Criticism of Gaza Genocide is off of the Table
Photograph Source: Jbash31 – CC0
The media blitz in favor of first Kamala Harris, and then Tim Walz, has been deafening. From someone growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s, it was like finding the toy in a box of Crackerjacks, or the gum that came along with some loaves of sliced bread. The “gifts” that came along with those items is how the Democratic Party would like the electorate to feel, as the mass media beat the drums. The Democrats’ candidates are better than “free” toys and bubblegum!
But Harris seems not to be interested in meeting with the media (New York Times, August 8, 2024). What is the chance that the adoring media will actually ask Harris a question of substance? “Do you think putting toys in kids’ snacks is a good idea, and what about bubblegum in packages of sliced bread? Surely that sugared crap can’t be good for kids’ teeth.”
There is no doubt that Trump is an existential threat to the US and the larger world. He promises to bring about an authoritarian regime in the US. What he would do with the issue of war is anyone’s guess. The Democrats seem to have their own lock on the latter. Would Trump directly attack Iran? Would Iran be yet another ongoing US proxy war? It’s impossible to predict. Some endless wars may be worse than others and bring the world to the brink of nuclear catastrophe. Trump will convert this nation into a religious fundamentalist’s dream with both Christian fundamentalism and the flag at its core. Jews will have special status, as long as those favored Jews who stoke the flames of war in the Middle East are the chosen ones who will bring us closer to Armageddon. Critical Jews and a majority of those who have spoken up against the right-wing and neoliberal juggernaut would be out of luck.
Trump first lauded, then criticized Tim Walz for his handling of the reaction to George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in 2020. Now Trump wants to walk back the handling of protests (Guardian, August 8, 2024). The violent response by militarized police to the ongoing protests against genocide in Gaza is a disgrace and has the full backing of the duopoly. Protest here has faced the long march of repression against the First Amendment.
Income inequality would grow under both political parties’ rule, as would environmental collapse. What Sheldon Wolin called inverted totalitarianism in Democracy Incorporated (2017) would grow with corporate power unchallenged. Military-industrial-investment interests would continue its decades’ long hold on this nation. Social welfare programs would only be on the agenda of small and insignificant groups of people with no real political power and no voice. The state would act as the facilitator of all of this except as champion of programs of social uplift. Programs of social uplift for the many ended with Roosevelt’s New Deal and were buried along with millions of people in Lyndon Johnson’s deadly debacle in Vietnam that ruined the Great Society. It’s either guns and war profiteering or butter. We can’t have both with endless wars.
What shocks is that there is not a scintilla of criticism from any of the four candidates for the presidency and vice presidency about the ongoing genocide by Israel in Gaza. The same defense of Israel rhetoric is part of every candidate’s response while tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians, including children, die. The mass media and masters of war would not allow any candidate to come in the way of what is the worst crime this species has perpetrated: genocide. The nonsense of liberalism among the Democrats is belied by their record on mass incarceration, income inequality, and racism with its attendant militarized police who have also been quite effective in breaking the heads of protesting students and others. The environment is not even an afterthought for these actors who serve as committees for the power elite.
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