As we hurtle toward full scale war with Iran while Israel and the U.S. fan the flames, why are liberals here in the U.S. so eager to be fooled (again)? In the last week I've heard, "I hope you're as excited about Kamala as we are!" and, "She is going to be much better on Gaza than Biden" as well as the old trope, "orange man bad!!!!!"
Of course most liberals are still bashing Russia and Putin for defending themselves from NATO aggression via Ukraine, so the orange man thing is on brand at least.
Years ago I wrote about how liberals considered their support for President Obama as a sort of get-out-of-racism-free card. They could only see race and feel their own self-congratulatory feelings for supporting a man of color in the White House. A man of color raised by white grandparents that had both worked in the predecessor to the CIA. A man of color sponsored by the white Crown family of Chicago who bankrolled his meteoric rise from "community organizer" (a claim for which not a shred of evidence has ever been offered). But his wife was actually a Black descendant of enslaved people! So he and she could do no wrong.
Never mind all the Black and brown children he killed in drone strikes, including American citizens like 16 year old Abdulrahman al-Awlaki (pictured above). Never mind that on his watch, by his own admission, "we tortured some folks." Never mind that Black people in the U.S. continued to experience huge disparities in terms of net worth, health, death at the hands of police, and incarceration rates -- race blotted out all other views of the two-term president.
But I'm just an old white lady who thinks Biden has been as bad a president as Trump was, worse in some respects if you care about international affairs as much as I do. As I wrote to someone who launched an ad hominem attack on me after I declined to financially support their advocacy for Harris' campaign, "Have BIPOC lives improved under the current Democratic administration? I would argue they have not in terms of wealth, safety, health, or pretty much any metric you care to name." They have yet to respond.
We are often admonished to listen to Black women. Harris has only the slightest claim to being Black as she was raised by her Indian mother in that culture and in the absence of her Irish-Jamaican father. But I get that as a woman of color she has faced a lot of vitriol and racist harassment just living her life and then even more while taking on public roles.
That does not change the fact that the biggest item on her resume -- arguably the only item on her resume -- is presiding over the incarceration of millions of BIPOC in California. And keeping them in prison beyond their sentences to profit from their labor. All well-documented. Unlike her policy positions, which are nowhere to be found on her campaign's website.
But we don't know how she'll be on Palestine and Gaza, say liberals. Yes, we do. Here's the White House confirming she conferred with Israeli PM Netanyahu before he went back home and green lighted the assassinations in Beirut and then Teheran.
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President Biden spoke today with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. The President reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. The President discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense against threats, including against ballistic missiles and drones, to include new defensive U.S. military deployments. Together with this commitment to Israel’s defense, the President stressed the importance of ongoing efforts to de-escalate broader tensions in the region. Vice President Harris also joined the call.[emphasis mine]
Who has Harris surrounded herself with in her own rise through distinctly undemocratic paths? Glenn Greenwald interviewed Lee Fang on that topic, and it's not encouraging.
A radical friend of mine suggested, ask liberals if they would support Condoleezza Rice for president because it amounts to the same thing. By which I think she meant, elevating faithful servants of the death-dealing empire based on their apparent race which makes them more desirable as leaders. (I would argue that Rice was both more intelligent and certainly more articulate than Harris has shown herself to be.)
If you'd rather hear Black voices speculating on the prospect of VP Harris ascending to the top job, I recommend subscribing to the Black Agenda Report and following Margaret Kimberley,
https://x.com/freedomrideblog/status/1819438761828061278
following Ajamu Baraka,
and following Ann Garrison, who shared this gem on Twitter:
And much to say about the thoroughly undemocratic process that has imposed Harris as the Democratic Party candidate.
There are race riots, real ones, going on in the UK right now. The cost of the war in Ukraine -- especially much higher energy prices -- has impoverished millions and they're lashing out after Axel Rudacubana, a Black teenager born in Britain to Rwandan immigrant parents, killed three little girls by stabbing them. (Several more people were injured at the time.) This provided the spark for people to attack anyone who doesn't appear white enough to them, and to attack mosques even though the murderer allegedly identifies as Christian.
Because putting a few people of color in front facing positions does nothing to address either systemic racism or systemic poverty.
As if the financiers and warmongers who preside over austerity to prep for another world war don't come in all the colors.
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