Open Letter to Democrats
Friends, can we have a word? I think you know what this is about. All you Republican voters y'all go outside and play now, this doesn't concern you.
Former Democratic friends (in which 'former' refers to my voter registration and not our friendship), I wasn't going to say anything about this, but something Rep. James Clyburn said on Sunday has pushed me over the edge.
Those of you who still pay me any mind know that I have seen this moment coming a long way off. And I thought we were friends. I thought you valued my opinion above that of the of partisan rabble. I am not alone, either. There are a lot of us equal-opportunity critics. And we're worried about you, Democrats.
You see, this is about a lot more than just a bad debate. This is about the Democrats constantly gaslighting the electorate.
I saw this propaganda revealed early on in the Trump presidency when CNN edited a video of Trump and Japanese president Abe feeding koi. As is traditional they each cast a pinch of food upon the water and then turned their boxes upside down to shake out the remnants. CNN initially showed both Trump and Abe as they each sprinkled a pinch of fish food, then they cut Abe out of the frame and showed Trump boorishly dumping the whole box upside down, which then became the new opinion shaping outrage du jour.
It was then that I noticed your disconnect with reality. Your desire for it to be unbiased skewed your perception over whether it truly was.
Skip forward to two weeks ago when the white house labeled any and all videos showing Biden having a senior moment to be 'cheap fakes.' Joe Scarborough assured his viewers that this was the Best Biden Ever™ and a chorus of sycophants all used the word "sharp" when describing Joe Biden. Anyone making claims to the contrary was biased.
We were worried about you then, and we are really worried about you now. Because a majority of D-registered voters polled still think Biden should continue campaigning. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Those are not robes of silk and gold thread.
Actually, you should be doubly ashamed of yourselves because you and I both know that whatever state Joe Biden is in it's better than him being relieved of duty before the inauguration.
I do not take particular glee in this situation, mind you. I agree with your sentiments regarding Donald Trump. Any candidate who will not unequivocally agree to the results of an upcoming election should be disqualified on the basis of sedition. If any of you right-leaning voters are listening with a glass against the wall, know that just because you're not getting an earful right now doesn't mean I am giving you a pass. Your day will come.
But Democrats, this existential threat about which you warn me would be taken much more seriously if you had considered replacing Biden with a stronger candidate from the get go. Impartial observers have been warning us that the Joe Biden which we saw at the debate has been there for quite a while. A significant number of left leaning voters were concerned that he would be placing you in a position of weakness. I know, there were some sober attempts to primary Biden in 2024 but without an inquisitive media asking whether this was a unique situation worthy of a primary the incumbent never had to prove if he could still think on his feet.
I have been clamoring for a more robust primary season citing the historical fact that having anything more than a token primary was the kiss of death for the incumbent. Biden's loss in November was written in stone many moons ago and Democrats should have gotten ahead of this. Frankly, the way our concerns were dismissed was belittling, and the vehemence with which we were told our eyes were wrong was insulting.
The crowning touch was when Jen Psaki explained to us that replacing Biden at the top of the ticket wouldn't be fair to the voters because there wasn't a primary! Do what now?
Reality check! HEY!! SNAP OUT OF IT!!
This is why we're worried about you. They've been telling you up is down and black is white for so long you've totally lost your bearings.
Now Democrats, I'm saying this with all the love in my heart and with utmost concern for my country when I say... what's gotten into you? Are you fucking crazy? I know it's all the rage to pithily ask if you o.k. bro but this time I mean it. Your compass card is spinning and your sails have not jibed with reality for as long as we can remember.
We both know when it started. I drank a pretty good shot of that Obama kool-aid myself, but it only lasted four years. I guess it's easy to overlook gradual changes in direction if you're not paying close attention. But Obama was just a flim flam shell game man. Ever since then the Dems have engaged in, well shall I say some curious choices in coalition building.
Ever since the Democratic National Convention in 2016 with its platform of, and I paraphrase, "Clinton-Webb 2016 take it or leave it," the left side of the ticket has opted to eschew persuasion and appealing to centrist and unaffiliated voters in lieu of strong arm tactics against a boogeymen who is so abhorrent "you don't have a choice." Even before the rubber mask got torn off their phony candidate, The DNC's appeal to the centrist voter was guilt. And N.B. when I talk about appealing to centrist voters, I don't mean a shift to compromise your ideology, I mean presenting your case as to why you offer a better path forward.
No one can unsee what they saw Thursday night. You can never recover those votes with Joe Biden at the top of the ticket. Continuing to foist him upon us while saying "this is fine" is not a good look.
Lying. Strong arming. Denial. Desperation. Using guilt to keep us from leaving. Is this politics or a Lifetime special? Right now is the part where the abused says 'enough is enough.'
Slowly your media sources have intoxicated you with their self-righteous spirits which eroded your use of logic and critical thinking. For more than a decade you have been asked to ignore the evidence before you then you demanded the same of us. Well this is where we get to make our break. While you were distracted we bought a car with cash.
It troubles us that you let it get so far. The way you treated those of us who broke ranks to criticize Biden's deteriorating condition really displays questionable judgement. This is not my moment of Schadenfreude although I am relieved that we have finally come to it.
You have to start taking this seriously if you want to beat Donald J. Trump. It almost doesn't even matter who you put on the ticket, just show us that this wasn't all just a way to get the most odious and compromised candidate in the back door.
I want to see Donald Trump lose handily in November as much as anyone else does. But it isn't gonna happen if you don't remove the scales from your eyes and show us that you respect us as voters. Oh, sure, you can and probably will twist my arm to get me to vote for whoever you manage to nominate but it isn't going to matter here where I live in Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul's home state, just as it didn't matter in 2016 when I lived in a state that went easily to Mrs. Clinton. If my one extra vote is what allows you to go to sleep on election night then you can have it. But if you think that gives you the right to stifle my dissent, it doesn't. If you think I'm hurting your candidate then you grossly overestimate the reach of my influence. This would all be so easy if you'd just find someone for whom we actually want to vote.
This is your chance, Democrats, to show us that you're grounded again. That's all it's going to take to earn our votes. The bar is incredibly low. We want to come home, but things can't go back to the way they were. And we're not off to a good start. On Sunday, Rep. Clyburn said:
“He may not have gotten the words out but the thoughts were great.”
Don't believe your eyes and ears. We should judge Joe based upon the words that he *didn't* say. This is chutzpah level gaslighting.
PLEASE start viewing your news sources with a critical eye. Please start questioning the ulterior motives of the people writing the narratives.
Comments
I suppose we Independents can go outside and play too :-)
You may be talking, but they're not listening. The Democratic Party is a Dead Party Walking, just as their preselected candidate is a Dead Man Walking.
(The Republicans are no better choice, too many crazies lined up behind a bloviating arsehoole.)
If enough Independents ever got together behind somebody sane and reasonable, you might see something. But as things are....
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
From your lips
to nobody's ear, unfortunately. They aren't listening: they now believe that they are completely independent of voters, what with their ability to set the vote totals anyway they wish via machine-hacking and ballot-box stuffing. They believe that they can create any outcome they want, even with the undead meat-puppet "leading the charge".
It's been a long time coming. It is time for the quadrennial reposting of my favorite Hunter S. Thompson quote from "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail" covers it pretty well:
Credulity is the only reason the dems get any votes. Period, full stop. There are always starry-eyed new people coming into the process who believe that Their Generation Will Be The One That Will Make The Difference, as the old ones burn out and tune out or die off. "This time for sure!", and all that.
I know whereof I speak: I was one of those starry-eyed types, even though I should have been one of the two generations that HST said would be done with politics after '72. Took me over 40 years, and Bernie's abject capitulations in 2016 and 2020, to finally come to the following realization: "No, your generation won't be the one to make the difference." The difference can no longer be made electorially.
Not a fan. This ex-dem will not be returning to the fold.
As Lily Tomlin said: "No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up."
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Yeah, this
As Lily Tomlin said: "No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up."
I say the same thing about
smoking pot. . .
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
Since when did this become an accepted fact
I must have missed the part where anyone has ever proved any voter fraud to where you can just put it out there without any links.
F the F'n D's
UFS is talking about *election* fraud,
which is not the same thing as voter fraud, and which has been an ongoing problem for a very long time. Every device that has been invented to simplify the voting process has proven to be hackable, and has been hacked. Even paper ballots publicly counted isn't (and never was) completely foolproof, but it's the least bad method compared to others - especially to "mysterious black box" voting machines.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Great post, bondibox
The biting humor is the only thing that will make an impact.
They so hate to be ridiculed.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
"Only he can decide to opt out."
They all repeat that message. Either they don't know about the 25th Amendment or they're pretending not to know.
" In a war with China there would be a trade embargo. Military manufacturing in the US would grind to a halt almost immediately. But due to a massive competency crisis in DC, they might push for it regardless." -Philip Pilkington
Jan. 6
Totally agree the Dems (I left the party in 2016) have been gaslighting the electorate in every way. But also believe that extends to Jan. 6.
C.J. Hopkins gives a good description, I think. This is an excerpt from something he just wrote:
“Anyway, here’s that piece from the archives. I wrote this in January 2021, i.e., shortly after Biden’s inauguration, which, as you may or may not remember, was staged in a locked-down, military-occupied DC, during a fabricated “state of health emergency,” in the aftermath of a fabricated “insurrection.”
This was the moment when the New Normal Reich was officially ushered into being, with a “field of flags,” a full-blown Nazi light-show, and the whole nine yards. Not to put too fine a point on it, they rolled out the soldiers and the urban-assault vehicles and installed a muttering, finger-sucking, global-capitalist puppet in office. They did not hide this. They publicized it. They wanted us to know that “democracy” was over, that the “populist” rebellion was over, and that they were installing a human stalk of celery in the White House, and there was nothing that we could do about it.
The message could not possibly have been clearer.
As they used to say at the end of all those wacky Looney Tunes cartoons, that’s all folks! The show is over.
Literal Russian-Asset Hitler, the Latest Greatest Threat to Western Democracy, the Monster of Mar-a-Lago, Trumpzilla, Trumpenstein, the Ayatollah of Orange Shinola, has finally been humiliated and given the bum-rush out of Washington by the heroic forces of the GloboCap “Resistance,” with a little help from the US military.
The whole thing went exactly to script.
Well … OK, not quite exactly to script. Despite four years of dire warnings by the corporate media, the Intelligence Community, Hollywood celebrities, the Democratic Party, faux anti-fascists, fake-Left pundits, and pretty much every utterly deluded, Trump-obsessed liberal with an Internet connection, there was no Hitlerian “Reichstag Fire,” no Boogaloo, no Civil War II, no coup, no white-supremacist uprising. Nothing.
The man simply got on a chopper and was flown away to his Florida resort.
I know, you’re probably thinking … “Wow, how embarrassing for the GloboCap ‘Resistance,’ being exposed as a bunch of utterly shameless, neo-Goebbelsian propagandists, and liars, and hysterical idiots, and such!” And, in any other version of reality, you’d have a point … but not in this one.
No, in this reality, “Democracy Has Prevailed!” Yes, it was touch and go there for a while, as there was no guarantee that the Intelligence Community, the military-industrial complex, Western governments, the corporate media, supranational corporations, Internet oligarchs, and virtually every other component of the global-capitalist empire could keep one former game show host with no real political power whatsoever from taking over the entire world.
Still, Trump’s failure to go full-Hitler, or even half-Hitler, was somewhat awkward. I mean, you can’t whip millions of people into a four-year frenzy of fear and hatred of a clearly powerless ass-clown president, and portray him as a Russian Intelligence asset, and the Son of Hitler, and all the rest of it, and then just drop the act cold and laugh in their faces.
That would leave them feeling like total morons who had just spent the last four years of their lives being lied to and emotionally manipulated, or like members of a cult, or something.
Fortunately, for GloboCap, this was not a major problem. All they had to do was produce a cheap simulation of “Trump going full-Hitler.” It didn’t even have to be convincing. They just needed a semi-dramatic event to plug into the official narrative, something they could call “an attempted coup,” “an insurrection,” “an attack,” and so on, and which millions of credulous liberals could hysterically shriek about on the Internet.
The “Storming of the Capitol” did the trick.
They held a dress rehearsal in Berlin last August, and then gave the real performance in the Capitol Building (this time it was for all the money, so they went ahead and got a couple people killed). It wasn’t very hard to pull off. All they actually had to do, in both Berlin and DC, was allow a small fringe group of angry protesters to gain access to the building, film it, and then pump out the “attempted coup” narrative.
It made no difference whatsoever that the “domestic terrorists” (in both Berlin and Washington) were a completely unorganized, unarmed mob that posed absolutely zero threat of “staging a coup” and “overthrowing the government.” It also made not the slightest difference that Trump didn’t actually “incite” the mob (yes, I put myself through the agony of reading every word of his speech, which was the usual word salad from start to finish). We’re talking propaganda here, not reality.
The so-called “Violent Storming of the Capitol” set the stage for the main event, which was the show of force we have all just witnessed.
Someone (I’m not entirely clear who) ordered in the troops, tens of thousands of them, locked down Washington, erected fences, set up roadblocks and military checkpoints, and otherwise occupied the government district.
It looked like any other US-military post-“regime-change” occupation, because that’s what it was, which was precisely the point.
As I have been repeating for … well, for over four years now, it was always going to end this way, with GloboCap making an example of Trump and reminding everyone who is really in charge….”
Anya
A grain of truth to that
It seems they made it very easy for the capitol rioters to gain access. The FBI has admitted it had agents in the crowd - they will not say how many or what parts of the property they were on.
But I was following the account of right wing influencer Brittany Sellner on Jan 4 & Jan 5 and what I was reading being planned was absolutely what went down. One could argue that if there were FBI agents provocateurs in the crowd they were also online in the days before, but the threads I read were unanimous and prolific. The threads were so obvious and incriminating that it was agreed all users should delete any contributions to them.
F the F'n D's
Fantastic comment, Anya
I've tried to put into words my utter disdain for the Jan 6 kabuki. The entire country fell for this staged ploy, and bought in to the televised investigations with the sloganeered pontificating by the biggest hams in Congress spewing their outrage for the cameras. Until then, I didn't believe anything could top the phony Mueller investigation, which I saw as the pinnacle of government corruption on parade. All of it accompanied by the US fake-news media, blasting propaganda about Russian collusion, election meddling, and phony terrorism threats. It was unbearable.
It was no coincidence that Ukraine was at the center of Trump's impeachment shitshow. The period from 2014 to 2024 (including the pandemic) has been a long and elaborate lead up to the conquering of the world by the US Empire. The American Century was at hand. and Ukraine was the patsy. The plan was to break apart and scatter rival nations such as Russia and China, which would not submit to US rule and hegemony. Israel's critical role for Empire was to suppress uprisings in the Middle East. As delusional as it sounds, the Neocon's point-of-view is that they hold all the power and they are poised for immediate global victory.
Although — Russia and its economy was supposed to collapse by now. And the massive Western propaganda against China should have make it the enemy of the world.
The US Empire has gone silent this month. USians are focused on their their mentally-defective candidates and their flawed election spectacle. In the meantime, the people are starting to realize they have not had a competent President in charge. Soon, they may demand to know which Elected Leader has been running the country? Which Elected Leader was planning to declare war? After all, the US has been engaged in endless aggression and economic attacks against both Russia and China, trying to provoke one of them into an act of war against the US.
Instead, American aggression is forcing a different question upon the global population: "Would the world be a better place without the US?"
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange