Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Saturday coffee.
Photo Op.
After the announcement by Hakeem Jeffries that Democrats will stop saving Republicans from themselves and not vote for the one month Continuing Resolution that would allow government funding until April it seems like a shutdown is eminent. But is it?
I often wonder why Democrats are lost in terms of a coordinated response to any threat posed by the reactionary GOP, now turned full blown fascist, and mince no words exposing them as collaborators. Is this a new phenomenon, though? To me, and I may be wrong, it seems like the obvious answer has always been to present the American people with a solid progressive program. Looking back, closely, into what progressive ideas were advanced by Democrats, that never happened.
I am not talking about the extreme nonsense proposed by so called socialist democrats, who still live in the XIX century, fighting Industrial Revolution demons. No, shutting down all fossil fuel production is not the solution, nor is outlawing private property, and certainly not killing all the Jews on Earth or converting our society into Sharia Law versions of tolerant delusion. See how quickly the Socialist Democrat ideology derails into nonsense? That’s not it.
While some of those delusional left wing Democrats seek to prevent people from having elective surgeries or driving expensive cars or being rewarded fairly for their individual achievements, dreaming of all cooperative enterprises and yet another form of government control, those who would be wise to embrace social democracy fail to do so at every turn. The ACA is the crown jewel of progressive achievement and yet it’s no more than a hand out to the insurance industry.
Other initiatives, like the Green New Deal, end up being diluted into Infrastructure bills that, while incrementally beneficial like the ACA, end up falling short of being truly revolutionary and include plenty of benefits to corporations, often many times superior to those we, the people, get from them. Being revolutionary in government is different from being revolutionary on the streets. A truly revolutionary government is precisely what prevents a street revolution.
Contrary to popular belief, the main objective of a social democratic society is to make the individual happy. At its apex, social democracy makes every individual happier, which ensures society itself is happy. Happiness is an elusive concept and if it is impossible to achieve in concrete terms it’s also possible to reach by pursuing it fiercely and in so doing making sure each individual is respected and granted the basic rights at its foundation.
We are not looking for chimeras or utopian ideas but for what others already achieved. The most advanced societies in the world got started by social democratic ideals and while their citizens have not attained “blissful happiness” they are pretty happy individuals. So happy they don’t realize it and start taking it for granted. But that’s another story. The point is we know how it’s done. So why don’t we do it here?
It was not until the 1970s, after top individual tax rates fell from around 90% and corporate tax rates from about 50%, that we began to see the expansion of private charities. Until then they were mainly driven by mutual funds, with few exceptions, like the one instituted by Henry Ford. Charities multiplied exponentially and became a very profitable business with a virtual nonprofit disguise. America is not only addicted to charity, it’s controlled by “charitable” people.
This appalling aspect of American society is one that illustrates how the illusion of care is institutionalized and how beholden Democrats became to those who benefit from it: from the suburbs of Detroit to the slums of Kinshasa. And you can always contribute $19.99 a month to save the Polar bears too, if you are so inclined. This inability to solve our problems, local and global, is not a result of lack of imagination but of lack of will.
In a globalized economy, in a world where problems became everyone’s concern, global complexity became an excuse for local inaction. It also became a rallying cry for populist nationalist movements: why send money overseas when children are hungry on our shores? This dark picture is the backdrop for the unwillingness to solve problems in a true progressive way. Incremental progress is a reality but it became something else as Democrats embraced the Little Steps doctrine.
Nothing meaningful ever gets done because of it and the proponents of this doctrine range from Bernie Sanders to Barack Obama. The “little steps” became shorter and shorter and are now Democrats favorite excuse for getting nothing substantive done. When they tell us they got the Republicans “on the run” you may want to look closer. You will find Democrats running alongside them. This unwillingness Democrats show to change our society is by design.
They are as guilty of the corporation take over of every aspect of society (especially the government) as anyone else. The platitudes and the meek calls for bipartisanship are not new. One day they sit quietly, embarrassed by those who stand up, the next they show up on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, as if they are the reincarnation of John Lewis. I miss him… In this country where so many have suffered for so long we keep talking about their suffering as new.
Fingers are pointed at those in power as if all the problems in the world just started because of them. The reality is the suffering has been here for a very long time and those who now accuse others of causing it missed every chance to end it. On purpose. On purpose by refusing to fight both the excesses of Republicans and some of their fellow Democrats that they keep as pets to appease the uneducated masses. On purpose by denying social democracy a chance.
To my dismay, I see a Democratic Party beholden to those we fight, in a perpetual photo op I no longer can stomach. I realize we are on our own, with few exceptions that are rendered irrelevant by the party’s Little Steps doctrine that now feels like it’s going backwards. In a world of ping pong paddles choose to hold a walking cane. It’s up to us to lead now. Maybe we can make them follow.
Resist & Oppose!
