At the presidential level, the U.S. political scene is grim. Donald Trump is the likely Republican candidate. No other Republican approaches him in terms of popularity. Yes, he’s been indicted four times, complete with a mug shot, but these indictments aren’t enough to derail his campaign. If anything, they may make Trump look like more of a populist gangster/rebel, instead of the billionaire tool that he is.
The Democrats are going all-in on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but there’s no platform of substance they’re selling. The basic message is vote Biden because Trump. In a fundraising letter I received from the DNC, the message was that Republicans are too dangerous, too extreme, and otherwise beyond the pale. So I was urged to give money to the DNC so that Joe and Kamala can “finish the job.” Which job they’re supposed to finish was left unspecified, though there were glittering generalities about freedom, safeguarding abortion rights, and the like.
Interestingly, Democrats continue to argue that any third-party candidate, and especially Cornel West of the Green Party, is a spoiler for the Democrats. The idea that more candidates might spoil Republican chances as well isn’t addressed. This tells us something about the reality Democrats are facing. Support for Biden is shallow and mostly unenthusiastic. Hence the tacit recognition that additional candidates will hurt Biden’s chances more so than Trump’s, whose supporters are more keen on their guy.
Maybe, just maybe, the Democrats should recognize this problem and run a new candidate that can garner stronger and more enthusiastic support at the polls? Nah, that’s crazy talk. Let’s go with Joe and see what happens. And if he loses, you can always blame the voters for voting for West or some other third-party candidate.
Honestly, the DNC would rather lose with Biden than win with a more progressive and charismatic candidate. This is because the DNC represents the corporate capture of the Democratic Party. To win with a truly progressive candidate is a loss for the party as it’s constituted today. To lose with Biden is a win in the sense they can fundraise off “resisting” Trump. The DNC goal is that nothing shall fundamentally change in the way they do business, meaning that Biden is the most “leftist” and “progressive” candidate Democrats are ever likely to see. (Biden, of course, is a pro-war, pro-business, pro-banker, pro-fossil fuels, pro-prison, pro-status quo president. In your heart, you know he’s right.)
What is to be done? As I’ve said before, I know what I’m going to get with Trump. I know what I’m going to get with Biden. And I know that’s not what I want. So count me among the “spoilers.”
As Glen Ford famously said quite some time ago; the Republicans may be the greater evil, but the Democrats are the more effective evil. Now I am am starting to think that by being the more effective evil, that they are, de facto, the greater evil. I am fairly positive that Trump, despite how much I despise him, at least would not have pushed for the war in Ukraine like the Biden gang has done. What is very clear now is that the primary system in the US is designed to make sure only people like Biden will ever get to the general election, leaving voters with no choice other than endless war. The fact that Trump is generating such hysteria from The Powers That Be, it seems clear that they think he would be less useful to them than another 4 years of Biden the Terrible. That is reason enough for many people to chose Trump over Biden. I will be voting for Cornel West, as the Green Party is always on the ballot in my state.
The DNC brought this situation on themselves, and all the rest of us, by sabotaging Berni Sanders 2020 campaign. They made sure that that Pete B. and Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the primary before Super Tuesday. After dropping out they endorsed Biden. I thought at the time that it sounded like a setup, and Sanders said the same in his book. Sanders would have been a better president than Biden, in my opinion. I don't know who I will vote for in 2024, but I know it won't be Biden or Trump.