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What Will We Do If We Win? [1]

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Date: 2024-08-03  

Democratic Pres. candidate Kamala Harris.

The main weaknesses of the Democratic strategy still might be enough to carry the day in November. Note that I said might. Somethings historically are not being said loud and clear enough. And may never be said. These issues trump or equal (no pun intended) the other critical issues that are being emphasized — as they should be.

The problem also lies with the reasons why they’re not being said. Which is the generally weak class nature of the Democratic campaign. Which in turn relates to the dominance of corporate and individual mega wealth which to various degrees compromises both Parties, and has already helped destroy the Republican Party and replaced it with a fascist one. While increasing the run-a-way costs of campaigning by leaps and bounds in the last few decades.

It also relates, it must be admitted, to the generally low level of voter self awareness and class consciousness.

I have mixed emotions even here at KOS when daily articles emphasize how much Kamala Harris is getting in donations. Which is great on the one hand yet very revealing on the other as to how $$$ colors politics in America — painting them green and that’s not to mean in the ecological sense!

Playing the Class Card

A marriage in need of a divorce.

Now we don’t expect the Republicans to play the “class” card very much, as their “class card” is supporting corporate and upper class interests as much as possible, something they wish to conceal by the their overall policy of diversion — which is promoting fear, hatred of the “other”, racism, white supremacy, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and any other “ism” bias that they can think of and sell to the masses.

Now it should be acknowledged that the Democrats have played the class card before and, to some degree, presently. Often however in a diluted and watered down way, in my judgement. They are after all, a Party that does make the interests of the Wall Street capitalist engine a top priority, along with its aggressive, sometimes war-like foreign policy, even if they avoid acknowledging this as much as possible.

.

Foreign policy It’s often concealed by a false sense of concern for democracy of the jingoistic variety, used against weaker countries concealing ulterior motives of huge financial gains for our corporations. Otherwise know as imperialism, which despite the polarization of the two parties, remains largely bipartisan.

Brooklyn Bridges for Sale

While this does not apply to support for Ukraine, which is fully justifiable in my opinion, it does apply to places like Venezuela. If you really think its sincere concern for democracy motivating our policy, I have a bridge in Brooklyn up for sale, cheap!

Better to read up on the despicable role and behavior of the greedy oil companies which have perhaps the greatest behind the scenes influence over policy towards Venezuela going back to and before the days of Chavez.

What’s can’t be said directly to the voter is . . .

. . . how much the average person is going to suffer if these ignorant Republican savages get into power, given the direction they are headed in. The union pressured benefits which were won over the years from a capitalist system, and the ones we still have today, were not granted willingly or out of the goodness of upper class hearts. They came through class struggle, sacrifice and many deaths at the hands of corporate hired thugs and dangerous working conditions.

Republican Folly

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Many of the surviving New Deal benefits came, in part, from the decency and sensibilities of one man, Franklin Roosevelt, who saw fascism spreading across the planet and realized that doing nothing to help impoverished Americans during the Great Depression was equivalent to risking class rebellion and revolution by an emerging left wing union movement or oppositely, a domestic fascist one.

FDR also had a number of legitimate left wingers in his administration, who he sometimes actually listened to. Much later I had the privilege of speaking to two of them. FDR appreciated the folly of the capitalist class taking a hard line. Republican’s today are super arrogant about the power their wealth brings, too arrogant to see the folly in squeezing the country and foreign lands for every last dime, or in their case, every last million.

The Social Benefits of Compromise

FDR set an imperfect but very real precedent when he launched the New Deal. Many of these benefits still exist. Since then the Republicans have worked tirelessly 24/7 to take them away and prevent any others from being won. As workers forget how they acquired these benefits and for some, their middle class standing, they’ve largely failed to realize the importance of maintaining and expanding independent union power. The divisive dominant culture, sold by the upper classes and the marketing media, is widely accepted and followed. Cells phones and the internet have become extensions of their marketing empire.

Gekko Greed is not Good

Wise words.

The dominant culture emphasizes greed, reactionary nationalism, wasteful spending, me-first selfishness, and environmental ignorance. It may be part of the reason why Democratic leadership is held back from offering more of a class perspective. The Party is largely if invisibly tied to the elite class’s interests by actively promoting the profit based morality and forever expanding nature of capitalist system without deference or regard for the health of the environment and society beyond some lip service. Our progressive side is too often kept in check by its elite side’s power and influence.

Eventually, this class based contradiction, if not addressed by some widely supported reformation process, environmental destruction, toxic contamination, global warming and climate instability will one day destroy modern civilization. We are much closer to this day than anyone realizes.

The Republic Party Evolution into Chaos and Fascism

The Four “Fs” Party .

The Republican Party has degenerated into the four F’s Party: fascism, fanaticism, fantasy and freakiness. While the Democratic Party hopefully is moving in the opposite direction, with the growing numbers of Party members agitating that more progressive and class friendly steps be taken.

Class contradictions are inherent within almost any system of government, no matter what you call it. Which direction in which a Party leadership moves or is controlled by is not preordained.

Reading Between the Lines?

For those attempting to read between the lines, this article is not intended as a round-about way of advocating for a third political party. Personally, the way our current Constitutional system is written and has evolved, and the inherent difficulties in changing it, leads me to believe a third party would never be viable and effort should not be wasted on establishing one.

A Changing Party Dominance

I believe representative change can take place within the Democratic Party if progressives expand our base and win back many of the voters lost to the Republicans, instead of bemoaning its impossibility. While some anti-government sentiment is reactionary and racist, another aspect of it is based on voter class alienation and the reluctance, lack of self confidence and/or inability to seek a more active role in understanding and controlling the path of government. The other is the relative ignorance of the voter and lack of incentives to fully educate themselves as to how the system actually operates in practice.

Our Constitution is light years better on paper than it ever was in practice, undermined by the vagaries and pursuit of wealth, racism and power endemic to the profit driven capitalist system. It cannot be changed by a political party or Marx’s dictatorship of the proletariat. Not without a much better informed and educated electorate. The working classes have never been to a point capable of ruling a country or economy, and is largely why socialism has failed to establish itself and the ruling elites do not get their feet held to the fire of global responsibility.

What if we win?

Of course, three months from the election is not the time to begin raising the issues I’ve just written about in any major way. But time is fast running out for all of us. This may be our last chance to make the fundamental changes both America and the rest of the world require or civilization will one day perish as we know it. Of that there is little doubt. That’s not a prediction anymore, fossil fuel use has already determined that rising temperatures and climate change have become a looming threat to all man and womankind.

Let’s beat Trump, win the Congress and then beat the drum

of saving humanity and ourselves.

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