We all know what happened, the "all-in" bet of the national democratic leaders failed catastrophically, losing not only the presidency, but turning most to the nation over to what had recently appeared to be a defunct Republican Party. All of those assumptions of the national democrats had been wrong, and the nation and the populace was going to pay the price for such arrogance.
But arrogance, apparently, has no limit. The domination of the national democratic leadership could not acknowledge their errors, but continued to double down on their errors. They fought the growth of a fledgling progressive movement within the party. They got busy allotting blame to make it clear that they had been right all along and only outsider, and probably illegal forces, were at work to deny them their rightful win. It was the Bernie supporters, it was the Russians, it was Wikileaks, it was everyone and anyone but them. They were clearly right and needed to take none of the responsibility for the monumental losses.
In fact, rather than trying to find a better and clearer message for ordinary voters, or making any switch in basic direction or assumptions, they spent the years of the Trump Presidency, trying to prove that he should not have been elected and trying to get even with him, especially in the courts. Needless to say, it was not very effective and became a bit like a soap opera with claims and counter claims making little real progress, except in their own minds.
The 2020 Election
With the 2020 election the Democrats had another go at it, only this time with an entire litany of Trump errors and apparently illegal dealings. They rejected any real change candidate, again turning away from Bernie or anyone like him in favor, finally, of a Hillary clone, in the line of Obama and Hillary (corporate democrats), to pick Joe Biden, another corporate democrat and a compromise candidate at best.
The election was close, between two corporate candidates and although Trump lost, like a powerful CEO, he pulled out all the stops to deny the changeover, even including an attack on the Capitol, much like an attempt at a hostile takeover of a corporation. We have watched that attempt at a hostile takeover play out over the last four years with Congress stuck in limbo, the Supreme Court undoing much of what had been the hard-won guidelines of a liberal democracy, and the legal system stumbling all over itself trying to avoid being labeled unfair or politically motivated.
So, where we find ourselves with this election looming has, in no small part, been exacerbated by the Democratic Party itself.
Joe Biden
Now, let's look at the direction the Biden administration has taken this nation. He took on Covid and succeeded. He has helped the ordinary citizens by stabilizing the economy and in his support of the resurgence of the union movement. He has help with student loan repayment and has basically protected much of what we have come to consider to be the basics of democracy in America. However, income inequality has continued to grow even more, turning us into a nation of powerful billionaires, with its negative influence on basic democratic values. I might add that his renewal of a Cold War with Russia and China and our role as the arms dealer for the world, has pumped money into the corporate economy with its minimal tax role in our national funding. Weapons and war are a major boon to the top 1%.
Our International Reputation
But most significantly, Biden has shifted the international perceptions of our nation in some major ways. With the Biden administration's lock-step support of Israel as Israel systematically destroys the civilian population of Gaza, the world no longer sees us as a nation that is fair and balanced in international affairs, a supporter of human rights and humanitarian aid as well as a nation willing to name rogue nations, apartheid and genocide for what they are, a nation serving as a beacon of what a good world citizen should be.
The Biden administration has, bewilderingly, shucked off that view of America in support of a nation that is clearly not much of a democracy. You only need to look at how Israel treats its Palestinian citizens, in nearly an apartheid state, to see how anti-democratic it has become and its total censorship of the news. The Biden administration has even taken this so far as to pressure, harass and even punish citizens who actively disagree with the Biden policies.
There may be some domestic political calculus at play here and perhaps some cynical realpolitik, geopolitical goals. But the price of the loss of international standing is far too high a price to pay, unless we are hoping to be the overpowering empire of the future that everyone hates but dares not challenge.
The Quandary
And here is the quandary; do we simply give up on saving any remnants of democracy in our anger with what a mess we have created with it, or do we vote for a highly damaged democracy in some pie-in-the-sky hope that the Democratic Party will finally reform to become a haven for the ordinary citizens again.
We all understand that, as with all elections, the winner takes that win as a mandate to carry out his stated policies or continue to carry out his present policies. If elected, I would like to think that Biden will not take that electoral win to be a mandate to continue his war policies, his support of Israel's destruction of Gaza or his support of corporate America and the growth of income inequality and of the billionaire class, soon to be a trillionaire class.
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