This week, Kamala Harris said she knows about voter revulsion over the Israeli genocide in Palestine. But people better vote for her anyway if they want abortions and affordable groceries.
Harris on Thursday announcing more endorsements from Republicans. (C-Span still)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.
An extraordinary moment occurred on the CNN “town hall” with Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday.
Asked by an audience member what she would do to end the slaughter of Palestinians by U.S.-sponsored bombs, Harris delivered her usual canned answer about how “far too many” Palestinians have died and the need for a two-state solution, after which host Anderson Cooper asked a follow-up question.
“What do you say to voters who are thinking about supporting a third-party candidate, or staying on the couch, not voting at all because of this issue?” Cooper asked.
What followed was an absolutely jaw-dropping answer from the vice president. In essence she says that people who have strong feelings about the genocide in Gaza need to get over it and vote for her anyway if they want abortions and affordable groceries, because she supports the genocide and that’s not going to change.
This isn't an exaggeration.
She's literally saying that she understands why people don't want to support a genocide, but that she DOES support the genocide, and if you want minimally decent domestic policy, you're going to have to support the genocide too. https://t.co/1ycFpKbJIZ
— Bryce Greene (@TheGreeneBJ) October 24, 2024
“Listen, I am not going to deny the strong feelings that people have,” Harris said.
“I don’t know that anyone who has seen the images who would not have strong feelings about what has happened, much less those who have relatives, who have died and been killed. And I, and I know people and I’ve talked with people, so I appreciate that.”
“But I also do know that for many people who care about this issue, they also care about bringing down the price of groceries,” Harris continued.
“They also care about our democracy and not having a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist. They also care about the fact that we need practical, common-sense solutions from a leader who is willing to work across the aisle on behalf of the American people and not themselves. They want a president who cares about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body, understanding that we’re not trying to change anyone’s belief, but let’s not have the government telling women what to do with their body.”
Which is just wild. I mean, technically she’s not saying anything different from what liberals have been shouting for months at Americans who oppose the Gaza genocide, but she’s not supposed to say that! She’s not supposed to come right out and admit that she’s a genocidal monster and too bad because the other candidate is the greater evil. That’s normally the sort of disgusting manipulation you let other people do for you while pretending to be a good person.
"I'm Speaking"
Oil on canvas. pic.twitter.com/k3EMdAcqNs
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) August 26, 2024
The only positive thing coming out of this nightmare is that it’s exposing the real monsters for who they are [including Republic candidate Donald Trump, who also wholeheartedly supports the genocide.]
More and more people are seeing that the U.S. government is much too evil to be allowed to rule the world.
More and more people are seeing that the state of Israel is much too evil to be allowed to continue to exist in its present iteration.
More and more people are seeing that the Western press are propaganda services for the U.S. power alliance and should never be trusted.
More and more people are seeing that the Democratic Party exists solely to protect the murderous and corrupt oligarchic status quo of the U.S. empire and not to promote the interests of ordinary human beings.
More and more people are seeing that Western liberalism is just a more photogenic version of fascism.
When you’ve got a leading presidential candidate standing in front of the nation saying that yes she will continue an active genocide but you’d better vote for her anyway if you want abortions and affordable groceries, that shows people something about the kind of nation they live in that you could never get across to them by sheer argumentation.
When you’ve got evidence of mass atrocities entering people’s social media feeds on a daily basis while the entire political-media class tells them this is fine and normal, that communicates a message which would be hard to receive in words alone.
There is so very, very little to say about this horror that is remotely positive. But it is opening eyes. And enough open eyes is all that’s required to stop this.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Harris: End the “dangerous” First Amendment.
Trump: No censorship
Both: Genocide is fine and dandy.
Wow, it’s like that thought experiment where you press the button and get a million dollars, but a person dies. Only instead of a million dollars, you get affordable food and bodily autonomy (two things we should have by default anyway) and instead of one person dying, a whole people are genocided.
Watching that video i just kept thinking, she’s such a fake. I can see right through her.
MacGovern the retired presidential briefer and recovered CIA employee – whose analyses of current awfulnesses spare none – would likely call Ms. Harris a “wind sock” – she doth go wherever the wind doth bloweth. Sounds like a value system hinged by, for and of “opportunism. Again! Must be a chronic contagion in the Democratic Party.
I feel her answer is refreshingly honest. If regular people in the west don’t want their ruling class to utterly destroy what is left of their quality of life, they must support western imperialism. There is another scenario here, however. Perhaps the ruling elites know that if they lose their stranglehold on the markets, labor and resources of global south countries, they will be forced to cannibalize the wealth of the people which will inevitably lead to a revolutionary situation in western countries. By then, the populist right will have been exposed. Hey, maybe I am too optimistic here.
I doubt that Dems will be able, or even want to, deliver on most of Harris’s suggestions. They are comfy now, shorted up by the likes of the Cheney’s and John Bjolton–along with other Neocons who have flocked to the Dem side as well.
Rather than LOTE, my goal is to vote third party as a means of punishing Biden and his party for four tragic terrible years. My hope is that the Dems lose this one, because I have a personal need to see them punished.
The long term goal: let’s learn to vote for what we not, not cave to fear. We can survive four years of Trump. And on the wishful side: he might end Biden’s war in Ukraine, open up lines to Kim, Putin and China. A silver lining: cut us loose from NATO. Vance has spoken several times on his desire to see America cease to play international cop.
Otherwise, expect the same shit sandwich no matter who wins.
“The only positive thing coming out of this nightmare is that it’s exposing the real monsters for who they are [including Republican candidate Donald Trump, who also wholeheartedly supports the genocide.]”
Recently we’ve had quite a few comments at CN in effect that “Trump will be different this time.” Here’s a report.
The following is from the Middle East Eye, not exactly a mainstream publication, on Trump’s accomplishments in the middle east. It includes this statement from Trump:
“Trump also made it clear that despite his party’s emphasis on free speech protections, he viewed the ongoing mass pro-Palestinian mobilisation on American streets with absolute vitriol, and painted a grim picture of how he would treat any criticism of Israel, if he were to be elected again.”
hxxps://www.middleeasteye.net/news/donald-trump-middle-east-foreign-policy