No left turns?
Peter Daou posts versions of this tweet on a fairly regular basis. I’m grateful to him for doing it because it reminds me that this (i.e. the USA) is a strange, strange place. I’m grateful to Peter for these reminders. They blow a blast of political oxygen over the coals of my cynicism. It keeps them from going cold. In November 2020 enough people voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to prevent the least suitable or qualified President the United States of America has ever had, from serving a second term. It’s important to remember that the choice wasn’t between two equivalent but politically different tickets. Donald Trump+whoever was, and will always be, a completely different kind of thing from Biden+Harris (or any other presidential ticket that is anywhere — and I mean anywhere — on the scale of political normality for that matter). But… sadly, yes, there’s a but… Peter’s not wrong and we have to face that.
We can be grateful that an appallingly incompetent, self-serving, and divisive executive branch was prevented from causing further damage, but still be disappointed with the lack of true political progress from the current administration; particularly with mid-terms approaching and the prospect that the Democrats might lose control of the House.
One of the things that concerns me is the apparent inability of the Democrats to conceive of moving any direction except further to the right. While this might (perhaps ?— I’m not even so sure of this) secure them votes with people my age (mid 50’s) and older, I know it makes them seem of questionable relevance to the younger voters I meet. Beyond demographically inevitable irrelevance, though, this rightward-facing permanent political neck crick, is just saddening. In politics in the USA now, who is left (pun/irony) to really care about the well being of the majority?
Certainly not the cultish excuse for a political party that the GOP has become, nor it seems the increasingly ineffectual alternative offered by the leadership of the Democrats. When it comes to faith in the church of free-market capitalism, I don’t think it makes a lot of difference whether its followers are sitting on the left side or the right side of the aisle — they’re all in the building together telling each other that there’s some kind of natural order to the idea that more shall be given to those who already have more than enough, and that there’s something deeply wrong with anyone who questions this self-evident truth.
As a non-voting alien resident I can see from the outside, that it must be a terrifying idea for Democrats to consider supporting candidates from the left of the party, or for third party outsiders with truly progressive ideas; splitting the vote allows abominations like the previous administration to happen, but this endless fear-driven acceptance of Republican-lite “Liberal” administrations is depressing. The slow path to tyranny, poverty, and loss of human rights seems to have no escape.
One of my favourite books is The Social Limits to Growth by the late Sir Fred Hirsch. It’s a critique of the failure of economic growth (as measured by standard indices such as GDP) to deliver social progress and contentment. One of the striking things about the book is that Hirsch didn’t pretend to know the answers to the problems he highlighted. In that vein, I have no idea how the US political system can escape the trajectory it’s locked into. One set of solutions might lie in initiatives like Peter’s directleft.com? Whether they do or not, I hope an answer comes before it’s too late.
