So the DNC National Convention is happening this week in Chicago, Illinois. Running from the 19th to the 22nd, it will feature all of the big to-do politicians, celebrities, and Youtube personalities in an attempt to convince people to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for President and Vice President, respectively, of the United States.
I have a bunch of liberal friends who are so hyped, and they have hope now that they didn’t have before when Joe Biden was the assumed nominee for a second term.
I don’t fault them for having that hope. The tone has totally changed from what felt like a funeral march into a deck party, and you can see it in how people are reacting. The Harris campaign using joy as a catch slogan.
It honestly seems pre-planned, but I watched Joe Biden stubbornly refuse to step down, and was eventually pushed off to the side with the help of a few calls from Obama, and Biden getting COVID once again. I do believe so many in the Democratic party are relieved.
What does irk me is this notion that Joe Biden was great, right up until he wasn’t. Then Kamala was great. The total switch in a moment is just so unnerving. The Republicans did this for Trump, and it’s something that can’t help but be compared to cultish behavior at times, because the current nominee is always the best option until they’re pushed out, and then [ insert name here ] is now the best hope for democracy.
The King is Dead, Long Live the King?
That’s what it feels like, and I’ve never been comfortable with that, because it’s like any warm body will do because people believe, deep down, that the system itself is in control, so that even if their person is grossly incompetent, they’re better than the alternative, which is wild when you step back and look at American policies, which show that red or blue, the only people who win are in the top 5% of the economic ladder. The rest continue to suffer, and the people outside the US are under the threat of bombs.
So is Kamala really better than Biden when it comes to policy? Meh, who knows? She has a history of good policy, and a history of oppressive policy, like many Democratic politicians. When she was Attorney General, her office hid evidence that would have exonerated people who ended up in jail, many of them black men.
Her policies expanded the private prison work system, and I’ve talked about it before how private prison labor is slave labor, because these people are given little choice, paid next to nothing, and are worked until they’re no longer useful, their prison sentences extended time and time again to the benefit of the corporations using them for that slave labor.
Her office sent a transgender woman to a men’s prison and denied her hormone therapy.
She sent the parents of poor kids to jail for truancy, despite those parents simply not having the money to send their kids to school.
The US is infatuated with law and order, both Democrats and Republicans hammering home the idea of law and order, of justice, calling for a “secure border,” and being “tough on crime.” What does that even mean? Well, for the GOP it means saying illegals are taking people’s jobs and paychecks while sending them back across the border and building a wall, while for the Democrats, it means saying immigrants just need help while sending them back across the border and building a wall.
Democratic and Republican foreign policy is similarly brutal, providing weapons and manpower to overturn legitimate governments that aren’t totally sympathetic to United States interests, or funding genocides because a nationstate is a US vassal (the genocide being carried out against Palestinians by Israel, for example).
Still, with all of this taking place, the media onslaught is all about joy, hope, and change, similar to what Obama promised back in 2008, and then proceeded to drone civilians, drop so many bombs that manufacturers almost ran out (26,000 in 2016 alone), lock immigrant children in cages, and supported the police assaulting peaceful protesters.
Oh, did Trump do that? Yes, he did that, too, though he was actually less active on drones, but those goddamn bombs never stopped dropping, did they? Why? Because these people push the interests of a system built upon slavery, violence, and oppression. That’s why it’s funny to me when people say violence solves nothing, because the system in which we live literally succeeds based on the amount of violence they inflict upon the rest of the world.
Again, though, I understand why so many of my liberal friends are so hopeful. Some of them believe Kamala Harris will honestly try to force Israel to stop the genocide of Palestinians, even though the Biden Harris administration is still supplying them with weapons and manpower to continue it.
It’s like telling a school shooter they should stop shooting children while also handing them magazine after magazine of armor piercing bullets. Your actions bely your words, and that is something that a lot of people notice, myself included.
Some people feel that it’s anti-Semitic to be so critical of Israel, but it has nothing at all to do with Semitism. Firstly, Palestinians are also Semites. So what is it? Anti-Jewish? A lot of Jewish organizations, including hundreds of Rabbis, are speaking out against the genocide in Palestine. That has to be ignored for the narrative to work, though.
Some people say that Hamas started it with their rockets, but if you actually know the history of Israel and Palestine, the story of how Gaza and the West Bank came to be, you realize awfully quick that anyone saying Hamas started it is lying or grossly uninformed.
No, Hamas is not innocent in all of this, but to lay the blame on them solely while Israel literally bombs schools, hospitals, and their snipers target 4 year old children is to be complicit in genocide. That may seem harsh, but it’s far less harsh than the reality for millions of Palestinians, many of whom are parents who have had to collect the remains of their children in plastic bags.
Do you understand, then, why I see this WWE style event being held by Democrats on the promise of hope and joy as something to be viewed with cynicism? Even with disgust at times? I hope you do, and if you don’t, I truly wish you did.
For those of you who say Donald Trump would be worse, I don’t know what to tell you, because if you think it can get worse than a Palestinian mother scraping what looks like the shredded beef remains of her children off of a car seat is somehow not as bad as it gets, you’re beyond my ability to help.
I despise Donald Trump, and will not vote for him.
That being said, I do not like or trust Kamala Harris, and will not be voting for her.
And while I think voting in a capitalist system held at ransom by a two party system is mostly ineffective, I will still vote my conscience, and choose Jill Stein. For those of you keeping tabs, yes, she’s Jewish.
If some of you want to say “but Russia,” I have no time for that ignorant nonsense. Chairman Mao once said “no investigation? No right to speak!” and that’s something I do believe we need more of, because too many people have formed their opinions based on vibes and inadequate study.
They skim headlines and form their entire political position based on it, because so many of us are so busy trying to just live, it’s much easier than having to absorb the entirety of the situation in order to suss out what is and isn’t true.
This doesn’t mean someone who studies something will always hold the correct position, but if it’s an informed position, they will work their way to the correct position. Not the *right* position, which is mostly vibes and popular opinion, but the correct position, the one that mirrors the facts at hand.
Well, I just wanted to get that off of my chest.
I sincerely hope you all have a lovely day.
.Red
