leaving ethical and political philosophy aside, ditching Tim Waltz as running mate for Liz Cheney, who disowned her own sister for the simple fact of her being gay (according to writer’s of the movie Vice at least) something even her monster father hadn’t even done, and never disavow her father’s legacy, indeed Liz embraced it was pretty telling. I can only assume internal polling suggested that the “popularism left” message* wasn’t cutting through for Tim.
but even more suspect and ugly was Harris relentlessly platforming retired US Pentagon officials denouncing Trump as an unacceptable risk. I don’t know the personal positions these military leaders on USA invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan or pressuring Ukraine and Europe to isolate Russia or their positions on South China Seas, but the general position of the USA military establishment has been hawkish, so platforming these men on stage at rallies standing besides Harris was a confusing image if she wanted to suggest she was about “filling our hearts with hope and joy”. i can’t see it motivating those Bernie Sanders supporters disillusioned of the DNC establishment/elite or the Purple State normals who just suffered the triple whammy of Biden’s Administration removing the covid safety net (many poor people saved for the first time in their lives with that in place), watching basics goods rise 50%+ in two years with no wage increases, employment security no better than pre-covid, and interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve lifting the costs of them servicing their mortgage and personal debt up many-fold.
the real-politic of this alignment with the military establishment in the context of Gaza and Ukraine/Russian war just played into Trumps narrative that the Democrats are inherently part of the Deep State and that somehow the Deep State (a term often used by people like Julian Assange when he was commenting geopolitical issues) is an Liberals only project, which is a remarkably stupid idea given the deep Republican voting habits of US service people and deep ties between high ranking servicemen and servicewomen and the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) and Republican networks. I’m not saying the MIC/Deep State network it’s a GOP-only thing either, i’m saying it’s both high ranking Democratic Party figures and Republican figures deeply entwined into the neoliberal/liberal geopolitics of power projection abroad.
* i don’t know why they call it the “popularism” in the USA when anybody talks class politics, as if a) US politics isn’t a “popularity contest for ugly people” as the very ugly ALP leader Mark Latham once called it and b) policy being popular with normal people as opposed to elites and highly educated people is inherently suspicious (for sure when it comes to racism, sexism, ablism, ageism, etc it can be suspicious but that doesn’t make all policy with popular support, think medicare for all, inherently flawed, as dozens of nations have it working well and much more affordable than USA Health.
I take it you've never run for office. The idea is to enlarge your base, and increase your vote total until you achieve lawsuit-proof numbers. You don't do this by making newcomers feel unwelcome. She has opened her arms without giving an inch on policy. She is a political genius and you apparently are not. That sounds more disapproving than I meant it to, but I'm leaving it there because we can't afford policy purists when we're trying to build ah historic coalition.
“without giving an inch on policy” — many have claimed that was one of her main problems. she was associate with the mistakes of Bidenomics, the Biden Austerity part according to those of us on the MMT/progressive side (see Https://www.crisesnotes.com/one-election-takeaway-voters-hate-temporary-safety-nets/) and the Bernie Sanders inheritance of the Green New Deal for those on the right (self-identifying as “centrists” in neoliberal USA) who claim Biden ruled like a “leftist” without any kind of left landslide majority to justify it. sadly the GND was rebadged as Build Back Better by some in the NGO world and that pulled the progressive teeth from the agenda. the end result was IRA which was the biggest raft of Climate Change mitigation and adaptation spending in US history (and massively overdue). Due to Democrats in Congress being what they are, it became the mixed bag of tax credits for corporations looking to deploy renewables, transmission lines, batteries, build EVs in USA, an over-generous honeypot for overhyped H₂-economy startups and release of federal lands for more fracking oil and fossil gas to get the FF-captured Democratic Congressmen/women on board.
Biden proudly states we spent so much more money in Blue states than Red states, but the IRA spending on infrastructure takes years if not decades to translate into better jobs, cheaper power prices, more affordable cost of living, and there’s many things that impact cost of living besides infrastructure so there is no guaranty it ever pays political dividends for Democrats whatever Biden likes to say about the long game and his eternal optimism. Their are powerful neoliberal forces at work in USA and it has always been thus, if Biden or anyone in DNC wants to legitimately claim they are for the regular folks not the elites, they need to rinse their minds of the 🐄🐂💩 of neoclassical economic myths and actively disavow the disease of neoliberalism that has captured US politics since the Reaganomics era on both sides of the aisle. Bill Clinton’s evil genius was to the shift the Democratic Party platform (irreversibly it would seem, since there’s been nothing as progressive as the Glass-Stegall’s Act put forward since Clinton repealed it) to his predecessor Bush’s positions on economics, in a not so smart move that forced Republicans into the long-waiting arms of the far right evangelicals and rentiers like the Koch Brothers (see doco The Family).
admittedly the Biden’s intransigence on not vacating the white House (which he promised to do when he ran the first time as a once only candidate due to his age) gave Harris no time to run a campaign that could have distanced herself from Biden Administration in any way, so she basically had to stand by his decisions. she claimed i;one interview “i wouldn’t have changed a thing” played terribly to the Jill Stein voters who outpolled some Democratic candidates in a couple of states, and played terribly to low-wage swing voters who weren’t benefiting from the stock market recovery the way rentiers and elites have.
so eschewing the progressive movement against US Middle East policy (disgusted by US involvement — including the funding, strategic oversight and active air support — in the Gaza Genocide and 50 years of Israeli history of ethnic cleansing inside their national borders) and eschewing the billionaire tech-bro class and the large ranks of their Trump political disciples (a historic coalition across racial and class boundaries it has to be said given Trumps toxicity on race and privilege) left a very emancipated “centre” from which Harris was to empower her “historical coalition”. so big was the fail that she lost 11 million votes that Biden won in 2020. I’m not sure if you consider biden’s win a “historic coalition” but either way Harris did nothing in terms of a new coalition of policy ideas that advanced upon or pivoted away from Biden. Brilliant or not.
with the benefit of hindsight, the two tier economic performance in USA in the covid recovery period meant Harris was never going to win in my opinion. i didn’t realise prior to the election just how bad the polling was saying it was going to be a close run election for POTUS and Congress. Noting they said same about Hilary Clinton election. When economic conditions for wage earners is as bad as it was (largely due to the Covid recovery, while better than many countries, was happening at the Finance end of the economy and it remained to be seen that it would flow through to wage earners who had the triple whammy of 50%+ inflation on basic cost of living goods and services, interest rate hikes from idiotic Fed on their debt, the removal of the covid year safety net introduced by Biden Administration (wisely introduced, unwisely rushed way) and lower employment security than ever before.
Thank you for the parallel. Looks like the neoliberal agenda is not Republican anymore. As you point out, Democrats are also in the same agenda. I'm from Brazil, and I have a question, is the US congress bipartisan by law? Can a third party, less aligned with neoliberalism, have seats in congress?
Excellent question... In theory, if a third party wins an election, they can have a seat in congress. However, there are many systemic issues that prevent third parties from getting there. The most obvious is ballot access. Democratic and republicans are automatically on the ballot. Third parties need to gather so many signatures to get on the ballot!.
Shining City or Divided Land?
Why Ronald Reagan Would Reject Trump’s GOP
https://substack.com/home/post/p-148586140?r=4d7sow&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
leaving ethical and political philosophy aside, ditching Tim Waltz as running mate for Liz Cheney, who disowned her own sister for the simple fact of her being gay (according to writer’s of the movie Vice at least) something even her monster father hadn’t even done, and never disavow her father’s legacy, indeed Liz embraced it was pretty telling. I can only assume internal polling suggested that the “popularism left” message* wasn’t cutting through for Tim.
but even more suspect and ugly was Harris relentlessly platforming retired US Pentagon officials denouncing Trump as an unacceptable risk. I don’t know the personal positions these military leaders on USA invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan or pressuring Ukraine and Europe to isolate Russia or their positions on South China Seas, but the general position of the USA military establishment has been hawkish, so platforming these men on stage at rallies standing besides Harris was a confusing image if she wanted to suggest she was about “filling our hearts with hope and joy”. i can’t see it motivating those Bernie Sanders supporters disillusioned of the DNC establishment/elite or the Purple State normals who just suffered the triple whammy of Biden’s Administration removing the covid safety net (many poor people saved for the first time in their lives with that in place), watching basics goods rise 50%+ in two years with no wage increases, employment security no better than pre-covid, and interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve lifting the costs of them servicing their mortgage and personal debt up many-fold.
the real-politic of this alignment with the military establishment in the context of Gaza and Ukraine/Russian war just played into Trumps narrative that the Democrats are inherently part of the Deep State and that somehow the Deep State (a term often used by people like Julian Assange when he was commenting geopolitical issues) is an Liberals only project, which is a remarkably stupid idea given the deep Republican voting habits of US service people and deep ties between high ranking servicemen and servicewomen and the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) and Republican networks. I’m not saying the MIC/Deep State network it’s a GOP-only thing either, i’m saying it’s both high ranking Democratic Party figures and Republican figures deeply entwined into the neoliberal/liberal geopolitics of power projection abroad.
* i don’t know why they call it the “popularism” in the USA when anybody talks class politics, as if a) US politics isn’t a “popularity contest for ugly people” as the very ugly ALP leader Mark Latham once called it and b) policy being popular with normal people as opposed to elites and highly educated people is inherently suspicious (for sure when it comes to racism, sexism, ablism, ageism, etc it can be suspicious but that doesn’t make all policy with popular support, think medicare for all, inherently flawed, as dozens of nations have it working well and much more affordable than USA Health.
I take it you've never run for office. The idea is to enlarge your base, and increase your vote total until you achieve lawsuit-proof numbers. You don't do this by making newcomers feel unwelcome. She has opened her arms without giving an inch on policy. She is a political genius and you apparently are not. That sounds more disapproving than I meant it to, but I'm leaving it there because we can't afford policy purists when we're trying to build ah historic coalition.
“without giving an inch on policy” — many have claimed that was one of her main problems. she was associate with the mistakes of Bidenomics, the Biden Austerity part according to those of us on the MMT/progressive side (see Https://www.crisesnotes.com/one-election-takeaway-voters-hate-temporary-safety-nets/) and the Bernie Sanders inheritance of the Green New Deal for those on the right (self-identifying as “centrists” in neoliberal USA) who claim Biden ruled like a “leftist” without any kind of left landslide majority to justify it. sadly the GND was rebadged as Build Back Better by some in the NGO world and that pulled the progressive teeth from the agenda. the end result was IRA which was the biggest raft of Climate Change mitigation and adaptation spending in US history (and massively overdue). Due to Democrats in Congress being what they are, it became the mixed bag of tax credits for corporations looking to deploy renewables, transmission lines, batteries, build EVs in USA, an over-generous honeypot for overhyped H₂-economy startups and release of federal lands for more fracking oil and fossil gas to get the FF-captured Democratic Congressmen/women on board.
Biden proudly states we spent so much more money in Blue states than Red states, but the IRA spending on infrastructure takes years if not decades to translate into better jobs, cheaper power prices, more affordable cost of living, and there’s many things that impact cost of living besides infrastructure so there is no guaranty it ever pays political dividends for Democrats whatever Biden likes to say about the long game and his eternal optimism. Their are powerful neoliberal forces at work in USA and it has always been thus, if Biden or anyone in DNC wants to legitimately claim they are for the regular folks not the elites, they need to rinse their minds of the 🐄🐂💩 of neoclassical economic myths and actively disavow the disease of neoliberalism that has captured US politics since the Reaganomics era on both sides of the aisle. Bill Clinton’s evil genius was to the shift the Democratic Party platform (irreversibly it would seem, since there’s been nothing as progressive as the Glass-Stegall’s Act put forward since Clinton repealed it) to his predecessor Bush’s positions on economics, in a not so smart move that forced Republicans into the long-waiting arms of the far right evangelicals and rentiers like the Koch Brothers (see doco The Family).
admittedly the Biden’s intransigence on not vacating the white House (which he promised to do when he ran the first time as a once only candidate due to his age) gave Harris no time to run a campaign that could have distanced herself from Biden Administration in any way, so she basically had to stand by his decisions. she claimed i;one interview “i wouldn’t have changed a thing” played terribly to the Jill Stein voters who outpolled some Democratic candidates in a couple of states, and played terribly to low-wage swing voters who weren’t benefiting from the stock market recovery the way rentiers and elites have.
so eschewing the progressive movement against US Middle East policy (disgusted by US involvement — including the funding, strategic oversight and active air support — in the Gaza Genocide and 50 years of Israeli history of ethnic cleansing inside their national borders) and eschewing the billionaire tech-bro class and the large ranks of their Trump political disciples (a historic coalition across racial and class boundaries it has to be said given Trumps toxicity on race and privilege) left a very emancipated “centre” from which Harris was to empower her “historical coalition”. so big was the fail that she lost 11 million votes that Biden won in 2020. I’m not sure if you consider biden’s win a “historic coalition” but either way Harris did nothing in terms of a new coalition of policy ideas that advanced upon or pivoted away from Biden. Brilliant or not.
with the benefit of hindsight, the two tier economic performance in USA in the covid recovery period meant Harris was never going to win in my opinion. i didn’t realise prior to the election just how bad the polling was saying it was going to be a close run election for POTUS and Congress. Noting they said same about Hilary Clinton election. When economic conditions for wage earners is as bad as it was (largely due to the Covid recovery, while better than many countries, was happening at the Finance end of the economy and it remained to be seen that it would flow through to wage earners who had the triple whammy of 50%+ inflation on basic cost of living goods and services, interest rate hikes from idiotic Fed on their debt, the removal of the covid year safety net introduced by Biden Administration (wisely introduced, unwisely rushed way) and lower employment security than ever before.
CONFIRMED: Lee Harvey Oswald was a CIA operative (and - was sent to Russia for spying)
RFK Jr. Links the Attempts on Trump’s Life to JFK’s Death
https://rumble.com/v5fb7ak-rfk-jr.-links-the-attempts-on-trumps-life-to-jfks-death.html
Thank you for the parallel. Looks like the neoliberal agenda is not Republican anymore. As you point out, Democrats are also in the same agenda. I'm from Brazil, and I have a question, is the US congress bipartisan by law? Can a third party, less aligned with neoliberalism, have seats in congress?
Excellent question... In theory, if a third party wins an election, they can have a seat in congress. However, there are many systemic issues that prevent third parties from getting there. The most obvious is ballot access. Democratic and republicans are automatically on the ballot. Third parties need to gather so many signatures to get on the ballot!.