Category Archives: Political Rants

Political Rants

Empty room.

You may recall from last week that I skipped most of the Democratic National Convention. Well, I gave equal time to the Republicans, though the thing they were broadcasting this week didn’t even pretend to be a nominating convention in the true sense. That process took place during the day on Monday in North Carolina, where the RNC was originally going to happen. I believe it consisted of a vote to not have a party platform, to simply endorse Herr Trump in all his glory, then to nominate him formally before getting to the main event: Trump giving a rally speech, full of the usual wild claims, distortions, and outright lies. The man should have a laugh track.

What was billed as the RNC is a long infomercial to white aggrievement that kicked off with Charlie Kirk from Turning Point USA calling Trump the “body guard of Western Civilization” – i.e. white people. It always amazes me to watch these grifters attack the Democratic party from the left on trade, as it Trump represents any departure from globalized neoliberal capitalism. Of course, as soon as they’re done decrying outsourcing, they start in on socialism, communism, Marxism, whatever they’re calling it at any given time. Kind of a contradiction for those of you keeping score at home, but that won’t slow them down. If Republican conventions are mostly about owning the libs with nasty quips and jabs, they’re having a great week.

Many of the speakers – both pre-recorded and live – are speaking in a large, ornate, empty hall in Washington D.C. Watching them talk as if the Coronavirus has subsided, I thought of all those who have died as a result of Trump’s historic incompetence, and pictured their spirits populating those empty seats, bearing witness to this pathetic spectacle. Of course, so many things in the actual world seem to evade their notice. Police brutality, global warming, wealth inequality, exploitation of labor, etc., etc. … none of it made its way into the various remarks. Pence articulated a vision of law and order, channeling his Nixonian forebears, in hopes that they might repeat the 37th president’s landslide re-elect. That seems a tall order, though they still might squeak by.

Lord know … if we had a decent opposition party, this race would be over by now.

luv u,

jp

Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.
Political Rants

The loudest voice.

I haven’t been watching the Democratic National Convention in its entirety, just pieces here and there. It’s no surprise that this thing is unlike any political convention we’ve ever seen before. What’s kind of astonishing is the degree to which it looks like a long political ad, with some variations in production values. A lot of it is just a crap show, putting a spotlight on some never-Trump Republicans and various center-right figures. I keep expecting some kind of technicolor tribute to Ronald Reagan, or a cameo by George W. Bush. Stuff like that makes it a bit more like drinking urine than it should be, but then I am a leftist, which means I’m just supposed to suck it up and offer my unqualified support. Still, being asked to sit through Colin Powell is a bit beyond ridiculous, in my humble opinion.

I have talked about this on my podcast, Strange Sound, so I won’t go into great detail, but my decision to vote for the Democratic presidential ticket is rooted in the notion of harm reduction, some of the contours of which have been highlighted throughout the virtual DNC. The fate of undocumented immigrants, the so-called “dreamers”, as well as refugees from both state sponsored or tolerated violence and economic hardship, hangs in the balance – a second Trump term would spell disaster for them, and very likely for so-called legal immigrants as well. It would not surprise me to see a second-term Trump move to strip legal residents of their rights, then perhaps naturalized citizens, particularly if they are members of the communities he most despises. (I can picture an Ilhan Omar-focused executive action revoking citizenship from those who escaped Trump-dubbed “shit hole” countries.)

Then there are those who depend on their health insurance … like just about everybody at some point in their lives. A second Trump term would mean a death sentence for many of those people. Hell, the first Trump term was enough to dispatch more than 170,000 unnecessarily. Single-payer advocate Ady Barkan made this case quite eloquently at the DNC in one of the better speeches. For as little effort as is involved in casting a ballot, it seems to me that we should listen to the voices of people on the edge of disaster, for whom four more years of this might amount to a death sentence. As I said on Strange Sound, we don’t need to invest in the new administration – quite the opposite. We need to be ready to push them from day one. And they will need to be pushed. The lobbyists always have the loudest voice, but we have the numbers. We can flip the tables of the moneylenders if we all do it together, but we need to have an administration that will respond to pressure. Trump won’t. Biden will.

That’s my two cents. What’s yours? Leave a comment or a question. Excoriate me. Shake your cyber fist! Always glad to hear from you.

luv u,

jp

Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.
Political Rants

Unconventional.

I suppose you heard the big news this week. Excited? Well, you should be. It’s a tremendous accomplishment for a woman of color in this deeply racist nation. Tuesday’s big news practically guarantees another two years of Ihan Omar in the United States House of Representatives. Woo-hoo!

Oh, right … and Biden picked Kamala Harris. Thought as much. Frankly, that could have gone a lot worse. We were hovering very close to Klobuchar territory before the murder of George Floyd, and then it was all over. I’m terrible at predicting things like VP picks, but this one seemed pretty obvious – Biden needed somebody youngish with some star power, experience, and grit. He obviously feels no need to give a nod to the left, and that’s no surprise either. My biggest complaint about her is that she let Mnuchin off the hook over his foreclosure mill in California and that her criminal justice record is not the kind of progressive counterbalance you would hope for in a Biden-topped ticket.

Their announcement event was kind of dismal, largely owing to the fact that COVID is still running wild. I just wish the Biden Campaign would hire someone who can compose a shot. The two-shot as Harris spoke was just weird – Biden in profile, giving that SOTU squint of his, which from the side doesn’t look all that great. I’m not sure I heard anything encouraging in the torrent of platitudes, but be that as it may, I hope to hell they get over the finish line this fall. The Democratic Party is positively expert at shooting itself in the foot, and they may not know it, but they’re taking a big chance on Biden this year. The notion that Harris is going to help light a fire under the activist base is a bit of a stretch, but hopefully there’s something to it.

As we approach the non-Convention, scheduled for next week, there are some worrying signs. First, some progressive grassroots media outlets, like The Young Turks, have been denied press passes …. to a virtual event, for crying out loud. Even worse, anti-choice Bush administration alumnus and former Ohio governor John Kasich, last seen attempting to school yeshiva scholars on the Old Testament, has a major speaking role at the convention …. whereas Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), leading voice of the progressive left in the party, is being allowed … wait for it … sixty seconds to speak. This tells you all you need to know about their electoral strategy. They appear to be listening more to the partisan flacks on DNC-friendly media than to the masses of people their party depends on for any chance of victory this fall.

What the fuck. We’ve been to this dance before, and it didn’t turn out well. The so-called centrists in the Democratic party need to get their heads out of their 1990s asses and get a clear look at who their constituencies are. And they need to do it fast.

luv u,

jp

Check out our political opinion podcast, Strange Sound.