May the Best Man Win
We base our entire politics on the idea that we're living in a meritocracy. In other words, like the knights of old at a joust, we find out who is best through competition, a competition assumed to be both fair and honest. In the old days, the joust was assumed to be fair and honest because God was both omnipotent and just and therefore, obviously, would not allow a bad man to win. Nowadays, even most of us who believe in God don't believe that God controls the outcome of competitions in that way. Yet the assumption of a fair and honest competition persists, despite blatant evidence to the contrary.
In the case of U.S. elections, it is assumed, not that the will of God controls the outcome of competitions, but that the will of the people does. Voter suppression and election fraud are hand-waved away on the dubious grounds that any candidate strong enough could overcome such things. Or maybe the people are to blame. The supporters of the defeated candidate must not have worked hard enough, or maybe the people generally are to blame for not voting in large enough numbers. Those who challenge any of these assumptions are defeated, either by institutional inertia or by gaslighting.
Nothing happens, so nothing happened
Here's what I mean by institutional inertia.
In 2000, there was ample evidence that George W. Bush had committed fraud in the presidential election, with the help of his brother, the governor of Florida. In 2004, there was ample evidence that George W. Bush had committed fraud once again, famously in Ohio, and less famously in Florida for a second time. However, in the first case, Gore stopped fighting after an obviously partisan and corrupt Supreme Court decision, and not a single member of the U.S. Senate was willing to help the Congressional Black Caucus challenge the election. In the second case, Kerry refused to challenge the election in Congress, and the legal case he brought about election fraud, after the fact, did not even make it to the Supreme Court.
In 2016, when New Yorkers brought a case that there had been election fraud and voter suppression in the Democratic primaries, the case was thrown out on the grounds that each county in New York had to file such cases separately, and, by then, the election would be over. Pleas to delay the vote count, or to delay declaring a winner, until the voting rights of the people could be secured, were brushed aside. Much later, when a civil lawsuit was brought against the DNC, the case was once again thrown out for lack of standing, but not before the DNC lawyers had defended their client on the grounds that the DNC didn't have to provide a fair competition, or any competition at all, really, and certainly didn't have to care what the people thought.
The effect of this institutional inertia is not simply that cheaters win the day, or that the people, whose will is being suppressed, lose morale and give up. The complaint itself begins to fade from people's minds. People begin to make excuses for what happened, to justify it, to act as if there never were cheating to begin with. Even many of those who dissent find that, over time, the injustice they remember mellows: no less a person than Jimmy Dore, hardly a weak-minded hack for the establishment, talks now about Gore's "loss" in 2000 as an evil caused by the electoral college. While the electoral college is obviously a tool for elites to control American politics (and never has that been so obvious as over the past two election cycles), such a narrative ignores and erases the police checkpoints that were set up in 2000 near predominantly African American polling places in Leon county, Florida. It ignores the Republican Speaker of the House, Tom DeLay, sending Republican staffers to Dade County to break up Miami's vote count by marching into the Supervisor of Elections office and screaming at the top of their lungs so that no accurate count could take place. It ignores and erases the digital Jim Crow that purged the voter lists of African American Democrats by claiming, falsely, that they were felons. It ignores the fact that emails between the State of Florida and the company that created the Jim Crow software revealed that the company had warned that their software would draw too many false positives, and that the State of Florida had replied "That's just what we want."
Similarly, the DNC's perfidy in 2016 has been reduced to the following: 1) that they had pre-selected their candidate, and didn't provide a real or fair competition, 2) that they gave debate questions ahead of time to Hillary Clinton, 3)that they used the electoral college, most particularly superdelegates, to overwhelm the Sanders movement, and that 4) the party primaries were often closed, not allowing independents the right to vote. Left out, or forgotten, are the multiple polling places closed in states from Arizona to New York (in New York, sometimes even the open polling places had no staff or broken machines), the media calling California for Clinton before the votes were counted, the 136,000 voters purged off Brooklyn's voter rolls (no doubt because Bernie Sanders was born and grew up in Brooklyn and that might have given him an advantage there), and the much larger multi-state purge of the Democratic party through changing people's voter registration without their knowledge and consent.
I'm not bringing this up to attack Jimmy Dore, who is one of the most reliable truth-tellers in the media today, but rather to point out what people's minds do under the stress of watching the establishment normalize corruption again and again. If there is no power to challenge institutional corruption, most people, over time, make of the corruption something less unjust and outrageous. Simply smothering objections to injustice with institutional inertia, will, over time, allow the victors to erase the evidence of their crime.
Sore Loserman
Since we believe, with the faith of fanatics, that competition must be honest and fair, it's easy to gaslight the losers (or the apparent losers). The Republicans in 2000 did not need to disprove the fact that George W. Bush had committed fraud and contravened the will of the people when he climbed up a staircase of disenfranchised Black faces to become President. All the Republicans needed to do was issue tens of thousands of bumper stickers that replaced the words "Gore/Lieberman" with "Sore Loserman." The RNC was using the same argument that was bruited about in the 1980s about poverty and employment. Unemployed poor people had lost the economic competition. Therefore, there must be something wrong with them. Maybe they weren't educated enough, smart enough, clean enough, hard-working enough; maybe they were people of bad character. Bloomberg's racial profiling worked much the same way. Black people are losers in the judicial game because they commit more crimes. That's why we put more police in their neighborhoods, because there are more criminals among young Black men than anywhere else. Corruption can't bring down a meritorious man. If you're good, you'll win. If you complain about cheating or any other form of injustice, you must be a Sore Loserman, attempting to cover up your own inadequacies by whining.
It's pretty obvious that this way of thinking makes it literally impossible to stop even the most outrageous injustice, as long as the perpetrators of that injustice have enough power to spread their "Sore Loser" messaging far and wide. So if I commit identity theft today and access one of your bank accounts, I can be brought to account. But if Wall St cheats homeowners, there was probably something wrong with the homeowners, or with the government for suggesting that those homeowners should get loans. If George W. Bush cheats in an election, there was probably something wrong with the other candidate, or with the voters.
People tend to get upset when I bring this up, because they think that talking about the corruption of the system will demoralize voters, making such discussions their own form of voter suppression. But I bring this up because the worst damage that can come out of Bernie Sanders losing contests in a highly compromised electoral process is that the idea of meritocracy be preserved. There are valid reasons for voting even in a corrupted system (of the "make 'em sweat" variety). There are valid reasons for not voting in a corrupted system. But whatever a citizen chooses to do on Election Day, the idea of meritocracy must die.
Despite all the truly horrendous policies, from both the Democrats and the Republicans, that have laid our society, our people, and the world to waste, the most poisonous effect of the tyranny we live under is its fraudulence: its pretense of being a fair, accurate, and reasonable expression of the will of the people. Even the Democrats' attacks on Trump, who is supposed to be a Manchurian candidate placed in office by Russian intelligence operatives and an existential threat to our democracy, have, in the past two years, increasingly focused on the people who support Trump. It's the voters fault for supporting the bad man. So even when we are supposedly in a situation of foreign powers changing the outcome of a presidential election, it's still the people's fault. Why? Well, there was a competition, and somebody won, so the person who won must be there by the will of the people. It has to be the people's fault.
Corruption among the powerful isn't a thing.
System-wide corruption in all the various infrastructures of our country, especially the political ones, isn't a thing.
Or, if it is, you just didn't do enough lifting at the political gym to be able to fend it off.
Comments
I have to run out pretty much immediately
but I'll be back later. Looking forward to your comments. And I've got more to say about this, probably in more essays today.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Well put, thanks
The temptation to become overwhelmed is somewhat tempered
by enlightening exposes such as this. Yes we know the system is
broken and corrupt. The voice of the people, the will of the working
class and societal needs have little representation in the halls of power.
This needs to change. It may be a revolutionary idea
and/or just common sense. Don't give up the good fight.
question everything
Bloomberg just endorsed Biden
so now it's a three way race.
Got what he really wanted
He figures its "Mission Accomplished" as his goal was to deliver at least a brokered convention if an outright DINO win.p
Warren is now "assessing" her path forward
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/elizabeth-warren-assessing-her-path-for...
looks like warren is out too
-- from politico https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/04/warren-considers-ending-campaig...
Elizabeth Warren’s campaign manager Roger Lau sent a frank email to staffers this morning saying the campaign missed its goals on Super Tuesday and that the "decision is in her hands" about what to next.“
Last night, we fell well short of viability goals and projections, and we are disappointed in the results,” Lau wrote in an email obtained by POLITICO, adding that “we are obviously disappointed."
unlikely fo a campaign manager to make the statement without the candidate withdrawing.
Hard to see how she
has any other choice. Continuing on, with no obvious good states for her upcoming, just postpones the inevitable and further diminishes her political status.
I just wonder if she would get a VP offer from Biden or Bernie in exchange for the endorsement.
I think she may hurt Bernie more by staying in
She can attack him from "the left" if she's on the debate stage.
I've always thought she's in cahoots with Biden.
We'll see soon.
She already hurt Bernie
by not dropping out and endorsing him b/f ST, after poor showing in the first 3 contests made it clear she had no substantial and broad enough base.
My sense this morning is that Bernie might need her to get the nomination, and Biden might need her as VP to win the election.
I think Warren as VP will hurt Bernie
He needs a WOC as VP. I like Barbara Lee, but that's me. Maybe Stacey Adams for the south, but can any Dem win the south vs Trump? I don't think so.
I think Biden needs a WOC as VP, too.
Here's a total freakout idea. What if Bernie drops out and endorses Warren?
Watta day.
No, I was thinking
about Bernie offering to Warren more in regard to the immediate goal of winning the nomination, not the general.
Of course, he could always make it a VP or at least Sec'y of Treasury type offer, TBD later.
I'm just thinking he needs to get some of her backers in his camp now in order to stem the party establishment tide running strongly against him. And for the GE she could help keep the establishment forces on board.
Warren holds the fate of the planet in her hands
She's gonna cut a deal with Bernie or Biden.
I'm still hoping there's a smidgeon of decency in her, that she's not the shallow opportunist I think in my gut that she is....
Trust me
Warren has shown her true colors.
She is all about distancing herself
from the scary socialist. However the
dem-establishment can use her she will respond
like an uptight poodle on a short leash.
question everything
Each day that she
delays and ponders, she loses leverage. Similarly each day that Bernie fails to get some establishment type backing with major names endorsing, he loses the electability question, which apparently matters a lot to voters this cycle (for understandable reasons).
Btw, can anyone here tell me why it is that Bernie is losing to a guy, especially among the over-50 group, who has consistently advocated for cuts to SS/Medicare? That's just crazy. About as bad as Hillary losing to a reality tv show host.
Imo, Bernie should be leading his critique with an assault against Joe on that issue, not Iraq, which I see as a bit of a dead horse by now, having lost most of its political punch. And he shouldn't dance around it by saying "some candidates" -- it's getting rather late to be cutesy.
Perhaps
Not just "a guy" but an old guy that seems to get lost on occasion. That makes it doubly odd if as I suspect many Sanders 2016 supporters/voters were reluctant to back him this time because of his age.
Anyway, it's more difficult for older people to take in information that conflicts with their preexisting mental frames: Biden=Obama=Good. Plus, for forty years they've lived with Democrats telling them that Republicans will take away their Social Security and that hasn't happened; so, they've developed a level of immunity to that pitch.
New from Sanders:
To get through to the olds, his campaign has to repeat this so often and frequently that the youngs will get very tired of seeing/hearing this.
Bernie needed
to do a better job of re-framing that frame and staying focused on that key issue, not Iraq. Constant repetition. It's better than just sitting back and tossing in the towel b/c older voters' views are somehow fixed in amber. Bernie needs to go all out and work to overcome obstacles, not conjure up insurmountable ones.
Stacey Adams ? the woman that joined Neera Tanden at CAP?
Very doubtful
I was just throwing a coupla names on the wall. No Dem is gonna win the south aside from maybe Florida or Texas. And those are big maybes. Bernie has stated that he will only choose a VP who is for M4A and is in ideological allignment with his politics.
I think you mean Stacy ABRAMS.
Putting a WOC on the ticket for either Bernie or Joe isn't a bad idea, but the point is not to win anything in the South but to help drive turnout among minority groups and shore up a ticket weakness. It would also avoid having a second Dem ticket in a row that is lily white.
Since Joe already has strong AA backing, there wouldn't seem to be an urgent need to put a black woman on the ticket. However, he could use help with another minority group. Putting a younger Latina in the #2 slot would better help prospects for the GE as it would improve D chances in AZ and TX.
The Dem Latina gov of NM, Michelle Lujan Grisham, is one possibility. Good lib creds, and she has politics in her DNA and personal experience, so she wouldn't need hand holding.
Bernie drops out?
You may as well swear Herr Drumpf in on that very day, and save our taxpayers a couple zillion dollars.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I wasn't promoting the idea
Just trying to think out of my own box.
She's sitting right now as the key player on the penultimate episode of Survivor. She holds the fate of the planet in her hands. Biden and Bernie know it. I actually watched MSNBC and CNN today and they seem to be scared shitless in anticipation.
I've always wanted Bernie
to select ...
Nina Turner as VP (With these hands = Govt + citizens (working together) = prosperity for all, transformational justice)
Warren at Treasury (Stock Exchange / Wall Street)
Tulsi as Sec. Def. or Sr. Nat. Security Adviser (Put Tulsi atop the MIC, to reign their ass in)
Professor William Black As Attorneys General
Stephanie Kelton as Chairwoman of the FED (The Queen of MMT!)
[video:https://youtu.be/IckwaUkr2Dc]
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
And now you understand
why they are against Bernie. You named only one establishment person - Warren. I wouldn't pick her, though. Her actions have proven she does not deserve consideration.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I hear ya
I'm not happy with her, but was thinking it might bring her people to Bernie's table. She did develop the CFPB, and she is very darn wonky about financial stuff. But, I hear ya and well, I don't have a good answer for you, lol. I reckon I still haven't processed her betrayal as much as I should.
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Now that Warren is dropping out
as much as I'm against it, she might be the best VP pick for Bernie. It might boost him over the top. Imagine her in a debate against Pense! Ya, baby.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Morning...
I'm still pissed about the 2000 election.
[video:https://youtu.be/tMlKmELIhgY]
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Along with this thinking-
The gang of would-be presidential candidates ran because each perceived that Biden was not the best person to run for the office or to govern. Having all dropped out, including Bloomberg, excepting Warren, as of today, they all have endorsed Biden, completely verifying our essayist's hypothesis that meritocracy is dead in politics. Nothing changed about Biden's sketchy past, e.g. war enabler, bigot and bank henchman, and his questionable competency to serve as president, but these politicians of great self-esteem are now instructing us to vote for a most flawed candidate.
If Biden gets the nomination, it will be a pyrrhic victory. Trump will eat him alive. Any of us could write the script to defeat Biden. Biden is Obama 2.0 lite, and no one likes Obama anymore except for the Dem party faithful. We saw the Dems do this over and over again in Massachusetts with Martha Coakley. Hey, how about Coakley as Biden's running mate?
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
I wonder if Joe
will be calling Liz today. A special offer perhaps in exchange for endorsement?
And will Bernie call her to ask for same? He badly needs a major name backing him at this stage, preferably someone with at least one foot in the establishment camp.
Joe "Pyrrhus of Epirus" Biden
..... grind his ass to powder, roll up a $20 bill, and snort it up his nose.
That too!
I've got a better idea! Let's run me against Trump! After all, I've got about as much chance of defeating Trump as Bye-Done does......
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
You have a better chance.
You can remember the Declaration of Independence, and Obama's name.
And I'm not sneering at Joe. My stomach twists every time I think of him on stage.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Holy sh1t! That’s it! That’s what has been swirling
around in my head trying to get out. We are being serially gaslighted one after the other like nesting dolls. The MSM paints on the features, deceptive features. And we are left to question our own recollection. I guess you don’t need a Memory Hole if you have a fog machine.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Very insightful
A lot to unpack, but what resonates is ultimately blame the voter. The meritocracy is almost Calvinist in it's dismissal of what used to be the FDR democrats. This is so much what that other place does, using all the same thinking you present. The ultimate conceit is the idea of party loyalty.
So it's Bernie v Biden from here on out
Well then the time has come for Bernie to take the gloves off.
How does this happen and Bernie not win?
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/04/every-super-tuesday-state-e...
A government plan for all instead of private insurance,
Support/Oppose:
VT: 73%/23%
ME: 69%/28%
TX: 63%/33%
MN: 62%/35%
CO: 57%/36%
CA: 57%/36%
NC: 55%/41%
OK: 53%/43%
TN: 52%/44%
AL: 51%/43%
VA: 52%/45%
MA: 50%/45%@CNN Exit Pollshttps://t.co/sjyDdhHNMa https://t.co/Xm0GheJTNj
— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) March 4, 2020
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Your essay appears to have this paragraph as its thesis:
If you are looking to modify this thesis, you might consider that it isn't always the case. Eventually, in some circumstances, people come around to challenge institutional injustice. Those of us who are conscious of what is going on will often become impatient for change to happen; this is a good thing. Impatience is sometimes like a chore to be accomplished during the day. MLK Jr. understood this:
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
I totally agree. I didn't mean that this psychological response
was unavoidable. Obviously, some of us have a higher resistance than others. I think, the less we expose ourselves to that radioactive poison pool we call the corporate press, the easier it is to have a better response. It's difficult, though, because we have to keep some tabs on what those bastards are saying.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I think the solution
to this problem is both simple and very hard. The patriotic citizens of this country have to be involved in governing every step of the way. Starting at the local level. This is a very big commitment of time and energy, I've been there. I don't see any alternative though. If we are not involved, we cede our power to someone else. What we have now is the result of letting that happen.
Everyone should be a precinct chair at least once. Everyone should go to their precinct chair meetings and/or local party meetings as often as possible. Everyone should know their local party officials and all their local elected officials. Everyone should know all their state elected officials from their districts all the way up to their Senator, Rep, as well as superdelegates. These people supposedly act in our behalf. It is our responsibility to know who they are and to interact with them when we can.
I know the studies that show our politicians don't give a hoot about us and only respond to the big donors. That's beside the point. The above is a rough framework that we have either in place, or as an example of something that we need to put in place. I'm sure there are some political science people out there helping the young people do this kind of work. I think we all have to do it though to try and reclaim what we have lost.
I'm not talking about only GOTV
As hard as that is, it's the easy part. I'm talking about a consistent and constant participation by all citizens in one way or another.
I know, pie in the sky. But if we don't do this I just don't see how we make it.
war on time and energy
Then the first step, without which your idea is completely unimplementable, is to end the current war on the time and energy of the sub-university working classes. While typical working-class adults are working multiple jobs and don't even have the resources left to rear their own children, political involvement is light years away. And it's these very people who need to be represented, and aren't.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
That's the goal ~
keeping people busy working so many jobs they cannot participate. They also keep the upper middle class busy with soccer, piano, etc. Don't pay attention - just concentrate on your lives. Get ahead of your neighbor because it is everyone for themselves. That's the mantra that the American people live under.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
And that seems to me like
one more reason to kill off M4A, living wage, etc. If people were not so rightly highly concerned about starving to death or having a catastrophic medical problem that essentially starves them to death if they choose to live, then that frees up an awful lot of time to start looking at just what this country is. It also nicely removes the impetus for racism, sexism, the need for scapegoating essentially - people not highly threatened with merely surviving are a lot less likely to need to blame anyone for their situation if they're secure in it. They also don't feel the need to hoard and save as much, or worry about stock markets - if you know you'll have a decent life without massive amounts of savings you don't feel the need to hoard. If you're not a psychopath, of course.
You're both spot on - too many are simply trying to survive here in the land of the free to pay much attention at all to what their government does. They are also extremely propagandized and have been since birth so the two conditions together help cement in the rule of oligarchs. And I think that's one more reason our owners will fight to the death to prevent those things from happening, the last thing they want is an educated populace who has time to think, or even to read or God forbid, question.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
So very smart, than.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
why, thank you! :-)
Why, thank you!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
It's not so impossible
. It can be done. Of course there is a whole range of availability in terms of how much time any individual can contribute and that is just fine. I was part of a group that made it really easy for people to sign up for a specific task, knock it out and leave. We had union people come in after work make some phone calls and then go home for the evening. We had tons of college students. We had nurses and doctors come in and do a bit. We had moms and dads bring their kids who did their homework or something while mom or dad did data entry for a while. We actually had a lot of fun, it was a community, occasionally we ate meals together, we went block walking together, we had PR and visibility events together. People made a little time in their lives for this. It was very impressive.
I do realize some have absolutely no spare time. We have to start somewhere though.
One suggestion might be
to make mandatory election day work at the polls. Pay minimum wage; no one exempt, even billionaires.
Also lower the voting age to 16, which could help make younger voters more involved in the electoral system and develop good citizenship/democracy habits. Even this cycle, young voters are not turning out as the Bernie camp has hoped.
when?
When and where did this happen?
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
On a couple of different occasions
We put together a similar system the second time around. You would think I would have learned the first time, but oh well.
We did this in 2008 for the Obama campaign and then again in 2012. We initially got our start with the Dean campaign and kept revising as we lost our candidates. It was a learning experience although in the final analysis it was an exercise in futility as we achieved nothing in terms of policy that helped us.
molto grazie! :-) /nt
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Excellent essay CStMS, thank you
I appreciate you taking the time to write about this. I agree so much with what you wrote. The impulse to “blame the people” for the outcomes of elections is so deeply ingrained into our heads, it’s almost impossible to root out. I read a comment on here not too long ago that said something to the effect that “the American people do not deserve healthcare” because we are so complacent about our government’s actions around the world. We keep electing this government, therefore we must be to blame for its actions. How could it be otherwise?
Your essay lays out the answer, clearly and wonderfully stated. I am sorry to see several people ignoring your point entirely and treating this like an open thread to focus on the election results. Ironic... and telling.
Thank you for the effort nonetheless. Your words strike home for me and gave me nutritious food for additional thought. Much appreciated.
Yep
This happens to frequently here. Someone writes a heartfelt essay and people come into them and don't even address what was written and post something totally off topic. I have been guilty of that and if I have something I think is important I will at least address the topic before I do.
Let's do better.
I will have something to say on this later after I digest the points of the essay. But his stands out.
I watched as Gore sat there looking bored as one person and another from the CBC came up and explained how people weren't able to vote for many reasons and I swear he had to styfle a yawn. Then Kerry promised to not fold like Gore did and yet he did just that.
So we will see what happens this time if it's obvious that they rigged it again. But it is not people's fault that voters are met with long lines and faulty machines. The process has been setup this way for many years and it seems to get worse the more that is on the line.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
You're welcome, CS
and it's good to see you.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Depressing
That is all I can say about how the Democratic party has run the primaries. We are so screwed and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it. The establishment simply does not care about the people. The arrogance of the Democratic party has been on full display this time around with their in your face cheating and voter suppression. Even if the Russians were "interfering" enough in 2016 to make a difference, which I seriously doubt, they could not have done as much damage to the integrity of our system of elections as the Democratic party has done.
I have avoided posting much this primary season because I have become too cynical to add anything of value to these posts. I know one thing, I have come to hate Elizabeth Warren almost as much as the Democratic party itself. I hope she is happy with selling her soul to potentially garner a spot on a losing ticket with a racist has-been who cannot even remember Obama's name, what state he is in or even the position he is running for, all of which have happened. Trump will have a field day with a Biden/Warren ticket.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Thank you, I absolutely agree.
n/t
Hell is empty and all the devils are here. William Shakespeare
not feeling too good myself
Chomp down
Same here, gg.
I'd have to figure a way to cause my computer to insert euphemisms in place of the flood of profanities which would ensue should I post my thoughts. I've bit my tongue so hard there's got to be a hole in it...
Deleted
n/t
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
For a start
Bernie could point out Biden's repeated calls for cuts to Social Security. He could also call out Biden for his spotty record on civil rights, which might help with African American voters in the South. Bernie plays too nice. Trump will use all of Biden's weaknesses if Biden is nominated.
bottom line:
"Nice guys always finish last."
-- A. Capone, quoting Diogenes of Sinope
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Actually it was Lippy Leo Durocher
when he was manager of the Brooklyn (those were the days) Dodgers. He was talking about the Dodgers' crosstown rivals, the Giants, and he said:
“Walker Cooper, Mize, Marshall, Kerr, Gordon, Thomson. Take a look at them. All nice guys. They’ll finish last. Nice guys. Finish last.” more at https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/173887.html
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Great observations and essay.
What you describe is probably why Russiagate spread so easily to so many people. Nothing happened in previous elections? Everything you describe never happened as you point out. The American electoral system was and is pristine and virginal. Until the Russians came and destroyed American democracy through social media themes, memes, and retweets. The American electoral system was never brutally corrupted by rigged votes, voter suppression on the scale of hundreds of thousands, deliberately miscounted votes, voter fraud, etc. Americans never did to each other anything as bad as what the Russians did to Americans.
Of course, for me never worked as I worked in primaries of a democratic machine dominated city. I tried to sorta warm people on other sites that while they were looking for Russians at the front door, the gop was coming in the bad door for some rather nasty election interference.
Of course what we are seeing now is democrats cheating other democrats. But that reality will never be acknowledged because, hey, it never happened before. Just unintentional mistakes like in Iowa (farm folk cheating--no way) or Brooklyn.
Do the gaslight just flicker? How could it?
It couldn’t have! I must be mad, mad I tell you!
Lather, rinse, repeat.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Here is an article
that offers another type of solution. I know it doesn't address the problem of cheating but it has the potential (admittedly hypothetical) of garnering larger numbers of voters thereby minimizing the effect of cheating.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/03/if-sanders-is-robbed-of-the-nomi...
Why didn't he think of that?
Perhaps because Bloomberg isn't as dumb as the Russiagaters in both parties.
I would tell normie democrats
Democrats needed to hire Putin as a consultant for a few million as unlike the democrats he knew how to win American elections.
Not sure the D party cares about winning
It's more about keeping the illusion of the 2 party
choice alive at this point. Evidence # 1:
pushing cadaver former vp with dementia
as the choicest figurehead.
They are not in it to win.
Old playbook.
The young and progressives need to go
to a new playground.
question everything
[Edit] I read their actions/reactions just the opposite--IOW,
all they care about "is" winning.
(referring to the DP Establishment--Schumer and Pelosi, especially)
Enough so, that if they believe that they have to put a doddering ol' man like Uncle Joe (I'll be kind, and not use the 'f' word, or fool) at the top of the ticket--they'll do so.
IOW, it is possible that they truly believe that only one of the centrist Dems can beat DT, especially, considering the power of the AA voting block (in the DP).
Sounds as though Bernie's campaign is beginning to change direction a bit. Probably due to the need to increase AA vote in the upcoming primaries.
He's now running ads with 'O' praising him--heard one on CNN earlier, today. Also, the Dem Leadership directed him to quit pointing a finger at the "Dem Party Establishment." So, he's begun to refer to "corporatists," and the "Political Establishment." Supposedly, his use of 'DP Establishment' was deemed to be detrimental to the goal of maintaining Party "unity" (by the PtB).
I could be wrong, but, I don't believe that he really needs Warren's endorsement. Partly, because many of her supporters were/are former FSC supporters, and, IMO, would likely go over to Biden. Obviously, those who are more progressive, would likely gravitate toward Bernie, on their own, when she drops out. Then, there's the fact that she's pretty unpredictable. IIRC, she didn't endorse a candidate until after the DP nomination last time. (could be wrong, but, that's how I remember it) If that is correct, I figure that Warren will try to avoid ticking off the DP Leadership and/or Bernie, and elect to quietly suspend her campaign--vowing to support the eventual DP nominee.
But, who really knows? In the end, I find it hard to believe that Biden will take the nomination. The man doesn't even "know where he is," half the time. I think that it's Bernie's race to lose.
Having said that, can't see him nominating Stacy Abrams for his VP, for instance. Think he'll nominate someone younger. Maybe, a POC, but, not necessarily. (IOW, think he'll put more emphasis on age, considering his recent health scare.)
Now, I wish it would be Tulsi!
Have a good one.
Post Script: Just heard Ari Melber say Bernie will be on with Rachel this evening. Think her show airs at 8:00 CST/9:00 EST.
[Edited/Corrected: 9:00 EST, not CST]
Mollie
“This above all: to thine own self be true
And it must follow, as the night the day
Thou canst not then be false to any man . . ."
~~William Shakespeare
“Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then, I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving.”
~~Author Unknown
“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.”
~~George Bernard Shaw
Irish Dramatist & Socialist (1856-1950)
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
On the essay topic,
I'm more inclined regarding yesterday's results to look to the voters for fault, even with a heavy hand played by the establishment. And I don't see the latter effort so much corrupt as SOP for political parties, although this time the thumb on the scales worked to a remarkable degree and not necessarily for the betterment of the party long term. In previous cycles, e.g. the GOP elite trying to stop Trump in their 2016 primaries, it didn't work at all.
Yes, there was voter suppression -- intentional by the GOP in TX, probably accidental in CA with the very long lines to vote in SoCal with new voting machines and yet another attempt at high-teching what should be a low-tech, pencil-and-paper voting process. But of the voters on Election Day who managed to cast a ballot, it was clear in most places which side they picked.
Yes too, there was information suppression and distortion in the several traditional cable and print outlets, which clearly favored Joe and despised Bernie. But this is the Information Age, and for all but the destitute, there is available this thing called the Internet. It's up to voters in a democracy to inform themselves; that is their responsibility to achieve good governance. Sadly, most are too lazy or not that interested to bother, and settle for what's fed to them on teevee.
In American elections, the best person and candidate with the most meritorious ideas doesn't always prevail. That isn't always because of a corrupted system. Politics often rewards the snakes because that's the nature of the messy beast.
Wasn't a thumb, it was a whole arse n/t
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Major difference
The GOP couldn't settle on a single horse to back. The appeal of the early entrants - Cruz and Paul - was too narrow and flopped outside that lane. Jeb appeared to be the conditional horse, but they were still waiting to see if Christie, Walker and Rubio could light some fires. Jeb flamed out by October and never had any fire in his belly anyway. From NH on it was lightweight Trump vs. lightweight Cruz and lightweight Rubio.
One lesson for all of us here is not to mock a candidate with decent poll numbers, not much money in the campaign war chest, and not much of a campaign operation if she/he is well connected with TPTB. To do more in the early days to expose the dreadfulness of such a candidate based on his/her record and more of the same won't do at all.
This comment encapsulates so clearly
how starkly different our filters are in regards to how each of us comprehends Super Tuesday's results.
Unfortunately, I will never be able to accurately capture how much I disagree with your depiction of events without crossing the line into derisive profanity.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Frankly I don't trust the results of any recent election
For the past 20+ years electronic voting machines and, more importantly, central tabulators have been kept intentionally vulnerable. There are several ways to make the voting system absolutely secure, but we never take those measures. That leads to the question of why the powers that be do not want a secure voting system. To me there is only one answer--that they want to have the ability to rig elections. Electronic touch screen voting systems make no sense if one's goal is a fair and efficient election. They are slow and easily rigged. There are problems with them every election. If you have paper ballots, voting goes much more quickly. If you have 20 little booths with curtains that can be pulled closed, 20 people can vote at a time and the expense per voter is trivial. Instead, lots of places have 3-4 touch screen voting machines so the throughput is slow and long lines develop. The only reason to have a slow and insecure system is to rig the system.
Parenthetically, although it is often forgotten, the Green Party and Libertarian Party paid to have a recount in the Presidential election in Ohio in 2004. I contributed to the Green Party to pay for the recount and was kept informed of the efforts. The short story is that the election officials in Ohio interfered with the recount in many ways, picking select precincts to recount instead of picking them at random. Technicians showed up to remove and replace "defective" hard drives from tabulators, etc. Clearly there was a coverup and if you honestly win an election, the last thing you want to do is to cover it up. You want to dispel any doubts about the outcome of the election. Of course, the msm completely ignored this.
Getting back, explicitly, to the subject of the essay, we collectively fall too easily into analyses that are reasonable but invalid because they are based on questionable results. I certainly do it. However, if we are going to make any progress through the electoral process, that process has to be fair and secure.
A crisp, clear presentation of a huge problem. I can't watch
Krystal and Saagar, even though they are wonderful, for that exact reason. I don't want to hear nuanced analysis of 'what went wrong' or 'what could Bernie have done better' when the voice inside my head is screaming "they fucking cheated, that's what went wrong".
What trigger event is needed for the election fraud to be exposed and stopped once and for all? We all know it is happening, but we feel powerless to do anything about it. The DNC is a goddamned organized crime network.
IMO the DNC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the RNC.
One is Punch, the other—Judy. It’s obvious which is which.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
It makes perfect sense. The most certain way to beat the
competition is take it over and sabotage it from the inside. The nefarious activities of the DNC is the kind of shit we used to attribute to right wing Republicans. Now the Democrat party has made that shit SOP.
Exactly right--
I now think the Clintons were right-wing moles whose job was to wreck the Democratic party from the inside. Not that they were saints before.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I said long ago at DailyKos
(before I left that site in disgust), that the formation of the Democratic Leadership Council, funded by Wall St. and the Kochs, was a stroke of genius. They have created two corporate, militarily aggressive parties, who campaign mainly on guns, gays and abortions (and now brown people--although the Dems never do anything for them). On top of that, can any party that repeatedly hires Bob Shrum and Donna Brazile as campaign managers really want to win?? It is easy to make the case that the goal of the leadership of the Democratic Party is to lose. And another thing!! When Obama won in 2008, he kicked Howard Dean out of the leadership of the DNC (where he had been fairly effective) and essentially disbanded Obama for America (which had been very effective) rather than transitioning it into an effective force for electing Democrats. These _____ (insert appropriate epithet, I have no adequate ones) want to lose.
I think you are spot on
The democrats don't want to hold both houses because if they did they wouldn't have the excuse of McConnell blocking those great progressive bills that the house passed. You know now when they don't have a chance in hell of being passed.
This is just another way they fool the masses.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I think Krystal and Saagar
are suppressing their shock and anger
for the purpose of reaching the uninformed electorate -- which they cannot reach unless they play it calm, cool, and rational. They need to look like MSM talking heads. You have to establish identification if you're to have any hope of persuasion (https://www.thoughtco.com/identification-rhetoric-term-1691142) and I'm sure they or their advisers know that.
About a week ago, Krystal's anger at Warren was barely contained, which somebody probably brought to her attention, so she soon explained how much she used to believe in Warren back in 2015 and how disappointed she had become.
Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl
Don't insult La Cosa Nostra like that!
"What did honest, hard-working Mafiosi ever do to you?"
-- Don Vito Corleone
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
As terrible as they are, I think LCN might be
the preferable organized crime network in this case.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
It really helps to tune in to more openly radical
commentators . They, at least, allow themselves to say what they think, which is closer to what we think. This has been a difficult 24 hrs for me too (could not sleep at all last night), so I've just started checking in on our alternative media. Michael Tracey is always a thoughtful listen. He shares our values and absolutely adores Tulsi but resents Bernie's capitulations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGidAAc88as
And then, for video, there's, Niko House (MCSC), Tim Black (TBTV), Jimmy Dore, Hard Lens Media, Kyle Kulinski, David Doel, Pushback (Grayzone), and others, but you get the idea.
Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl
Thanks for the other possible commentator suggestions. I was
definitely looking for some source last night who might share my frustration with the voter suppression and who-knows-what other shenanigans.
I understand your frustration
with Krystal and Saagar, but they are professional journalists and have to behave in a manner appropriate to their audience. We are consumers and not all of the audience thinks alike. I thought they were good today, considering.
Please don't be surprised this is happening. We knew it would. I've been saying it all along, even through my hope they wouldn't do it. Of course they're going to do it - they cannot tolerate change - their very lives depend on Bernie losing!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Thanks. Of course you are correct about Rising. Great show.
One cannot rip the illusion away
too fast sometimes. I have sort of learned that in just talking with friends. You have to play along, like elections do matter, or at least that you'll do your part, or you lose them. Bush v Gore should have shown everyone in this country what a rigged election looks like. Even back in my naïve Democrat days, I could not help but look at that and think set up. I think that's about the time I told my mother they were really the one party, the Money Party. She asked how I could be so cynical, I asked her how she couldn't be. Whenever I hear someone lament how things would have been different had Gore won I just shake my head because that is not true. But I of course kept voting Democrat anyway...
Republicans can get away with wars, tax cuts galore, open gutting of regulations or at least naked attempts. Democrats need to keep those things quieter but they do the same things. And of course they pander to ID politics, which I used to be completely sucked in by. I feel like they just take turns being "in power" and even when looking at POTUS, we can see how that alternates between the two parties. And that always turns out to the benefit of our owners. The Democrats exist as a safety valve, I have read that so many times and it's true, the illusion of choice.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
I had the same reaction.
It's possible Bernie has done some things wrong. Doesn't matter though. If he had done them right, he'd still be where he is.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Wow...we've got to "talk."
Share some war stories, because I see a pattern. More tomorrow (I'm wiped at the moment).
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
If you're suggesting that Americans have been brainwashed,
snookered, gaslit, psyoped by the mass media and all establishment commentators for decades now, I totally agree. It's so bad, so thick, that anyone who manages to get truth out to the American people is routinely suppressed, silenced or killed. For the oligarchic class, it's crucial that the American people do not see the truth. We must be kept uninformed, distracted, confused, and stupid. (Democracy, which the oligarchy hates, requires an educated, informed electorate.)
They work hard at stamping out truth-tellers. Honest journalists are marginalized or, if they get too "big," like Phil Donohue, Ed Shultz, Chris Hedges, openly fired from the MSM. If they reveal very uncomfortable truths about the operations of our ruling class, like Gary Webb, Michael Hastings, and Julian Assange, they are eliminated. The alternative journalists most of us follow are facing nonstop social media interference and suppression. We should support them; they're heroes. Honest politicians are hindered (Bernie & Tulsi), marginalized and silenced (Tulsi, Jill Stein), or killed (JFK, Bobby Kennedy, Wellstone).
All of the above are the easiest, most prominent examples, but research could furnish many more. The point is, keeping the American people in the dark is fundamental.
Recent "odd" happenings in the current Democratic primary also show manipulation of the public. Bloomberg and Warren ran to make sure Bernie couldn't win enough delegates. Bloomberg was aimed at both Bernie and Tulsi (as his big play for American Samoa shows). The players in this national kabuki accomplished the establishment's goals and then dropped out pretty much en masse, each to receive their reward from the DNC (but for Bloomberg it may have been reward enough just to protect his own ruling class). Warren's attacks on Bloomberg may very well have been pure Kay Fabe to keep her gullible supporters enthralled all the way to Super Tuesday.
We desperately need fair and honest elections (paper ballots, eliminate Citizens United) and a responsible media (break up the media monopoly), but we can't begin to undo the crap that they've foisted on us until we regain the power of our numbers. To start, we need an organized way to challenge oligarchic power, which probably translates to a people's political party, and if we are to have any hope of defeating the oligarchy, we will need to welcome "the deplorables" aboard. They are suffering the same way we are. Traditionally they were brainwashed into blaming "government" itself, but some are waking up from that delusion. We'll need to establish a base of trust with them. It shouldn't be all that hard to do, given what we're both up against.
I hope all the good minds and honest players on our side will soon come together in a new, non-corrupt political party and get started.
Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl
On this and related election subjects, I have a question....
Was the nastiness between Obama and H. Clinton theatre? Judging from their common goals, pals, and money, it well may have been.
What say all of you?
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
Yea, verily!
Yea, verily!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I think it was real
because Clinton actually did something which would have made it more likely that Barack Obama would get assassinated by a racist. I mean a 99%-er killing him, not your bog standard CIA assassination like the Kennedys.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Pages