Today, as Super Tuesday clusters several state primary elections, I'm reminded that some of the common characteristics of mental illness are a lack of insight into one's own condition, and poor judgment.
Electoral politics as practiced in the U.S. is evidence of both.
In part because real politics is so frightening -- staring into the abyss of taxpayer-supported genocide and proxy wars is not for the faint of heart -- U.S.ians love to focus on elections. Specifically, presidential elections.
Link to a Twitter thread documenting 50,000 marching in NYC, 15,000 in SF, thousands in Boston, Los Angeles, and Wash DC where they surrounded the Israeli embassy.
And the corporate media insist on it, failing to report on hundreds of thousands of people in the street last Saturday chanting "Free Palestine" from coast to coast while reporting ad nauseum on a nothing-burger primary.
The frontrunner for the GOP could not be kicked off the ballot per yesterday's Supreme Court ruling in which even liberal justices agreed that states were overstepping their authority in convicting Trump of insurrection without engaging in due process. And no other Republican candidate is even within shouting distance of the former President's poll numbers.
The Democratic Party primary is even more of a non-event as the visibly senile incumbent is propped up to mumble a few words when rewarded with ice cream and the party will brook no challenge.
I say "was" because last month the organized voters of the Muslim community in Michigan sent a 100k strong message in their primary by voting "uncommitted" to supporting Genocide Joe in November's election. And this month states without that option are seeing vigorous campaigns to write-in "Ceasefire" rather than cast a vote for Biden or challenger.
Way to use the corrupt structure of false dichotomy and obsession with celebrity against itself!
So in the U.S elections will haunt us until November, crowding out news we actually want and need. And that is by design.
Australian blogger Caitlin Johnstone nails it, as usual. An excerpt from her post "Nobody With Real Power Cares If You Refuse To Vote For Biden":
There’s been a lot of talk in pro-Palestine circles about withholding votes for Biden in protest of his genocide in Gaza, which is of course fine, but the discourse around doing so often misses an important point. A lot of US voters erroneously think they’d be punishing the Democrats for Gaza by costing them the election, mistakenly assuming Democrats care about winning. They don’t.
Losing an election costs Democratic party leaders nothing; all the career politicians and political operatives at the top keep their careers either way. From their point of view this is just a cushy job with sweet benefits, and they keep those win or lose. And obviously Biden himself doesn’t care; he’ll have a comfortable retirement regardless of the outcome in November, and on some level he’s surely aware that it’s nuts for a dementia patient to be in the White House anyway.
If the Democrats cared about getting your vote they’d be trying hard to earn it. They’re not trying because they don’t care.
I don't care about it, either. What I do care about: stopping the horror of starving and massacring Palestinians to finish stealing their land.
Trigger warning: this is what your tax dollars under corporate government are supporting.
https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1764763658322612312
Say it with me now: Hey hey ho ho, Genocide Joe has got to go.
And in case you're wondering what I'll be doing at the polls today: nothing. I am a registered Green and there is no primary in my state for my party. All the candidates I'll be ranking in November, starting with Dr. Jill Stein, would actually represent the people's wishes if elected.
And that is exactly why it is very, very unlikely that they ever will be. Those who lack the insight to see that, and who cling to electoral politics as a way to make change in the U.S., are exhibiting poor judgement. Why follow their example?
