Here we go again. Those dems who like to think of themselves as progressives, a description most of the rest of us compare to one hand clapping, have emerged from their hidey holes, dusted off their playbook and come up with a whole new rationale to get your vote— voting the “right way” (democratic) is the only thing that stands between us and Armageddon. You may feel a tinge of nostalgia as most of the rhetorical flourishes springing up like weeds are a November election year specialty of the house, The difference this time? Their guy is losing. Time to bring out the heavy artillery— “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Topping the list of reasons according to these progressive to keep Biden in office “enable President Biden to achieve more progressive policy objectives during his second term and prevent a fascist takeover.” Translation: If our guy doesn’t win and we lose our hold on power, a whole lot of billionaires, many of them that control the mainstream media, are going to be left friendless in the corridors of power in Washington.
For those of you discouraged by the low achievement metrics in U.S. public education, take heart. The progressives have a solution: Biden and the democratic party will “develop and repetitively use more aggressive messaging against and educate the public about the dangers of fascism including exposing and condemning…the fascist blueprint for a second Trump administration.”
Sounds robust doesn’t it? Before we get our blood pressure up, let’s understand the motives for what purports to be a “revolutionary” statement of principles. To understand what’s happening now, we need to turn the time machine back to 2022 when a similarly bold stand was promised on Ukraine. It went something like this. The progressives were going to call for the U.S. to admit its complicity in a proxy war it started to destabilize Russia and overturn Vladimir Putin (business as usual, according to the Washington Post “the US tried to change other countries’ governments 72 times during the Cold War”). They were going to encourage the U.S. to come clean and admit their 2014 role in deposing the democratically elected Ukrainian leader to replace him with a U.S. stooge. Finally, the progressives would call on Biden to remember that in 1990 the U.S. made “iron guarantees that NATO jurisdiction or forces would not move eastward.” [February 9, 1990]
Sad to say, that’s not the way it went down. What really happened demonstrates the shamelessness of the progressives. In 2022 instead, a group of self-described progressive democrats wrote to Biden congratulating him for his massive give away of money and weapons to Ukraine (by that time, the U.S. had emptied the treasury of over $63 billion taxpayer dollars to bolster the Ukrainian military as well fund basic services for Ukrainian citizens letting Americans citizens vie for a spot under bridges and on sidewalks. Here’s the revolutionary part —a timid request for a “proactive diplomatic push, redoubling efforts to seek a realistic framework for a cease fire.” Pretty inflammatory stuff, eh?
Publicly the White House acknowledged the “very thoughtful concerns” of the progressives. Privately the Biden gang was furious. The “redoubtable” Biden press secretary responded — “Our job as we see it today, as we’ve seen it for this past year — more than a year — is to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs on the ground.”
How do you think the progressives responded? Surely they held firm to their main message “peace won’t come from war.” Good for them. Maybe a little pushback was all the administration needed to put a stop to the ravaging of Ukraine. Wait a minute, reality bites when the truth comes calling. Less than 24 hours after this”bold” proposal Madame Pramila Jayapal fell on her sword — “The proximity of these statements [to Republican hesitation over further funds for Ukraine] created the unfortunate appearance that Democrats, who have strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic, and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people, are somehow aligned with Republicans who seek to pull the plug on American support.” Quicker than you can save cave, the progressives retracted their letter and returned to the fold.
What does it prove? The fecklessness of progressives or that they finally got their heads on right? After all, speaking in one militaristic voice guarantees that the campaign funds raised by the democratic national committee goes to their campaigns and helps guarantee their prime objective — keeping their jobs. All that other blarney—feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, cancelling student debt, creating a national healthcare system, raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires and ending the devastating toll of income inequality, including the bone they threw to abortion rights activists (blaming the end of Roe on Trump’s Supreme Court picks. No need to mention that Democrats didn’t lift a finger to make Roe a federal law). Blarney is okay on the campaign trail, progressives reason, but when it comes to helping their billionaire donors, the time has come to muzzle pesky activists who raise a fuss about administration priorities: financing a gang of neo-Nazis in Ukraine fighting a war they lost two years ago, helping a group of Zionist thugs stage a genocide in Gaza, and intimidating (unsuccessfully) China by more than quadrupling the current number of troops deployed to Taiwan…[Wall Street Journal]. In order to accomplish these critical foreign policy objectives, they need congressional buy in to back up their bucket list with money —$95 billion to the usual suspects: Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
Here’s a howler for you. During this session of Congress democrats provided the margin of victory on two traditionally Republican issues. When warrant-less wiretapping of American citizens in section 702 of the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) was up for re-authorization, along with a measure to expand the government’s mass spying authority , more Democrats voted for the bill than Republicans. Here’s what privacy advocates thought of their betrayal: “Despite a litany of abuse—improper snooping on protesters, lawmakers, thousands of campaign donors, and journalists—the House today wrote the FBI and intelligence agencies a blank check to keep misusing FISA Section 702.” [Jake Laperruque, Center for Democracy & Technology] Heard enough? It only gets worse. One amendment introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) would have required U.S. intelligence agencies to obtain a search warrant before surveilling Americans’ communications. Once again, more democrats (126) opposed the amendment than republicans (86). With their help it failed to pass. The Biden administration opposed the amendment, no surprises there, and trained their big guns on the opposition. The danger to national security held center stage. Like the sheep they are, enough dems played follow the leader to insure another two years of major spying and surveillance on American citizens.
The democrats weren’t finished breaking our hearts. The passage of the foreign aid bill with its $95 billion giveaway to Nazis (Ukraine), purveyors of genocide (Israel), and violators of America’s “one China” policy (the U.S. military) was bad enough, but to ban the popular social media app Tik Tok in the U.S. unless the Chinese company who owns it, sells it to someone the U.S. approves of is downright silly. Watched by one-third of Americans for at least twenty minutes daily, Tik Tok was the first or second most downloaded app (depending on whether you believe U.S. bean counters) in 2023. Why go after Tik Tok? According to one democrat speaking for the majority of democrats — “the powerful national security threat posed by TikTok… a company legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party” [Senator Mark Warner, Chairman of the Senate “Intelligence” Committee]. It will probably come as no surprise that the measure passed in the House because 165 democrats —over three-quarters of House democrats — voted for it. In a stunning turnabout, only 150 republicans were in favor.
How many Americans do you supposed are worrying that a looming fascist takeover poses “the most dangerous threat…in our history” when they go to the grocery store, pay their rent, their car insurance or pull up at the gas pump? When it comes right down to it whose lies are more dangerous — Biden’s or Trump’s. The answer may decide who you vote for.
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