begets* fascism.
The die was cast for November's elections when the Democratic Party refused to run competitive, democratic primaries. Instead of worrying about fixing the Democratic Party, which is structurally impervious to reform, we must build viable alternatives. That can be labor, as Hamilton urges. It can also be third parties. But rubber-stamping another four years of status quo doesn't buy time; it legitimizes an objectively undemocratic system.
Vote your conscience, but make no mistake: There is no path to fixing ::all this:: that runs through the Democratic Party.
This is to some extent bandying words. Mr Biden and the Democrats are, indeed a "symptom" of the problem, but they are also "tools" of the problem, in perpetuating the problem.
Neoliberalism has exerted its forces since the late 1970s and acted somewhat surreptitiously until now (nowadays it is far more blatant in its goals): for instance, deregulation and privatisation were supposed to create a shareholding proletariat within which competition would winnow out the inefficient players and crown the efficient ones with glory. Instead, what happened was that the assets that were privatised were sold off at a discount, thus delivering an immediate share value gain to the small shareholders upon flotation, whereby they sold out for interesting private gains to the major corporations, which then became monopoly providers, doling out excessive dividends whilst racking up inefficiencies owing to lack of investment in the infrasructure they had acquired. In some cases this has led to insolvency, for which the public purse has had to step in to assume the liabilities of - put it simply - childishly run corporations.
I'm not sure, whether they be analysed as tools or symptoms, that they are gangrenous, however. Perhaps one can be more conclusive on that point after the November presidential election.
The Democrats are a two-level party, as, I suspect, are the Republicans. The Republicans have created a groundswell of support, which they need in order to access the presidency. That groundswell will be ignored once power is achieved. They are there only to wave flags and to cheer and invade capitol buildings. This we've already seen. The elite of the Republicans are the very magnates who exploit those who are the party's grassroots support, who have been so easily seduced by a skip-cap slogan.
The Democrats are no different. They have been sold human rights and compassion on the basis of campaigns that meant nothing, the most blatant of which is now the plight of the Gaza Palestinians. The Democrat leadership never had the slightest intention of embracing the Palestinian cause. But they encouraged the activist supporters at grass roots to support the Palestinian claims of 1988 to a settlement on the basis of the pre-1967 borders because they knew for a fact that "it would never happen." They could coo-coo to the student bodies about human rights as much as they wanted as long as they knew that these rights were dead in the water, whether they are rights to child support, or black rights (BLM) or the rights of downtrodden peoples across the globe, such as in Myanmar, China and, of course, Palestine. What has now misfooted the Democrat leadership is the fact that their commitment to Palestine has been called in, and Biden hasn't a clue what to do. All the Democrats have done in response to the students' calls to show their true hand in relation to human rights has been to send in the cops and arrest 2,000 intellectuals.
...
I was wrong and Mark is right: they ARE a gangrenous symptom.
Ahh, thanks. Eisenhower warned about this in 1961.
Do these thoughts make sense to you:
Reagan exacerbated the issue using the Bork and Powell promotions of neoliberalism and later both sides began using money raised as the way to become “leaders” in the House and Senate as lobbying efforts increased. But, the GOP pushed the extremes by stacking SCOTUS with the series of FEDSOC justices that gave corporations citizenhood with money as their speech, legalized gerrymandering, gutted voting rights, etc, that culminated with the decision series over the past two weeks that included presidential immunity and eliminating the Chevron doctrine that allowed the cobbled together federal administrative system to work.
The People are in a very different place today with literally one way out. Trump cannot be reelected and the D’s and centrist R’s, if there are any, are faced with a massive, years long task, perhaps decades, to undo corporate and oligarchical influences and return power to People. This will be unimaginably challenging but it must be done. Otherwise another Trump will come along to do the same thing. SCOTUS laid out the roadmap for that in the community decision.
If Trump is reelected say adios to the Constitution, the extant media and court systems, and hello to the imposition of martial law. Project 2025 will be implemented to reduce People to serfs as Trump acts unilaterally to enrich himself, the large corporations and his oligarch cronies, and pursue retribution and revenge, with impunity. I fear for my children and grandchildren in this scenario. The other scenario is not as risky but is still uncertain.
The book "Democracy In Chains" laid out the plan for where we now are about ten years ago. With the various "anti-terror" laws the Bill of Rights has essentially been gutted and as we saw during the pandemic and the US/Israeli genocide, our First Amendment rights are done. The recent Supreme Court decision granting the president absolute immunity and power drove the stake through the shriveled little heart of any hint of democracy in our system. The curtain has fallen and Act Two is going to happen with Trump's return to power (that is a safe prediction to make).
By their timid dithering and lockstep alliance with the Zionist lobby and corporate donors, the Democrats have been complicit. The GOP is speeding the country into a concrete wall at 95 miles an hour and the Dems are doing the same at 75 mph.
I too worry for our children and grandchildren. Between corporate autocracy and fascism and the climate crisis, it is going to be a grim future. And right now, in the US, I don't see any serious political opposition to that future.
The Eagleton affair really has nothing to do with the current situation, Peter,- do you think so?
There are two focuses: Biden is compos mentis enough to win in November (allied to which is that he has policies that will carry the day in November),
versus
Biden is compos mentis enough to see the presidency through to 2029.
By ditching Biden, it may be possible to ditch the unpopular policies he has imposed on Democrats (re the southern border and re Gaza). It will allay Chris Hedges' conundrum of the "lesser of two evils". It'll give Americans something positive to vote for, not something negative to vote against.
If the strategy is that Biden's the man to win, and can drop out through ill health and cede his place to Harris afterwards, that entails a double risk of angering the US public - not getting the man they voted for and then getting the women they didn't vote for. Honest is to put Harris up as the candidate now.
That's assuming either of them can win. If they don't, it could be the last election for a while, so Biden should be thinking on how to structure things so he's in a better position to win, whilst he still has these plenipotentiary powers endowed by the SCOTUS.
Biden must just have been made into Joaquin Phoenix, but his role now has to be that of Russell Crowe.
No, Eagleton was not a direct corollary but was kind of a case study in how a bunch dithering at the beginning of a campaign can fatally wound it. I think making this all about the person of the candidate is a mistake. To the extent it can be shifted from personalities what the two campaigns stand for I think it works to our advantage. Settling this issue quickly is vital and I don’t see how it will ever be settled with Joe. Kamala would be fine with me but what really needs to happen is a helluva lot more energy. If I was putting together a ticket it might be Dolly and Denzel Washington or some other crazy shit. Anything to throw the press off their sad little game.
"Dithering". Yes. It was "dithering" that brought this whole controversy into the limelight in the first place. The lack of a clear-cut resolution to move on is simply ... more bad chairmanship.
One more comment. This is what Catlin Johnstone wrote also in the times andI agree:
"(America) is run by a few billionaires and government agencies. You don’t get a real vote, and even if you did you’re all propagandized anyway. It’s not a real thing...
It’s actually pretty obnoxious to live in the imperial core and yet spend most of your political energy fixating on a presidential race whose outcome will have no effect on the murderousness and tyranny of the imperial war machine abroad. Focus on opposing the empire itself."
I don't necessarily disagree, but I would be remiss if I didn't point that parts of Biden's foreign policy actually went against said murderousness. Drone strikes and civilian casualties both went down.
Of course, any positive FP legacy was completely squandered by the absolute humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
If Harris, in her many college appearances since Dobbs, can bring back trust from Muslim students and all others rightfully pissed about Gaza, which Joe can NOT, the immediate problem Trump presents can be more easily ameliorated.
Well said! BRAVO! In fact the easy-going economic times of the 1950's through the early 2000s, let many Americans, especially "millennials" coast comfortably without caring about civic engagement and responsibility (see "Bowling Alone") while the unions were shut out and atrophied. Thus the corporate plutocrats took over the government and the national ambience, now augmented by Evangelical Christians and racists. The only to save our democracy is with people power and unions can be its vehicle.
Hamilton, I understand that you have to make a living. But how "a writer of your caliber" will cover the disgusting conservatism convention without vomiting on every speaker? Buaj.
Like or not, Trump or Biden are the same shit. Old whites puppets reporting to the interest of very few. War criminals and genocides. Take care mate
You truncate different evils between the two of them Too Much. There is another peace plan circulating which may stop the killing of Gazans. Your short critique is too pat. Realistically, Biden has recognized his major error in supplying weapons of genocide he is now holding back.
If the choice between Trump and Biden is "the lesser of two evils", the proletariat's failure to grasp its opportunity of real representation looks like a choice of "sooner the devil you know".
So pervasive is the myth of the American dream that ordinary working men and women still place great faith in employers who have quashed their right of protest, empowered lawmakers to restrict their rights, stagnated their incomes for 50 years, squeezed their benefits, privatised their nation's basic infrastructure, like communication, healthcare, than they do in the representatives who would fight for reverse all these nefarious effect of neoliberalism and more. Maybe because they place faith in the American dream. Perhaps because they still think they can be top of the hill, A number 1. Because they prefer the devil they know to the one they don't.
Well, the news is that the devil they don't know is only the devil to the devil they do.
No revision. Mr Biden has been - relatively - a champion of unions, this is true. My comment is not directed, however, at Mr Biden, so revision of your reading is, with respect, advised.
The devil that is known is "neoliberalism" (it's got nothing to do with Trump or Biden). The devil that isn't is an endeavour to reverse the nefarious effects of neoliberalism (in short, "revolution").
The "ordinary working man and woman" still clings to the American dream of coming out top in the neoliberal structure. Yet the stagnating wage and the growing differential to top earners shows that that dream is a pipedream (for all but those who will "sell their souls" to aiding and abetting the neoliberal juice press).
People "work the system" because it's "the system", and yet it's the very "system" that is strangling them. The devil we know is "neoliberalism". The devil we don't is "revolution". Revolution is not the "devil" to those who revolt; it is the devil to those against whom the revolution is led. As for those who revolt: union membership will work to help that along.
But, like it or not, Mr Biden is as much "the system" as Mr Trump is.
I think the problem is in making this too much about Biden. Labor needs to organize separate from any political considerations. It needs to be its own engine. It is awesome that we currently have a strong pro labor president and a great head of the department of labor that he appointed, That simply means that this is the time to unionize as many people as we can before they change in leadership might become antagonistic to those goals. His support of unions isn't going to grow them or do the hard work of putting them together. That will always rest in the hands of grassroots. The best thing that administration can do for labor is simply not be antagonistic to it. So that way Biden has been great. And it's why we need to continue to vote for Democrats in the foreseeable future. Is standing with labor can be seen as a winning strategy, then we can expect to see more Democratic candidates stand with labor. More than anything else it's imperative to make that connection visible and known to the public. Reassociating the democratic party With labor.
Thank you. I've known that organized labor was the way to fight income inequality. Now I believe it's the way to better our democracy. I don't believe it could have been explained any better, we need Biden to step aside if this is really an existential threat
Hamilton I respect your work, but I gotta tell you, 'THE' Biden/Democratic Party labor story is their duplicitous betrayal of the Railworkers Strike. It has been several generations since the Democratic Party could even pretend to be the party of working people. The grim reality is that the two parties are one: The Corporate Uniparty.
Rather than simping for the Democrats and hoping they will muster a teacup of morality and a single backbone vertebrae is like asking Donald Trump to manage your retirement account. Far better for labor to begin pressuring outside the Uniparty kabuki and start striking, general strikes, work slow downs and stoppages, sitdown strikes, targeted boycotts. It's the 1930s all over again, complete with a rising fascist movement feeding off worker abuse and despair. NOTHING will improve inside the completely corrupted American political system until we get in the streets and bring the system to a halt. Until then, nothing will change.
Chris Hedges recently laid out our only path:
"Mass street protests and prolonged civil disobedience are our only hope. A failure to rise up — which is what the corporate state is counting on — will see us enslaved and the earth’s ecosystem become inhospitable to human habitation. Let us take a lesson from the courageous men and women who took to the streets for 14 years to save Julian. They showed us how it is done." — Chris Hedges, "You Saved Julian Assange”
Until then, the bloody meat grinder of American capital will grind up workers and innocents in Gaza.
I don't wanna put words in Hamilton's mouth, but his general thrust seems to me to be that labor needs to organize OUTSIDE of any 'permission' structure provided through politics. Politicians and administrations can be pro or anti union on a whim. Its nice when they are 'on our side' but its just that... 'nice'. A good time to move the ball forward but not a permanent state. Smoke 'em while ya got 'em IOW. The work still has to be done regardless of who is in washington.
Good post and a good reminder to rework what I just wrote. Honestly the president doesn't fucking matter to me. That would be like expecting the principal or cops to save the students if I was teaching during an active shooter situation. I'm not a hero or anything, it isn't fucking 'Flight 93,' but I'm still going to be doing everything I can to make sure the kids are safe before I do anything else. I know we keep having these active shooter situations, but the only way to stop them is to work together with the other adults who are willing to do more than just complain. The cops and school shooter (hopefully) aren't the same, but I'm not going to let either shoot my students if they come into my class with a gun.
A Dissent: It is as contradictory to state every positive influence is irrelevant when it conflicts with corporate control; One can work for a corporate giant while promoting workers' rights. Those are NOT exclusive realities. You throw out the benefits for workers such a seeming contradiction implies. We all have to eat. Earning a living by working for a corporation DOES NOT nullify one's support for Worker's Rights: It instead can reveal the hypocrisy one is being supported by a corporate paycheck while undermining corporate control establishing better pay & working conditions corporations hate. IOW: See the great tradition of Monkeywrenching. You are an Absolutist. NOT a Realist. It is YOUR pov that is woefully shortsighted in your dictation it's all your way or no avenue toward improvement at all. Such is Delay toward societal improvements until corporations Are No More sometime in the 25th Century. You are an impractical zealot damning chipping away at the system from within while making a living off corporate employment to the chagrin of corporations betrayed. It's maniacs like you who retard all progress until Mission Impossible has been resolved first. You are disingenuous in promoting Workers' Rights NOW, not when you are the Great Grand Poohbah having slain The Corporate Giant possible not until such long-dead wetdreams are forgotten. YOU achieve your ridiculous goals first before discouraging Union subterfuge of corporate rule NOW.
Was this directed at me? Because I appreciate thoughtful dissents and conversation, but don't know where I've made that point except for a brief mention of corporations in my last post.
"the Democrats’ own inability to be true to what they should stand for."
Aw, Hamilton, that's cute. The Democratic Party doesn't actually stand for anything! It kneels wearing Kente Cloths at the most embarrassing possible moment!
I agree with these observations. But, it also raises a question in my mind about how, when and why labor and the Democratic Party became estranged, or perhaps optically estranged. Was it GATT or NAFTA, or what?
The second question it raises is who are the donors who control the Democratic messaging machinery? Elitism is an insufficient answer. The GOP has used Gingrich messaging methods very effectively for decades. Why didn’t the Democratic Party follow suit? Are the donors, “leaders”, or whomever, so arrogant that they believe they are above the fray and don’t need to engage?
You nailed it. Hillary is a classic example of “ignore it and it’ll go away.” A generation or two grew up hearing the same lies and accusations about her, unaddressed and unrefuted so it became baked-in gospel and cost her the election.
When NAFTA was strong-armed into existence by the Bill Clinton neoliberals, labor drew a line in the sand and said they would not support any Dem who had voted for it. That lasted about two seconds. It was probably politically practical to backtrack on that point, but it sent a message that maybe there were no sacred cows, no single issue that would be a bridge too far to an endorsement. That’s when the Party decided labor would play a secondary role and we took it. Like Thanksgiving at your parents house, labor was now relegated to the kids’ table.
The role of labor in the solidly blue state of California is that of barking junkyard dogs, carefully guarding the status quo rather than leading, despite the fact the state Party is led by a proxy for labor, Rusty Hicks. Though his only claim to the labor label was as the leader of a labor GOTV effort, he used his new position to help his former boss, Maria Elena Durazo get elected to the state Senate, hoping to catapult himself into office. Until we elect a “real” progressive labor person, maybe even entertaining the idea of a rank-n-file member who has demonstrated leadership qualities in other arenas. Until that happens, don’t look to labor for bold action or for them to consider biting the hand that has fed them.
"The Biden administration, to its credit, has been uncommonly solicitous of unions. Biden has spent more political capital than any Democratic president in the past half century on doing good things for labor."
Isn't this why union leadership is standing by Biden?
I don't buy the notion Union support of Biden comprises an utter fraud, as you do. If you're saying it is all a fucking sham, a lot of good Union members are a lot dumber than you are, and to me that must be gross exaggeration.
Same. Just look at who he appointed to the dept of labor! And Shawn Fain has certainly thrown union support behind Biden.
OTH busting up the railroad strike was a bone move. I still don't understand the details behind that. What were his incentives for standing against his own stated Position on unions? I have an ongoing love affair with our rail travel system so it was really disappointing to see him fail to stand up for the railway union. I would love to have more details on why that happened.
Simple: Decapitating the only union action that will wield power -- the strike. Withholding the energy and labor all capitalists depend upon is the only weapon labor has. You can have the biggest state-of-the-art factory but if you don't have the workers to flip the switch all you have are big bank loans to pay. Strikes and work slow downs are the only real tool labor has.
Under four years of bumbling Biden management union membership continues to decline, even with industries doing business with the government, which "Scranton Joe" could have done something about.
There has long been a huge gap between most union leadership and workers. I had some hope for Shawn Fain but when he endorsed Biden a year before the election without getting ANYTHING concrete in return for the endorsement he whittled off a lot of his credibility. He says he is supporting a general strike in a couple years when a number of contracts are coming up for negotiation. We'll see. In the meantime I guess American workers and families will just have to keep suffering.
Of course by then the police state will be run by Trump and the Christofascists, so we'll see how effective that will be. The time for action to stop the fascist surge is NOW but, tragically, it looks like labor is not up to the challenge.
We are in a war, our country is being attacked by enemies foreign and domestic who want to take us down, destroy us. Avril Haines is putting out regular warnings about Iran, China, Russia using cyber and disinformation campaigns against our citizens. Our brothers and sisters, our children, our friends and neighbors can't sort it out -- they are being psychologically manipulated and abused, gaslighted, distracted, confused. Responsible corporate citizens, the media, have failed in their duty to clear the fog, have participated and profited by the eight year fogging of the national consciousness. Tell the truth to the American people and the country will be saved.
Yeah the author is right: My concern is Biden's polls, is he bleeding so much support he can't recover? I read ABOUT polls supposedly stating he's gone up 3 in Wisconsin, which informs me No he isn't terminally bleeding. If true, and I wish someone would link to such a poll, I could see it for myself, but it may be BS from a Biden sycophantic apparatchik in DC. If he's showing sudden strength after the dinosaur-sized egg he laid in the debate, OK, false alarm, he must be doing better than polls that say he isn't, which also I haven't seen. That's what drives me to wanna dump him on favor of Harris, who has strengths he lacks (in a year to be decided big time by a huge pro-reproductive rights turnout triggered more by by Harris' work across the country as The Female Veep she is, speaking to SRO college crowds since Dobbs, in so doing creating links with Youth otherwise turned off by Biden, both female and male (blacks) Biden isn't, also cuz she's So Indian, bringing in 3 demographics Biden hasn't been stimulating, hey, fine, go with her and an other non-octogenarian running mate, pinning the Age factor solely on Trump to sink him and him alone, peeling off the So Indian vote comprising the 2nd-largest immigrant vote in the country after newbie Chinese, both groups arriving via airports---Mexicans etc arriving on foot across the southern border are actually THIRD in immigration numbers---giving her a source of votes IN THE MILLIONS Biden does not generate. Otherwise the majority of them, small businessfolk (chain motels), would vote Republican, a huge plus for her to draw directly away from Trump, a HUGE pickup due to her ethnicity alone, rarely ever brought up by Big Dumb Media as voters she more than he attracts---then, Yeah, switch lead horses ASAP, as soon as possible before the Dem Convention Aug 19 when doing so after would be impossible. But if, WITH doing so along with unions spending tens of millions in northern swing states due to Biden, which must not be lost when a Harris-topping ticket may not generate THOSE votes away from Trump, then HELL YES keep the ticket as assembled, adding the total of their individual strengths to crush Trump. Then things look to me markedly better than splitting the ticket and leaving her on top with a newbie veep unknown as to the voters that person attracts. THAT is methinks what We should consider in this discussion, NOT that Biden's age is irrevocably losing him the youth vote SHE has a trusted "In" with doing the colleges as she has across the country since Dobbs. And that totality ALONE decides for me, and Us, whether to dump the old dude or not, inasmuch as a return of the irretrievably feeble Joe after the election can be Fixed Immediately by the 25th Amendment---in which case, Fine, leave the ticket alone and GET TO IT, both of em, on the campaign trail pronto and BEAT the fuck OUT OF TRUMP ASAP. Problem there is, while she IS out doing college crowds right now, and Biden is wallowing in the WH accomplishing nothing, then shut further discussion on his age down and GET HIM OUT THERE TOO.
And THAT is ALL that matters: If the combination of the 2 out in the thickets removes Trump's threat of Dictatorshit then the immediate issue IS RESOLVED. NO FURTHER DISCUSSION IS NECESSARY. It's up to good, solid polling to prove or disprove Biden's liabilities between now and Nov 5, NOT whether he can govern till he's 86, which is resolvable by the 25th Amendment Solution, if necessary, once we beat the fascist fuck scaring the shit out of the majority of Americans, Now.
The good news is, other than that Biden is supposedly irretrievably sinking in multiple new states in play, the revealing fact remains Trump HAS NOT BEEN RISING in those polls either, that he has hit his ceiling amid the controversy of Biden's Age, and seemingly HAS NOT personally BEEN BENEFITTING FROM IT, revealing HIS limitations as eminently beatable beyond his control.
A "two party system", moreover one consisting of the two same parties since 1876, is the empirical evidence for a definition of an *undemocratic* political regime.
Is it any wonder then that the internal lives of both parties has never been democratic, and never will be so long as the *regime* is not changed, a change that will flush both parties down the toilet bowl of history?
Regime change, however, is only contemplated by the Right, not the Left or the trade union movement. No wonder only the Right is presented as the "party of ideas"!
Where is the Democrat's Project 2025, their comprehensive policy agenda for the next 4 years? Oh, that's right, I didn't think of that, they have none! For the Party tops know that if they had one, their big money - read capitalist - donor stream would be shut down. That's why.
Though there is no harm in tossing stuff out there in an ad hoc manner, such as Federal rent control, or BBB, of the Pro Act, safe in the knowledge that these will *never* pass the beating undemocratic heart of an undemocratic political system, the US Senate.
So it is time for the Left to start thinking out of the regime box. And if anyone on the Left comes back at this, as they usually do, by saying "Well, smartass, what's YOUR plan?", let it be known that the immediate response will be, "No, what's YOUR plan for regime change!".
You who represent the large majority of the Left, the majority of the Left that is in the Democratic Party, are the only ones that can develop an outside the box plan.
The (should be) obvious starting point can be indicated at this time. The Left needs to begin building, NOW, a pro-democracy movement for real regime change in the USA! That is the only direction forward.
The Left needs to begin, NOW, regardless of who wins in November 2024. In a special note, if the Democrats somehow squeak by, AGAIN, there can be no going back to political sleep, only to wake up to the same nightmare every 4 years. This must be a pro-democracy movement en permanence!
"Democracy is coming to the USA" prophesized Leonard Cohen. He understood the issue in his own way. Now is the time for us to at last come to the same understanding.
Like you, and everybody else, I do not know in reality if dumping Biden is a net positive or not. I tend to lean dump because I can’t see how playing defense for four months can ever bring out the energy required to win this election. But I know there are risks to switching it up at this point and remember vividly what the Eagleton affair did to McGovern’s chances.
But, that said, I think a bigger takeaway is that we need to recognize a lot more openly that Biden or Harris or whoever are just ciphers for the thing that we really care about, small d democracy and the chance to lead dignified lives. A decision must be made and it must be made soon, but what that decision is, is less important than our recognition of what it represents.
It’s like we’re in a landing craft off Omaha beach trying to pick a platoon leader. The reality is that the doors will open and all of us need to act as one to gain the beach. If someone falls we’ll adapt and move on.
My bigger concern is the battle plan. This election is winnable but it won’t be won with caution or mealy mouthed recitation of economic statistics. We need to clearly define the danger Trump represents and we need to make sure our less involved countrymen get the message and understand the stakes. The press is not going to do that for us. We need much bolder messaging and we need to make this a referendum on Trump and Heritage and Supreme Court and the whole of the criminal fascist bandwagon.
True, except Trump and SCOTUS are merely symptoms of the actual problem. It’s the long term goal of corporations and oligarchs to reduce The People to serf like conditions that’s the actual problem.
Biden and the Democrats are also gangerous symptoms of the problem.
Got it. Massively broken and unfixable system controlled by oligarchical greed, top vs. bottom, the leaders on both sides are genocidal maniacs, and that Trump’s election is a foregone conclusion have led y’all to principled no vote protests.
Some questions:
Will the revolution begin before or after Trump is elected in November, when he takes office in January, or will it start when he begins to implement America 2.0 under P-2025? (I’m assuming y’all are familiar with P-2025 in asking this.)
Does their intention to use bloodshed and violence to stop any resistance impact anything? (as stated on July 2 by Kevin Roberts, Heritage Foundation)
P-2025 has been constructed over at least ten years in anticipation of a Trump character and this iteration is specifically tuned for him (with lots of vindictive military tribunal trials, purges and wholesale loyalist replacements). How does it get stopped if he’s elected as a de facto dictator? If it does get implemented how is that undone?
Or, is all of that left to ensuing generations to figure out?
All good questions and one reason I encourage people to study resistance movements and get clear about their own values.
One thing for certain, given the FULLY bipartisan acceptance. collaboration and participation in the manufactured war in Ukraine, Nord Stream bombing and obscene genocide at the behest of Zionist big money, BOTH parties are fascist and will do whatever they want/need to to enrich the wealthy few.
The Republicans are taking us off a cliff at 95 mph and the Democrats at 75 mph but the destination is the same with either.
The issue is not Right vs Left or GOP vs Democrat, it is -- as it always is throughout history -- an issue of TOP vs BOTTOM. It's about class exploitation and control.
As to who is responsible to resist, the answer is simple: All of us, young and old, now and into what looks to be a dark future.
Huh?
It's a Corporate Uniparty in service to the corporatocracy. From genocide to enriching the corporations the two parties wear the same dirty diapers. The evidence is plain to see.
Do a little reading on the Princeton study:
"The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite.
"So concludes a recent study, external by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page.
"This is not news, you say.
"Perhaps, but the two professors have conducted exhaustive research to try to present data-driven support for this conclusion. Here's how they explain it:
"Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.
"In English: the wealthy few move policy, while the average American has little power."
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
We canNOT fix the Democratic Party this election: in so attempting to do, Trump could be elected. Kill the Fascist Beast Dead. THEN reform the Dems, we'll have 4 more years to make those excellent progressive inroads.
If you think that electing another neoliberal will kill fascism, or set the stage for doing so, please reassess. Neoliberalism *begets* fascism.
The die was cast for November's elections when the Democratic Party refused to run competitive, democratic primaries. Instead of worrying about fixing the Democratic Party, which is structurally impervious to reform, we must build viable alternatives. That can be labor, as Hamilton urges. It can also be third parties. But rubber-stamping another four years of status quo doesn't buy time; it legitimizes an objectively undemocratic system.
Vote your conscience, but make no mistake: There is no path to fixing ::all this:: that runs through the Democratic Party.
How neoliberalism begets fascism: https://youtu.be/ql7FQenIQEE?feature=shared&t=523
This is to some extent bandying words. Mr Biden and the Democrats are, indeed a "symptom" of the problem, but they are also "tools" of the problem, in perpetuating the problem.
Neoliberalism has exerted its forces since the late 1970s and acted somewhat surreptitiously until now (nowadays it is far more blatant in its goals): for instance, deregulation and privatisation were supposed to create a shareholding proletariat within which competition would winnow out the inefficient players and crown the efficient ones with glory. Instead, what happened was that the assets that were privatised were sold off at a discount, thus delivering an immediate share value gain to the small shareholders upon flotation, whereby they sold out for interesting private gains to the major corporations, which then became monopoly providers, doling out excessive dividends whilst racking up inefficiencies owing to lack of investment in the infrasructure they had acquired. In some cases this has led to insolvency, for which the public purse has had to step in to assume the liabilities of - put it simply - childishly run corporations.
I'm not sure, whether they be analysed as tools or symptoms, that they are gangrenous, however. Perhaps one can be more conclusive on that point after the November presidential election.
The Democrats are a two-level party, as, I suspect, are the Republicans. The Republicans have created a groundswell of support, which they need in order to access the presidency. That groundswell will be ignored once power is achieved. They are there only to wave flags and to cheer and invade capitol buildings. This we've already seen. The elite of the Republicans are the very magnates who exploit those who are the party's grassroots support, who have been so easily seduced by a skip-cap slogan.
The Democrats are no different. They have been sold human rights and compassion on the basis of campaigns that meant nothing, the most blatant of which is now the plight of the Gaza Palestinians. The Democrat leadership never had the slightest intention of embracing the Palestinian cause. But they encouraged the activist supporters at grass roots to support the Palestinian claims of 1988 to a settlement on the basis of the pre-1967 borders because they knew for a fact that "it would never happen." They could coo-coo to the student bodies about human rights as much as they wanted as long as they knew that these rights were dead in the water, whether they are rights to child support, or black rights (BLM) or the rights of downtrodden peoples across the globe, such as in Myanmar, China and, of course, Palestine. What has now misfooted the Democrat leadership is the fact that their commitment to Palestine has been called in, and Biden hasn't a clue what to do. All the Democrats have done in response to the students' calls to show their true hand in relation to human rights has been to send in the cops and arrest 2,000 intellectuals.
...
I was wrong and Mark is right: they ARE a gangrenous symptom.
Great summary of the world as it is. The issue is not RIGHT vs LEFT, it is - and always ever is -- TOP vs BOTTOM.
Ahh, thanks. Eisenhower warned about this in 1961.
Do these thoughts make sense to you:
Reagan exacerbated the issue using the Bork and Powell promotions of neoliberalism and later both sides began using money raised as the way to become “leaders” in the House and Senate as lobbying efforts increased. But, the GOP pushed the extremes by stacking SCOTUS with the series of FEDSOC justices that gave corporations citizenhood with money as their speech, legalized gerrymandering, gutted voting rights, etc, that culminated with the decision series over the past two weeks that included presidential immunity and eliminating the Chevron doctrine that allowed the cobbled together federal administrative system to work.
The People are in a very different place today with literally one way out. Trump cannot be reelected and the D’s and centrist R’s, if there are any, are faced with a massive, years long task, perhaps decades, to undo corporate and oligarchical influences and return power to People. This will be unimaginably challenging but it must be done. Otherwise another Trump will come along to do the same thing. SCOTUS laid out the roadmap for that in the community decision.
If Trump is reelected say adios to the Constitution, the extant media and court systems, and hello to the imposition of martial law. Project 2025 will be implemented to reduce People to serfs as Trump acts unilaterally to enrich himself, the large corporations and his oligarch cronies, and pursue retribution and revenge, with impunity. I fear for my children and grandchildren in this scenario. The other scenario is not as risky but is still uncertain.
One factoid you point out is certain: It is the Retardlican Party that began weaponizing the Supreme Court against the People over 40 years ago.
The book "Democracy In Chains" laid out the plan for where we now are about ten years ago. With the various "anti-terror" laws the Bill of Rights has essentially been gutted and as we saw during the pandemic and the US/Israeli genocide, our First Amendment rights are done. The recent Supreme Court decision granting the president absolute immunity and power drove the stake through the shriveled little heart of any hint of democracy in our system. The curtain has fallen and Act Two is going to happen with Trump's return to power (that is a safe prediction to make).
By their timid dithering and lockstep alliance with the Zionist lobby and corporate donors, the Democrats have been complicit. The GOP is speeding the country into a concrete wall at 95 miles an hour and the Dems are doing the same at 75 mph.
I too worry for our children and grandchildren. Between corporate autocracy and fascism and the climate crisis, it is going to be a grim future. And right now, in the US, I don't see any serious political opposition to that future.
The Eagleton affair really has nothing to do with the current situation, Peter,- do you think so?
There are two focuses: Biden is compos mentis enough to win in November (allied to which is that he has policies that will carry the day in November),
versus
Biden is compos mentis enough to see the presidency through to 2029.
By ditching Biden, it may be possible to ditch the unpopular policies he has imposed on Democrats (re the southern border and re Gaza). It will allay Chris Hedges' conundrum of the "lesser of two evils". It'll give Americans something positive to vote for, not something negative to vote against.
If the strategy is that Biden's the man to win, and can drop out through ill health and cede his place to Harris afterwards, that entails a double risk of angering the US public - not getting the man they voted for and then getting the women they didn't vote for. Honest is to put Harris up as the candidate now.
That's assuming either of them can win. If they don't, it could be the last election for a while, so Biden should be thinking on how to structure things so he's in a better position to win, whilst he still has these plenipotentiary powers endowed by the SCOTUS.
Biden must just have been made into Joaquin Phoenix, but his role now has to be that of Russell Crowe.
No, Eagleton was not a direct corollary but was kind of a case study in how a bunch dithering at the beginning of a campaign can fatally wound it. I think making this all about the person of the candidate is a mistake. To the extent it can be shifted from personalities what the two campaigns stand for I think it works to our advantage. Settling this issue quickly is vital and I don’t see how it will ever be settled with Joe. Kamala would be fine with me but what really needs to happen is a helluva lot more energy. If I was putting together a ticket it might be Dolly and Denzel Washington or some other crazy shit. Anything to throw the press off their sad little game.
"Dithering". Yes. It was "dithering" that brought this whole controversy into the limelight in the first place. The lack of a clear-cut resolution to move on is simply ... more bad chairmanship.
UNIONS are always the answer unless they are taken over by corporations which seems to have happened in the US.
One more comment. This is what Catlin Johnstone wrote also in the times andI agree:
"(America) is run by a few billionaires and government agencies. You don’t get a real vote, and even if you did you’re all propagandized anyway. It’s not a real thing...
It’s actually pretty obnoxious to live in the imperial core and yet spend most of your political energy fixating on a presidential race whose outcome will have no effect on the murderousness and tyranny of the imperial war machine abroad. Focus on opposing the empire itself."
I don't necessarily disagree, but I would be remiss if I didn't point that parts of Biden's foreign policy actually went against said murderousness. Drone strikes and civilian casualties both went down.
Of course, any positive FP legacy was completely squandered by the absolute humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
If Harris, in her many college appearances since Dobbs, can bring back trust from Muslim students and all others rightfully pissed about Gaza, which Joe can NOT, the immediate problem Trump presents can be more easily ameliorated.
Well said! BRAVO! In fact the easy-going economic times of the 1950's through the early 2000s, let many Americans, especially "millennials" coast comfortably without caring about civic engagement and responsibility (see "Bowling Alone") while the unions were shut out and atrophied. Thus the corporate plutocrats took over the government and the national ambience, now augmented by Evangelical Christians and racists. The only to save our democracy is with people power and unions can be its vehicle.
missing word in last sentence above - should read "The only WAY to save our democracy..."
Correct.
Hamilton, I understand that you have to make a living. But how "a writer of your caliber" will cover the disgusting conservatism convention without vomiting on every speaker? Buaj.
Like or not, Trump or Biden are the same shit. Old whites puppets reporting to the interest of very few. War criminals and genocides. Take care mate
You truncate different evils between the two of them Too Much. There is another peace plan circulating which may stop the killing of Gazans. Your short critique is too pat. Realistically, Biden has recognized his major error in supplying weapons of genocide he is now holding back.
I really hope that this time Lucy doesn't pull the ball away from Charlie... /s
If the choice between Trump and Biden is "the lesser of two evils", the proletariat's failure to grasp its opportunity of real representation looks like a choice of "sooner the devil you know".
So pervasive is the myth of the American dream that ordinary working men and women still place great faith in employers who have quashed their right of protest, empowered lawmakers to restrict their rights, stagnated their incomes for 50 years, squeezed their benefits, privatised their nation's basic infrastructure, like communication, healthcare, than they do in the representatives who would fight for reverse all these nefarious effect of neoliberalism and more. Maybe because they place faith in the American dream. Perhaps because they still think they can be top of the hill, A number 1. Because they prefer the devil they know to the one they don't.
Well, the news is that the devil they don't know is only the devil to the devil they do.
You COMPLETELY whiff on The Fact Biden has become The Biggest Supporter of progressive Unions since FDR. Revision advised.
No revision. Mr Biden has been - relatively - a champion of unions, this is true. My comment is not directed, however, at Mr Biden, so revision of your reading is, with respect, advised.
The devil that is known is "neoliberalism" (it's got nothing to do with Trump or Biden). The devil that isn't is an endeavour to reverse the nefarious effects of neoliberalism (in short, "revolution").
The "ordinary working man and woman" still clings to the American dream of coming out top in the neoliberal structure. Yet the stagnating wage and the growing differential to top earners shows that that dream is a pipedream (for all but those who will "sell their souls" to aiding and abetting the neoliberal juice press).
People "work the system" because it's "the system", and yet it's the very "system" that is strangling them. The devil we know is "neoliberalism". The devil we don't is "revolution". Revolution is not the "devil" to those who revolt; it is the devil to those against whom the revolution is led. As for those who revolt: union membership will work to help that along.
But, like it or not, Mr Biden is as much "the system" as Mr Trump is.
Try to be pleasant when you comment.
Spot on. Thank you for elaborating on your earlier comment, this absolutely clarifies it! Couldn't agree more
I think the problem is in making this too much about Biden. Labor needs to organize separate from any political considerations. It needs to be its own engine. It is awesome that we currently have a strong pro labor president and a great head of the department of labor that he appointed, That simply means that this is the time to unionize as many people as we can before they change in leadership might become antagonistic to those goals. His support of unions isn't going to grow them or do the hard work of putting them together. That will always rest in the hands of grassroots. The best thing that administration can do for labor is simply not be antagonistic to it. So that way Biden has been great. And it's why we need to continue to vote for Democrats in the foreseeable future. Is standing with labor can be seen as a winning strategy, then we can expect to see more Democratic candidates stand with labor. More than anything else it's imperative to make that connection visible and known to the public. Reassociating the democratic party With labor.
I think we're at the 'or else phase'. Your column hits it exactly. We are all spectators.
Thank you. I've known that organized labor was the way to fight income inequality. Now I believe it's the way to better our democracy. I don't believe it could have been explained any better, we need Biden to step aside if this is really an existential threat
Hamilton I respect your work, but I gotta tell you, 'THE' Biden/Democratic Party labor story is their duplicitous betrayal of the Railworkers Strike. It has been several generations since the Democratic Party could even pretend to be the party of working people. The grim reality is that the two parties are one: The Corporate Uniparty.
Rather than simping for the Democrats and hoping they will muster a teacup of morality and a single backbone vertebrae is like asking Donald Trump to manage your retirement account. Far better for labor to begin pressuring outside the Uniparty kabuki and start striking, general strikes, work slow downs and stoppages, sitdown strikes, targeted boycotts. It's the 1930s all over again, complete with a rising fascist movement feeding off worker abuse and despair. NOTHING will improve inside the completely corrupted American political system until we get in the streets and bring the system to a halt. Until then, nothing will change.
Chris Hedges recently laid out our only path:
"Mass street protests and prolonged civil disobedience are our only hope. A failure to rise up — which is what the corporate state is counting on — will see us enslaved and the earth’s ecosystem become inhospitable to human habitation. Let us take a lesson from the courageous men and women who took to the streets for 14 years to save Julian. They showed us how it is done." — Chris Hedges, "You Saved Julian Assange”
Until then, the bloody meat grinder of American capital will grind up workers and innocents in Gaza.
"Presidential Debate? Here Are The ONLY Voices Americans Need To Hear Tonight" .... https://mark192.substack.com/p/presidential-debate-here-are-the
Hmmm.
I don't wanna put words in Hamilton's mouth, but his general thrust seems to me to be that labor needs to organize OUTSIDE of any 'permission' structure provided through politics. Politicians and administrations can be pro or anti union on a whim. Its nice when they are 'on our side' but its just that... 'nice'. A good time to move the ball forward but not a permanent state. Smoke 'em while ya got 'em IOW. The work still has to be done regardless of who is in washington.
You stink to me of covert MAGAt support throwing the entire Union effort into the shitter, where I think it is more likely your BS belongs.
Your high school eloquence and deeply resourced reasoning are glowing testament to your single-digit IQ.
Good post and a good reminder to rework what I just wrote. Honestly the president doesn't fucking matter to me. That would be like expecting the principal or cops to save the students if I was teaching during an active shooter situation. I'm not a hero or anything, it isn't fucking 'Flight 93,' but I'm still going to be doing everything I can to make sure the kids are safe before I do anything else. I know we keep having these active shooter situations, but the only way to stop them is to work together with the other adults who are willing to do more than just complain. The cops and school shooter (hopefully) aren't the same, but I'm not going to let either shoot my students if they come into my class with a gun.
A Dissent: It is as contradictory to state every positive influence is irrelevant when it conflicts with corporate control; One can work for a corporate giant while promoting workers' rights. Those are NOT exclusive realities. You throw out the benefits for workers such a seeming contradiction implies. We all have to eat. Earning a living by working for a corporation DOES NOT nullify one's support for Worker's Rights: It instead can reveal the hypocrisy one is being supported by a corporate paycheck while undermining corporate control establishing better pay & working conditions corporations hate. IOW: See the great tradition of Monkeywrenching. You are an Absolutist. NOT a Realist. It is YOUR pov that is woefully shortsighted in your dictation it's all your way or no avenue toward improvement at all. Such is Delay toward societal improvements until corporations Are No More sometime in the 25th Century. You are an impractical zealot damning chipping away at the system from within while making a living off corporate employment to the chagrin of corporations betrayed. It's maniacs like you who retard all progress until Mission Impossible has been resolved first. You are disingenuous in promoting Workers' Rights NOW, not when you are the Great Grand Poohbah having slain The Corporate Giant possible not until such long-dead wetdreams are forgotten. YOU achieve your ridiculous goals first before discouraging Union subterfuge of corporate rule NOW.
Was this directed at me? Because I appreciate thoughtful dissents and conversation, but don't know where I've made that point except for a brief mention of corporations in my last post.
"the Democrats’ own inability to be true to what they should stand for."
Aw, Hamilton, that's cute. The Democratic Party doesn't actually stand for anything! It kneels wearing Kente Cloths at the most embarrassing possible moment!
I agree with these observations. But, it also raises a question in my mind about how, when and why labor and the Democratic Party became estranged, or perhaps optically estranged. Was it GATT or NAFTA, or what?
The second question it raises is who are the donors who control the Democratic messaging machinery? Elitism is an insufficient answer. The GOP has used Gingrich messaging methods very effectively for decades. Why didn’t the Democratic Party follow suit? Are the donors, “leaders”, or whomever, so arrogant that they believe they are above the fray and don’t need to engage?
You nailed it. Hillary is a classic example of “ignore it and it’ll go away.” A generation or two grew up hearing the same lies and accusations about her, unaddressed and unrefuted so it became baked-in gospel and cost her the election.
When NAFTA was strong-armed into existence by the Bill Clinton neoliberals, labor drew a line in the sand and said they would not support any Dem who had voted for it. That lasted about two seconds. It was probably politically practical to backtrack on that point, but it sent a message that maybe there were no sacred cows, no single issue that would be a bridge too far to an endorsement. That’s when the Party decided labor would play a secondary role and we took it. Like Thanksgiving at your parents house, labor was now relegated to the kids’ table.
The role of labor in the solidly blue state of California is that of barking junkyard dogs, carefully guarding the status quo rather than leading, despite the fact the state Party is led by a proxy for labor, Rusty Hicks. Though his only claim to the labor label was as the leader of a labor GOTV effort, he used his new position to help his former boss, Maria Elena Durazo get elected to the state Senate, hoping to catapult himself into office. Until we elect a “real” progressive labor person, maybe even entertaining the idea of a rank-n-file member who has demonstrated leadership qualities in other arenas. Until that happens, don’t look to labor for bold action or for them to consider biting the hand that has fed them.
Knowing Lorena Gonzalez personally and observing her career and values, there is hope for vitality and commitment in the California labor movement.
"The Biden administration, to its credit, has been uncommonly solicitous of unions. Biden has spent more political capital than any Democratic president in the past half century on doing good things for labor."
Isn't this why union leadership is standing by Biden?
Ask the betrayed Railworkers Union about their experience with Biden and the duplicitous Democrats.
I don't buy the notion Union support of Biden comprises an utter fraud, as you do. If you're saying it is all a fucking sham, a lot of good Union members are a lot dumber than you are, and to me that must be gross exaggeration.
Same. Just look at who he appointed to the dept of labor! And Shawn Fain has certainly thrown union support behind Biden.
OTH busting up the railroad strike was a bone move. I still don't understand the details behind that. What were his incentives for standing against his own stated Position on unions? I have an ongoing love affair with our rail travel system so it was really disappointing to see him fail to stand up for the railway union. I would love to have more details on why that happened.
Simple: Decapitating the only union action that will wield power -- the strike. Withholding the energy and labor all capitalists depend upon is the only weapon labor has. You can have the biggest state-of-the-art factory but if you don't have the workers to flip the switch all you have are big bank loans to pay. Strikes and work slow downs are the only real tool labor has.
Under four years of bumbling Biden management union membership continues to decline, even with industries doing business with the government, which "Scranton Joe" could have done something about.
There has long been a huge gap between most union leadership and workers. I had some hope for Shawn Fain but when he endorsed Biden a year before the election without getting ANYTHING concrete in return for the endorsement he whittled off a lot of his credibility. He says he is supporting a general strike in a couple years when a number of contracts are coming up for negotiation. We'll see. In the meantime I guess American workers and families will just have to keep suffering.
Of course by then the police state will be run by Trump and the Christofascists, so we'll see how effective that will be. The time for action to stop the fascist surge is NOW but, tragically, it looks like labor is not up to the challenge.
We are in a war, our country is being attacked by enemies foreign and domestic who want to take us down, destroy us. Avril Haines is putting out regular warnings about Iran, China, Russia using cyber and disinformation campaigns against our citizens. Our brothers and sisters, our children, our friends and neighbors can't sort it out -- they are being psychologically manipulated and abused, gaslighted, distracted, confused. Responsible corporate citizens, the media, have failed in their duty to clear the fog, have participated and profited by the eight year fogging of the national consciousness. Tell the truth to the American people and the country will be saved.
Yeah the author is right: My concern is Biden's polls, is he bleeding so much support he can't recover? I read ABOUT polls supposedly stating he's gone up 3 in Wisconsin, which informs me No he isn't terminally bleeding. If true, and I wish someone would link to such a poll, I could see it for myself, but it may be BS from a Biden sycophantic apparatchik in DC. If he's showing sudden strength after the dinosaur-sized egg he laid in the debate, OK, false alarm, he must be doing better than polls that say he isn't, which also I haven't seen. That's what drives me to wanna dump him on favor of Harris, who has strengths he lacks (in a year to be decided big time by a huge pro-reproductive rights turnout triggered more by by Harris' work across the country as The Female Veep she is, speaking to SRO college crowds since Dobbs, in so doing creating links with Youth otherwise turned off by Biden, both female and male (blacks) Biden isn't, also cuz she's So Indian, bringing in 3 demographics Biden hasn't been stimulating, hey, fine, go with her and an other non-octogenarian running mate, pinning the Age factor solely on Trump to sink him and him alone, peeling off the So Indian vote comprising the 2nd-largest immigrant vote in the country after newbie Chinese, both groups arriving via airports---Mexicans etc arriving on foot across the southern border are actually THIRD in immigration numbers---giving her a source of votes IN THE MILLIONS Biden does not generate. Otherwise the majority of them, small businessfolk (chain motels), would vote Republican, a huge plus for her to draw directly away from Trump, a HUGE pickup due to her ethnicity alone, rarely ever brought up by Big Dumb Media as voters she more than he attracts---then, Yeah, switch lead horses ASAP, as soon as possible before the Dem Convention Aug 19 when doing so after would be impossible. But if, WITH doing so along with unions spending tens of millions in northern swing states due to Biden, which must not be lost when a Harris-topping ticket may not generate THOSE votes away from Trump, then HELL YES keep the ticket as assembled, adding the total of their individual strengths to crush Trump. Then things look to me markedly better than splitting the ticket and leaving her on top with a newbie veep unknown as to the voters that person attracts. THAT is methinks what We should consider in this discussion, NOT that Biden's age is irrevocably losing him the youth vote SHE has a trusted "In" with doing the colleges as she has across the country since Dobbs. And that totality ALONE decides for me, and Us, whether to dump the old dude or not, inasmuch as a return of the irretrievably feeble Joe after the election can be Fixed Immediately by the 25th Amendment---in which case, Fine, leave the ticket alone and GET TO IT, both of em, on the campaign trail pronto and BEAT the fuck OUT OF TRUMP ASAP. Problem there is, while she IS out doing college crowds right now, and Biden is wallowing in the WH accomplishing nothing, then shut further discussion on his age down and GET HIM OUT THERE TOO.
And THAT is ALL that matters: If the combination of the 2 out in the thickets removes Trump's threat of Dictatorshit then the immediate issue IS RESOLVED. NO FURTHER DISCUSSION IS NECESSARY. It's up to good, solid polling to prove or disprove Biden's liabilities between now and Nov 5, NOT whether he can govern till he's 86, which is resolvable by the 25th Amendment Solution, if necessary, once we beat the fascist fuck scaring the shit out of the majority of Americans, Now.
The good news is, other than that Biden is supposedly irretrievably sinking in multiple new states in play, the revealing fact remains Trump HAS NOT BEEN RISING in those polls either, that he has hit his ceiling amid the controversy of Biden's Age, and seemingly HAS NOT personally BEEN BENEFITTING FROM IT, revealing HIS limitations as eminently beatable beyond his control.
She's black, woman, and Indian so those "demographics" are automatically going to vote for her?! Non-white men aren't demographics, they're people.
A "two party system", moreover one consisting of the two same parties since 1876, is the empirical evidence for a definition of an *undemocratic* political regime.
Is it any wonder then that the internal lives of both parties has never been democratic, and never will be so long as the *regime* is not changed, a change that will flush both parties down the toilet bowl of history?
Regime change, however, is only contemplated by the Right, not the Left or the trade union movement. No wonder only the Right is presented as the "party of ideas"!
Where is the Democrat's Project 2025, their comprehensive policy agenda for the next 4 years? Oh, that's right, I didn't think of that, they have none! For the Party tops know that if they had one, their big money - read capitalist - donor stream would be shut down. That's why.
Though there is no harm in tossing stuff out there in an ad hoc manner, such as Federal rent control, or BBB, of the Pro Act, safe in the knowledge that these will *never* pass the beating undemocratic heart of an undemocratic political system, the US Senate.
So it is time for the Left to start thinking out of the regime box. And if anyone on the Left comes back at this, as they usually do, by saying "Well, smartass, what's YOUR plan?", let it be known that the immediate response will be, "No, what's YOUR plan for regime change!".
You who represent the large majority of the Left, the majority of the Left that is in the Democratic Party, are the only ones that can develop an outside the box plan.
The (should be) obvious starting point can be indicated at this time. The Left needs to begin building, NOW, a pro-democracy movement for real regime change in the USA! That is the only direction forward.
The Left needs to begin, NOW, regardless of who wins in November 2024. In a special note, if the Democrats somehow squeak by, AGAIN, there can be no going back to political sleep, only to wake up to the same nightmare every 4 years. This must be a pro-democracy movement en permanence!
"Democracy is coming to the USA" prophesized Leonard Cohen. He understood the issue in his own way. Now is the time for us to at last come to the same understanding.