I had some final thoughts for election day. As always, the transcript follows below. If you enjoy these Debriefs, please consider becoming a paid subscriber so that I can cover production costs. The more people subscribe, the more frequently I can release these videos. Do consider sharing broadly. Many thanks for your support!
IDENTITY POLITICS FOR GENOCIDE
These last days of the 2024 election have brought some of the most perverse examples of liberals exploiting identity politics that I’ve ever seen: This time, in service of justifying a vote for Kamala Harris, despite her refusal to back an arms embargo against Israel and end a genocide.
First up, recording artist Will.i.am released a riff on his Obama-era tune “yes we can,” but this time, he’s not even pretending the focus about “we” the people. The “we” has become a “she” in a tune called “yes she can.” Women can do it all, apparently, if “all” means murdering the women and children of Palestine.
“It’s her turn” indeed.
Meanwhile, Transportation Treasury Pete Buttigieg weaponized his identity in a debate with an undecided voter, who raised legitimate skepticism that Democrats would *actually* codify roe v wade if put back in power.
“I’m obviously talking about marriage equality and not reproductive freedom here”? Credit to him I guess for calling out his own deflection. Marriage equality is obviously an important right, but as Mayor Pete was forced to admit earlier in the clip, it hasn’t been the focus of Republican attacks this cycle. The Democratic pitch is that voters should come out for Harris because abortion is on the ballot. The question was: why should voters trust Democrats to protect women's reproductive rights when they have declined to do so in the past? How did Buttigieg respond? By deflecting our focus from the rights one group has lost, to rights he, as a gay man, has already secured.
This is a trend with Democrats: pitting marginalized groups against each other as though it's a zero sum game. They persuade voters to stick with them, not by promising them anything more, but by threatening that they could get less -- that things could always get worse.
Nowhere is this threat more menacing than when liberals try to convince their base that it’s “ok” to vote for a candidate actively enabling a genocide.
Et Tu John Oliver?
In his most recent monologue, comedian John Oliver trotted out examples of Muslim voters who are choosing to vote for Kamala Harris because, they argue, Trump would be worse. Let’s listen to a little bit of that:
https://x.com/DGComedy/status/1853431668901646712
It’s obvious that Oliver is leveraging the opinion of one muslim woman in particular, Ruwa Romman, to create a permission structure for genocide-wary voters: The implication is, if she is voting for Harris, surely you’re not morally culpable if you vote for Harris too.
There’s just one problem. Ruwa’s perspective is hardly representative of Muslim voters.
A recent poll from the Council on American Islamic Relations shows that more Muslim voters are voting for Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, than Kamala Harris.
This poll is corroborated by anecdotal evidence and focus groups. Take a listen to this new interview from Rania Khalek at Breakthrough news.
To be clear, it would have been so easy for Harris to win these votes: https://x.com/novaramedia/status/1853402061561384968
But instead, she trotted out Liz and Dick Cheney, the architects of the Iraq war, and sent Bill Clinton in to Michigan to deliver some of the most Islamophobic dreck I’ve ever heard in my life:
https://x.com/afshinrattansi/status/1851899518893060484
Bill might not be eating Mc Donalds burgers any more, but he certainly will serve you a racism filled, “but Trump” sandwich with a side of lies.
Kamala Harris has not in fact, tried to negotiate an end to the killing. The killing quite literally could not happen without her administration’s active funding of Israel, and she has unequivocally committed to continuing Biden’s Israel policy.
Listen to the absolute word salad from one of her progressive surrogates, squad member Ayanna Pressley, when asked directly, repeatedly, if Harris would break from Biden’s Israel policy. https://x.com/briebriejoy/status/1853486011621466484
Oh boy. “Perfection isn’t on the ballot, but progress is”? What progress can we expect in Gaza? Pressley was categorically unable to say that there would be *any* difference at all between Harris and Biden on this issue.
Pressley casually mentions that “we have to stop sending bombs,” and cites Harris’s empty calls for a ceasefire, but completely side steps Harris’s commitment to keep. sending. bombs. It’s gaslighting 101.
The real priority here for Democrats, I fear, is not defeating fascism. Defeating fascism would mean defeating both Harris and Trump. What liberals really want is to go brunch -- to regain a sense of pre-Trump normalcy so they can stop paying attention to the news -- to a U.S.-backed ethnic cleansing campaign. Don’t believe me? They’re saying the quiet part out loud:
https://x.com/PeteButtigieg/status/1853188068377018508
https://x.com/DGComedy/status/1853431668901646712 [
Earlier in the second clip, John Oliver implies, like Ayanna Pressley, that perfection shouldn’t be the goal as you decide who to vote for: We’re voting, he says, for who can be pushed. But as I argued in my last Debrief, the Democratic Party will not be pushed on this issue, or numerous other popular policies it chooses to ignore, because it’s being paid not to.
John Oliver insists that Republicans and Democrats are not the same. And of course, he’s right. There are meaningful differences on issues like abortion and marriage equality. Notably, these differences are on issues that don’t really affect the economics of capitalism, or the donors’ bottom line. Notably, these are the issues that Democrats highlight to distract from the big ways in which Republicans and Democrats are the same: They share the same donors, and consequently, share one more important feature: Neither corporate party will be pushed.
The Left Must Abandon Democrats
The major rights we have in this country were won as a consequence of real pressure from strong leftist groups, like the communist party, who were genuinely adversarial to the establishment center. Today, Democrats want to be the only lefty game in town: They spend more energy bear hugging conservatives and pushing Greens off the ballot than fighting for working Americans. They weaponize their relative progressiveness on identity-based issues to distract from how right wing they really are. And many voters eat it up.
Look at this tweet: https://x.com/punished_stu/status/1853473169308274841
A liberal fantasizing about voting for Holocaust Harris despite her Muslim partner’s pain -- justifying her choice by convincing herself that it helps Black people.
Now this is about Black people? I’m old enough to remember four years ago, in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, liberals said we had to dutifully vote for Joe Biden: The architect of the crime bill -- a man who was running on funding the police harder -- to ostensibly protect muslims.
Now we have to vote to genocide Muslims to protect Black Americans?
This is how Democrats make this country more conservative. They constantly exploit the genuine grievances of historically vulnerable groups to manufacture consent for an “imperfect” party that’s causing active harm to another group. And by failing to permanently protect vulnerable groups, like, for example, by codifying Roe, they ensure that they can always exploit the looming threat of hard won rights being stripped away. You want to protect Muslims from Trump’s Muslim ban? Then you have to vote for fracking and increased police funding. You think Black lives matter? Too bad, you have to trade in your criminal justice commitments to ensure Black people’s voting rights aren’t lost.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s super-funded police are building multi-million dollar cop cities where cops are trained with Israeli apartheid techniques to kill environmental protestors and crack down on students protesting the fact that a genocide is being paid for with their endowments.
Is voting blue making us safer? Or keeping us trapped?
It’s all connected. We’re all connected. And until we resist the Democrat’s divide and conquer routine, we’ll be pitted against each other like contestants on survivor every four years asking which of us deserves to suffer so the rest can survive another round; forced to barter gay marriage for genocide — a blocked Muslim ban for Black lives. It’s time to stop playing the false zero sum game by investing in real, independent third parties that can stand up to the duopoly and provide genuine pressure against the craven corporate status quo.
Voting for Harris wont do that. What it will do is provide Democrats with a mandate for genocide.
The Arab American voters interviewed in the earlier Breakthrough news clip said it better than I can:
Liberals are incredibly invested in listening to the voices of Arab and Muslim Americans when they align with their interests. But what does John Oliver have to say to these Arab Americans who won't launder his conscience?
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