The U.S. political and media culture has produced two of the most incompetent figures imaginable to vie for the role of leading the country into the abyss, writes Jim Kavanagh.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris during the Sept. 10 presidential debate on ABC News. (C-Span screen shot)
By Jim Kavanagh
The United States of America is on the verge of World War III in three different theaters. Its social economy and infrastructure are in tatters. It’s actively engaged in genocidal ethnic cleansing — killing tens if not hundreds of thousands of mainly children and women and spitting on every precept of humanitarian and international law — on behalf of an atavistic settler-colonial project.
It is more than ever despised and less than ever feared in a world escaping its control. And in this catastrophic conjuncture, the U.S. political and media culture throws up two of the most incompetent figures imaginable to vie for the role of leading us into the abyss.
The U.S. electoral system is insultingly anti-democratic. Built around donor control, a pastiche of opaque voting and tabulating systems including black-box proprietary electronic machines that could allow undetectable fraud, and, topping it all off, the Electoral College.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are the two most perfectly clownish figures to lead this election circus, which appears guaranteed to end up in a fight over the result.
The proper response to this should be an organized public, political boycott.
The ruling class doesn’t much care about which duopoly clown emcees the circus; the majority of the people not voting, sapping legitimacy from the system, is what it fears most.
Take note of which Trump comments provoke controversy, and which don't. Trump said this week that he "gave" the Golan Heights to Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, his top funders, who came to the White House "almost more than anybody." Not a peep about this brazen admission of graft pic.twitter.com/MaJLFnH7oi
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) September 22, 2024
Trump recently said:
“Just as I promised I recognized Israel’s eternal capital and opened the American embassy in Jerusalem, Jerusalem became the capital. I also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. You know, Miriam and Sheldon would come into the White House, probably almost more than anybody outside of people that work there, and they were always after…
And as soon as I’d give them something, always for Israel, as soon as I’d give them something, they’d want something else. I said, give me a couple of weeks, will you please?
But I gave them the Golan Heights, and they never even asked for it. You know, for 72 years, they’ve been trying to do the Golan Heights, right? And even Sheldon didn’t have the nerve. But I said: You know what? I said to David Friedman, give me a quick lesson, like five minutes or less. on the Golan Heights. And he did. And I said: Let’s do it. We got it done in about 15 minutes, right?”
This was even worse than his notorious answer as a candidate at the Republican debate in 2015:
“Q: You’ve also supported a host of other liberal policies, you’ve also donated to several Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton included, Nancy Pelosi. You explained away those donations saying you did that to get business related favors. And you said recently, quote, when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.
TRUMP: You better believe it… I will tell you that our system is broken. I gave to many people. Before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. And that’s a broken system.
Q: So what did you get from Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi?
TRUMP: I’ll tell you what. With Hillary Clinton, I said, be at my wedding and she came to my wedding. You know why? She had no choice! Because I gave.”
Trump — the purported anti-Swamp candidate — is telling us that, as president, he had his biggest donors at the White House “almost more than anybody outside of people that work there,” always after something, “always for Israel,” and he was eager to give them anything they wanted, contravening decades of fundamental U.S. foreign policy and international law to do so.
In fact, he was so eager to please, he gave them a contravention of longstanding national policy and international law “they never even asked for” — recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. That was an issue of national policy and international law about which, he tells us, he was entirely ignorant, and was content to radically overturn after a lesson of “five minutes or less” from an uber-Zionist.
Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu behind him, looking over his shoulder, signing proclamation recognizing Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights, March 2019. (White House, Shealah Craighead)
Donald Trump is telling us that the president of the United States is, and he as POTUS was, a figurehead who, in return for their money, takes orders from his donors like a servant, and uses the apparatus of the United States government and his position as overseer of a global empire to literally “give” those donors parts of other countries.
Because “when they give, you do whatever the hell they want you to do.” He is telling us that, as a politician and president, he became exactly the kind of swamp creature he criticized his opponents for being in 2015. Donald Trump 2024 is confirming for us, and bragging about how well he embodies it: “that’s a broken system.” You better believe it.
Can you say “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie”?
I dare any MAGA disciple to deny that s/he would renounce as a traitorous swamp creature any Democrat s/he heard bragging about how they let “George and Alex” Soros (rather than “Miriam and Sheldon” Adelson), as his/her most frequent guests, run around and run the White House, ordering up changes that overturn longstanding national policy and international law — and then try to deny that Trump is exactly the same kind of creature.
Honored to host Governor @Tim_Walz at my home in New York City! pic.twitter.com/gRtjQrnu7N
— Alex Soros (@AlexanderSoros) September 24, 2024
I’m sure any MAGA disciple will say: “But Biden/Kamala/the Democrats do the same thing! They’re just not as obvious about it.” And they are right. And that’s the point, the entire point, of the duopoly choice. And it’s the reason, the principal reason, for the dominant faction of the ruling class’s antipathy to Trump.
The Democrats obscure and gloss over their obsequious fealty to the rulers with gentler, kinder, “progressive” rhetoric and insistent claims to champion the “middle class” (“working class” is so 20th-century). Trump, who’s captured the Republican Party, keeps saying what’s supposed to be the quiet part out loud.
He is comfortable bragging about his mega-donors running around the White House because he considers himself one of them, born into their club, so what’s wrong with that? The Democrats take a quieter, more humble posture when being invited to manage their master’s domain.
Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff pause after planting a pomegranate tree in the garden at the vice president’s residence on Oct. 7, 2024, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks in Israel. (White House, Oliver Contreras)
There are many people, including longtime Democrats, who are so rightfully angry about the incompetence, failure, and betrayal of Biden-Harris and the Democrats, that they’re considering voting for Trump, just to shake things up. One of my readers succinctly captured the reason for Trump’s appeal beyond his MAGA base: “The fact remains that there is something in Trump that the deep state thinks it cannot control.” That appeal was only enhanced by the two assassination attempts.
There’s no denying the Deep State distrusts him, and for good reason: No one, including Trump, knows what he will do or say next.
He’s got no firm political ideology, just stubs of ideas, a few of which are not bad. But he doesn’t have the intellectual capacity or political facility for executing them. And he has a ton of bad ideas.
Sometimes both at the same time — like ordering an attack on Iran and calling it off at the last minute. Narcissism and confusion mask insecurity. Precisely contrary to how he wants to be seen, Trump is actually a weak, insecure political actor, susceptible to being pushed around — especially by those he perceives as rich friends or tough guys, and who know how to handle his narcissism and need.
And they tend to come from the Deep State creatures (capitalist moguls, military/intelligence operatives, and neocon warmongers) he surrounds himself with. They, and the donors, will get him to do whatever the hell they want.
OK, maybe nine out of 10 times. As the writer Keaton Weiss has said, betting on Trump is like playing Russian Roulette with five bullets in the gun. But the idea that Trump will be different this time, in any programmatic sense — that he’s going tp embrace and fight for someone else’s program of free speech or Making America Healthy Again versus his stated program of making America, and Israel, “powerful” again — is wishful thinking, as futile as the idea that someone’s going to push Kamala left.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Trump at rally in Glendale, Arizona, in August. (Gage Skidmore, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Please, did you forget he already was president for four years? Did anything fundamentally change? Do you think he’s not the same guy who prosecuted Julian Assange and assassinated the Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani?
Trump is an ignorant, arrogant, narcissistic scion of the ruling class, who brags about being all of those things in ways that often embarrass, and can undermine support for, the capitalist dictatorship and the U.S. empire.
He tells us he’s going to “Make Israel Great Again” (‘cause he, too, thinks that’s the job of the U.S. president), blow Iran to smithereens, intimidate Russia and China into submission, make American women stop thinking about abortion rights, and, yes, “close the internet.”
He thinks he should be president because he is who he is, and he’ll talk his way out of it if he makes his arrogance too manifest.
Of course, the Democrats, now led by Harris, are supercilious, hypocritical defenders of the ruling class, American imperialism, and Zionism, who adopt whatever rhetorical strategies might fool disaffected constituencies into thinking they’re something else. Bur many people are fed up with their game and don’t believe anything they say.
Kamala has been the darling of the Democratic donor elite since she was anointed at a 2017 meeting in the Hamptons “with Hillary Clinton’s biggest backers,” where, “already said to be the Democrats’ top fund-raiser,” she “expand[ed] her influence and ambitions” and was “talked about as a 2020 presidential hopeful.”
Harris and Clinton with Rachel Ruto, back to camera, wife of Kenya’s President William Samoei Ruto, at a White House reception in May. (White House, Lawrence Jackson)
Unfortunately, she didn’t get any votes from actual people and, after her blistering attack on Joe Biden — Don’t worry, ”It was a debate!” — dropped out of the race before the Iowa caucus. Don’t worry, the donor cabal got her on the ticket in 2020 and got her as the presidential nominee this year — no votes needed.
Kamala tells us nothing much about what she will do because she has no idea what she will do. Her vacuity and opportunism are on display with her word-salad responses to specific questions that leave even Oprah wide-eyed and her bizarre attempt to pretend she’s a newcomer who hasn’t been part of the Biden administration for the last three-and-a-half years.
Kamala thinks she should be president because she’s not Trump and has proved herself a compliant minion of the donors. She might get herself into the presidency by talking as little as possible and allowing wishful thinkers to project what they’re looking for onto her.
Advice to both candidates: “Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Americans: hurricane relief please
Washington: Sorry did you say send thousands more troops to the middle east to support the Israeli invasion of Lebanon?
Americans: no, hurricane relief
Washington: Okay you drive a hard bargain but troops are on their way to the middle east now— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) September 30, 2024
Homes and caskets and people are floating around North Carolina and Tennessee, Israel is continuing to kill and maim hundreds of people per week in Gaza and is bombing and invading Lebanon, Iran has just sent a salvo of hundreds of ballistic missiles into Israel, the U.S. has sent 40,000 troops into an undeclared war, and we are waiting to see how the disasters unfold from here.
Both of these ignorant, imperialist and rabidly Zionist candidates are trying to keep the growing number of Americans, who are rightfully angry because they are getting nothing from American capitalism and imperialism, safely enclosed in the duopoly corral, where they can be blown to smithereens in WWIII or ground down as their infrastructure and social economy are drained away by profit-seeking vampires.
Blackstone is now buying up mobile home parks, to suck more money-blood out of struggling people living in the very last bastion of affordable housing. But don’t worry, Israel and Ukraine got $8 billion each.
In the midst of all this consequential chaos, we have no idea who’s actually running the country. The fact that the president is a figurehead for the ruling class and the deep state apparatus has never been more apparent, nor more blithely accepted. Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan had to hide their enfeeblement. Now the whole world knows Joe has checked out, and it’s a big yawn. The president is a zero.
Still, there have been some presidents who were smart. Or at least competent. Or at least articulate. Or at least persuasive. Roosevelt, Kennedy, Obama, even early Reagan to an extent. These two are none of that. In a context where intelligent statesmanship has never been more necessary, it will be worse than zero.
One of these two will become president of the United States. To think either of them is an anti-establishment, anti-war, free-speech candidate who will save democracy, or drain the swamp, or avert the disasters we face, is to be inflicted with either Trump Derangement Syndrome or its mirror image, MAGA Personality Cult.
Believe what the presidents of the United States have told you about themselves and this country. With either of them, as Biden said: “Nothing would fundamentally change.” This country will still be, as the other man said, an “oligarchy with unlimited political bribery.” And, as the other other man said, most recently and succinctly, they will both do “whatever the hell their donors want them to do.”
We’re screwed. The demise of America seems irreversible. Whoever becomes president, it will be a catastrophe — for us and for the world.
Jim Kavanagh taught Literary and Cultural Studies at Princeton, Carnegie Mellon and Wesleyan Universities and writes political analysis for independent media. He is a frequent guest on The Critical Hour and Political Misfits on Radio Sputnik, and on PressTV. His work can be found on his Substack and his YouTube and Rumble channels. He was a co-founder of NYC Free Assange.
A version of this article originally appeared on The Polemicist, the author’s Substack page.
Views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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I think you have struck the right notes on this election, sort of. I view it very differently. I don’t believe democracy is possible in a society ruled by hyper-materialism, consumerism, hedonism, narcissism and so on. We are a society in decline and it’s not the politicians fault we are in decline or, as I prefer to say, in transition. At any rate, my choice is to vote for Trump because he represents a chance at change and addressing my personal biggest enemies, i.e., the CIA/intel community and the FBI (which has had a long history of trying to destroy the left and has largely succeeded). Trump is open to looking into the assassinations of the 60s which opened the door for the permanent Deep State to rule along with the then emergent oligarchy–we are now full-out an oligarchy not a democracy which I don’t see changing much. Harris is clearly the Deep State/War Party candidate. The path of the Democratic Party is towards a totalitarian system–this is why all the establishment Republicans favor her. Trump worries the current Deep State because he is unpredictable in many ways and has allied himself to RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Elon Musk. We are going to be ruled by oligarchs no matte what–might as well be better ones rather than the profoundly evil types surrounding Harris and the Democrats. If Trump wins we are on the way to neo-feudalism which is better than the totalitarian system brewing with the Democrats who want to ban “misinformation” which means the end of the First Amendment.
I think you mischaracterize Trump as a nasty figure–he’s just honestly whatever he is whereas Harris is the perfect model of phoniness. I do agree with you that both together are not good choices–but the decline of morality and citizenship in the public has consequences and it is too late now to do much but watch things fall apart so new shoots can spring up–should we live that long.
If you’ve never listened to ‘Ship of Fools’ by World Party give it a go: hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHh0V7UjVXI It is worth listening to…
“One is the loneliest number” -a song by Harry Nilsson
A 2 Party Democracy is only One better than a 1 Party Democracy.
One is a small and lonely number.
The “World Party” says, *“Now, is the moment, please understand, the road is wide open to the heart of every man [&, woman]. A few simple words; so, a mule could understand,” For example: Message to: Biden-Harris-Walz, the DNC, et al., From: LeoSun,
………..“Listen Linda,” it’s over!!! Give the people what they want, i.e., Biden-Harris-Walz, et al., in the rear view mirror. TY. “Buh-Bye.”
I digress….IF, men & women, watch, “GAZA,” @ hxxps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kPE6vbKix6 “Investigating war crimes in Gaza;” AND, come, November, cast Votes for Harris-Walz; IMO, they can join The Biden Collective; &, “Just Do,” this, *“Take the only tree that’s left and stuff it up that hole in your culture!!!”
IMO, inadvertently, “We, the People,” of the Divided $tates of Corporate America fka the USA, are guilty, by association, for the war crimes committed, from the West Bank of Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea. From the Gaza Strip into Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Lebanon, Iran, etc. The USG’s & its Allies’ foreign policy, *’Kill, first. Think, later,’ *“The blizzard, the blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and it has overturned the order of the soul.”
Hence, Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, et al. People for Peace, literally, generations of people, universally, in the streets, demanding the USG’s & its Allies, 3-D $trategy, Deception, Destruction, Death, CEASE!!! “Not In Our Name!” “Never, Again!” “NO Means NO!
AND, HEARD AROUND The WORLD: “This Is Not a Humanitarian Crisis…This Is Genocide.” Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan (10.13.24)
Concluding, Biden-Harris-Walz, *“w/the blood dripping down [their] jaws like a bloody-jawed wolf; STILL got the nerve to point,”[their grubby, dirty, bloody] finger at other countries,” @ their “Opposition,” Trump-Vance; &, Dr. Jill Stein & Rudolph “Butch” Ware.
Biden-Harris-Walz, blame! Blame! Blame, everyone, for the extreme decline in their USG’s & its Allies’ inhumanity. Clearly, Harris-Walz is NOT the RESOLUTION; but, the death knell.
Everybody, knows, 1) Trump-Vance “got” the best chance of taking back the WH! 2) Harris-Walz “got” no heart or soul! Consequently, they’ll be skip’n this dance!!! BUT, Stein-Ware, is the “golden” ticket. Imagine a USG “leading” w/Statesmanship & Diplomacy per a fair & square election. “We,” just might be okay!?! However, the reality is, “we’re screwed!” Fair & Square” is an American dream cancelled out by the American nightmare, “The Abyss,” Election “$election” 2024!!!
Onward & Upwards, tomorrow night, 10.17.24, October’s Harvest, a “Supermoon,” will light up the universe. “There’s a crack in everything,” Harris-Walz, “that’s how the light gets in.” Ciao
* World Party’s album, “Goodbye, Jumbo.”
* Leonard Cohen’s “The Future” & “Anthem”
* Andrew Mitrovica, “Joe Biden Owns This,” @ hxxps://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/10/19/joe-biden-owns-this
* Malcolm X’s Speech, “The Ballot Or The Bullet”
Americans have no one to blame but themselves because the voting majority couldn’t pass the test that citizenship candidates have to pass to become citizens of the United States. Ignorance is not bliss, it is the destruction of the republic approaching.
It’s good to see the author, Jim Kavanagh, engaging with commenters! All to often writers don’t even answer direct questions or acknowledge mistaken data – and not just here at Consortium News.
Does it really matter who is president or which party is governing???The entire country is headed towards the abyss – very few seem to notice.
Just another redux of 2016 and 2020. The political parties always pick those their most powerful donors want, and those that win support their most powerful donors (AIPAC). American voters get a Hobson’s choice.
An exception was Bernie who took huge funding from people reacting to the corruption in American politics. He was cheated out of the Democratic nomination (“he was an Independent not a Democrat”), then betrayed his supporters, fervently supporting Hillary and Genocide Joe. But coincidentally he got a nice Lake House.
Trump did not move the American Embassy to Jerusalem making it the Capital of Israel, that was our Zionist Congress (in 1995 and reaffirmed in 2017: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Embassy_Act), although he was quick to claim credit.
Hmmm, when exactly did Bernie betray his supporters? Before or after he backed Hillary to the Hilt?
Ever since Ralph Nader, the Democrats have run a persistent campaign to try to keep the lefty voters (lefties who disagree with everything that the ‘centrists’ want) aligned with the party and voting for right-wing, Wall St warmongers like Hillary, Biden and Kamala. Kucinich was the first, then Bernie. Did Bernie ever intend to win? Or was the goal always to keep lefty voters trapped in a right-wing party and forced to vote for Hillary, Biden et al on Election Day?
Most evident in 2024 in the way that Bernie, Warren and the rest of the Progressives refused to mount any challenge when the ‘centrists’ were weak and flailing. In 2024 there might have been a real chance for the Progressives to win. The goal they had announced in 2016 was sitting there ready to be taken, defended only by an old man trying to count his jelly beans, and the princess of word salad. If the Progressives really wanted it, there is was. Given a wide open opportunity to try to both gain power and really change things, the Progressives proceeded to sit down and shut up.
The record of the Progressives is that they do not fight to win. They put on a show, but that’s it. Progressives are happy to ‘make a statement’, but they do not fight to win. And they barely seem to fight at all. If the politicians you back do not fight to win, then you never have a chance of winning.
The late and great Alex Cockburn called progressives as “pwogwessives” and he was right. The left, including Sanders and the rest, just abandoned the left for whatever reasons (I have my speculations) but it doesn’t matter. The point is that ever since the dawn of TDS and the whole Russiagate fiasco the left enrolled in loving war, loving censorship, and loving clear lies. The “left” turned out to be citizens of a magic imaginary land that had no relation to reality, logic, or even morality.
Trump’s the worst but Harris is the worstest.
Decades ago, the Libertarians used to suggest that the option of “None of the Above” should always be on the ballot.
Everybody out of the pool!
So – you have two really bad alternatives that are effectively the same. Response – find a difference. I say the difference is World War 3. I’m not American and if the demise of America seems irreversible – that’s not the end of the world. If you are American, and you’re screwed, it’s your catastrophe. This rubbish about the world being screwed because you are screwed is rubbish. We’ll be fine. Fix your own problems – which you say are unfixable. Go on – start.
There will be no American ‘demise’. The American Empire? Sure. That may wither away and America’s influence will certainly decline, but an American rump state is going to survive and will still be pretty powerful relative to other countries. Just as the Russians, Brits and the French survived the stripping away of their empires in the 20th century, and the Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch survived the stripping away of their empires in earlier centuries. I suspect the Chinese will also see a severe decline in influence as the 21st century marches on and their demographic time bomb explodes. But China will survive.
What rises to fill the power vacuum of all those empires in decline is the million dollar question. Nature abhors a vacuum. Something WILL take their place, and it probably won’t be good.
It won’t be good as long as the vacuum is replaced with another abhorrent capitalist empire. Whether it’s millions in the streets protesting for compartmentalized change, replacing the capitalist governments we live under now for duplicate capitalist governments under the banner of reformism, or the power vacuum being filled by another country, the status quo will continue as long as the worldwide call for the eradication of capitalism is ignored. As long as the capitalist system is allowed to continue its extreme exploitation and imperialist conquest of the vast majority of humanity it will continue to spread like a cancer until it consumes us all, even the perpetrators. Unless the global working class faces the elephant in the room and begins to understand its power to eradicate capitalism and create a socialism of human need over profit, they will continue to live with the choices of half measures and truths or fascist demagoguery offered by the ruling class ownership of their governments.
What if it is replaced by an abhorrent collectivist system instead?
We could look forward to another Holdomor or Great Leap Forward or Killing Fields as central planning fails once again.
I always find it amusing when people poo-poo capitalism while posting from capitalist-created phones, powered by capitalist fossil fuel powered electric grid, while drinking an expensive latte they bought from a capitalist coffee shop with their capitalist wages before toddling off in their slick new cars to their lovely air-conditioned capitalist homes. Capitalism has tons of flaws, but it’s still the best system going. That’s why capitalist countries have problems with too many people trying to immigrate to them, while colllectivist countries have always had problems with ‘brain drain’ and labor shortages and had to build walls to keep people IN rather than to keep them OUT. You should try talking to some of the Cuban or Venezuelan or Chinese or Soviet emigres who have actually experienced life under collectivism. Ditto for those who grew up in autocracies in Africa, the Middle East, and South America before emigrating to a dirty ‘capitalist’ country. There is a reason that capitalism is a magnet for emigres while other systems bleed off population as their people flee.
Any collectivist system would be an improvement.
I would happily take a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”. To me it appears that only a mass propaganda machine controlled by oligarchs could ever get people to believe that oligarchical rule is somehow not a horrible disaster with increasing death and declining standards of living.
OMG, we might actually have a peaceful society with good education and every person getting the health care that today only the rich elites receive.
Scoop Jackson called. He wants his antisocialist talking points back. By the way, I’m writing this on a cell phone built in a Communist country.
And another thing: you’re against collectivism, but did you pay for the road you drive your nice capitalist car on to get to your nice capitalist house yourself? Or was it built by a collectivity?
Yeah and another thing: if the capitalist countries had left the rest of the world alone instead of supporting corrupt authoritarian regimes in order to extract the resources needed to keep the profits coming in, if they’d let people live comfortably thanks to their countries’ resources (like the US’s people once did), maybe there wouldn’t be so many people leaving. But I suspect you’re just pushing the immigration button there… You wouldn’t be trying to help a certain presidential candidate out, by any chance?
And as for people leaving Venezuela, Cuba, and other countries where socialist governments have been put in place, maybe they would stay home if the US didn’t systematically sabotage those governments using every means from propaganda to assassination and including organizing and funding coups to put murderous military regimes in place. If socialism is so bad, why not just let them fail on their own?
If you need education in this area, you might start by reading Killing Hope by William Blum, which you can find on the Internet Archive – or buy from Amazon since you’re such a devotee of capitalistm.
The collectivism you speak of is a bureaucratic collectivism that was created by Stalin to sabotage the Bolshevik Revolution. That bureaucratic nightmare is what was exported to every other pseudo-communist/socialist country since. Venezuela and Cuba are two examples where the people have been exploited by their bureaucratic governments and also by the US governments endless meddling. This meddling goes as far back as the Monroe Doctrine. In the modern era though, these countries are, according to Biden and every other President since Eisenhower, considered our backyard and will be couped and sanctioned at will, like Cuba has been for 65 years. The capitalist ruling class in the US can’t stand even the slightest whiff of countries in Central and South America that push even the dead end socialism on offer by their bureaucratic collectivist governments because their biggest fear is the sleeping tiger of the working class at home and abroad coalescing around their common interests and educating themselves to their power.
The socialism I call for is one of, for, and by the working class, not just in this country but worldwide. It is the working class that creates all the wealth and that holds in their hands the immense power to eradicate the system that exploits and enslaves them and it is that power we all must be educated to to create a society based on human need and not profit.
The people you speak of that grew up in autocracies are autocracies created by the US for the purpose of theft where the US government lines the pockets of their tinpot puppet, subjecting the masses to misery while laying the riches before their ruling class masters.
People flee instability and misery and that is the US governments biggest export as it uses violence and intimidation to stabilize its shaky facade of domination.
Wrong. If nuclear war comes, Europe will be the first to be destroyed. If you are not in Europe, you will still not escape.
I don’t know how people can say that there’s no choice but to vote for Trump and at the same time admit that Harris, like Biden, can’t or won’t do anything to stop the genocide. Yet they do. I agree that what is needed is a mass no-vote movement. The power of the powerless.
You do realize that this would have zero effect.
There is no mechanism in America for any minimum amount of voter participation. So, if the only people who voted in this election was Trump’s family and Harris’ family, the System would still count the votes and proclaim a winner. And since both parties and candidates only care about power and grabbing it to themselves, neither would would object to taking power on the strength of 42 total votes. “Its mine!” they would scream.
If people feel powerless, its because people sit around and do nothing until election day. Don’t get mad, Organize! Begin today. Everybody says they don’t like the choices, but then nobody ever starts organizing for the next election. Begin today.
It does not begin with a candidate. It begins with organizing and building a movement. Then the movement picks its own candidate You don’t sit back and wait for a magical candidate on a white horse to just appear that you can support. You have to organize. You have to build a movement. Then the movement picks its candidate, usually one of its own people. Then you organize more to win the election and thus elect one of your own. In America, everybody sits and waits for magic to come and change things for them.
And guess what, if you wanted a “do-not-vote” campaign to have a big effect, then you would also need to have a movement already organized. The slogan does nothing, you need to organize a movement. Without the movement, Trump or Harris will proclaim victory with only 42 votes.
To reiterate a point regarding voting for Jill Stein. I understand the political stance and potential benefit in third-party voting. I have done it and don’t criticize anyone who does. I’m afraid I’m now much more cynical about the whole electoral process and am especially mistrustful of the proprietary electronic voting machines and software that now dominates it. I think it allows third-party votes to be part of what I call an “electoral slush fund” that can be moved around at will. Leftists used to be in the forefront of analyzing and criticizing that, but it’s another line of critical thought most of them abandoned, because Trump.
Here’s what I wrote about it in my 2012 article, “Strike the Vote” hxxps://www.thepolemicist.net/2016/09/strike-vote.html#more
“[The 5% threshold] would indeed be a reason to vote third-party—if only one other condition were met: having a reasonable certainty that the vote you cast for Jill Stein won’t go to Donald Trump [or Kamala Harris..
“It is foolish to ignore how this electronic voting system affects what third-party voting might actually accomplish. There’s no more need to stuff ballots when you can invisibly transfer electronic votes. Third-party votes are no longer just brave, if futile, markers of political difference; they now become a kind of electronic electoral slush fund, available to be moved around unnoticed—precisely because they are votes for candidates who would have lost anyway. Your brave gesture is the machine’s prime fodder. In a close race in a swing state, a few thousand or so votes from the Libertarian and Green candidates combined can be easily shifted to a RepubliCrat candidate. The combined third-party share of the vote will go from 12% to 9%, or (more likely) 5% to 3%, of the vote, and Hillary or Donald (depending on which party controls the hack in a given state) will eke out a victory. Who’s going to notice?”
Sorry to be such a bummer. But this is how bad I think it is.
I will vote Green if I can, Libertarian if I can’t. L’s are anti-war at least.
Regarding your statement, The U.S. electoral system is insultingly anti-democratic. Built around donor control, a pastiche of opaque voting and tabulating systems including black-box proprietary electronic machines that could allow undetectable fraud, and, topping it all off, the Electoral College”, you really shouldn’t worry about voting machines. Actually, I trust the voting machines and I trust our elections, You may not, but so what? You, yourself, said that it doesn’t matter who wins the election because the president is just a figurehead and ruling class will dictate what happens. So, if you only have two choices and the outcome is the same regardless which one wins, why do you care about the elections?
The only possibility of something different happening is for the majority of voters to vote for an alternative to Harris and Trump. If that should happen, then the elections would matter.
You are absolutely right about the looming disaster, but your advice “The proper response to this should be an organized public, political boycott”. is absolute the worst possible advice anyone can give. All you accomplish is reducing to total vote count without affecting the outcome. That’s insane.
The worst fear of the ruling class is not a boycott of the elections, it’s the possibility that a third party or independent candidate will defeat their duopoly. Today, the ruling class has little fear that will happen simply because it has never happened. And today, most people say that it’s impossible for it to happen because it has never happened. So they will vote for the least favored of the duopoly or abstain from voting. Either way, they are throwing away their vote and ensuring that the ruling class stays in power regardless of the outcome.
If you truly want to register your grievance with the ruling class, make sure you vote; but vote for a third party or independent candidate.
Truth in advertising: I am fed up with both red and blue parties and I want them to know it. So I will vote green next month.
Can’t do that in Nevada-and several other states as well-the Government took away our right to vote for the Green Party Candidate. I will only be voting on issues.
You never heard of writing in the candidate of your choice? I always do. I vote the Socialist Equality Party.
I had the same disagreement with this overall excellent, very detailed article, except, actually, it HAS happened before in our country, in this first-past-the-post, two-party system. That’s why there are other party names in the history books that are no longer on ballots in recent times.
And the tipping point is not as far off as one might think. People say, “Your 3rd party needs to grow a lot!” Actually, their 2nd party only needs to shrink a little.
The vast majority of dem votes are strategic, “lesser-evil” votes. They are there for the appearance of a chance of winning, or the odds. Odds move exponentially in relation to polling.
How much does the dem party need to shrink? How low was Joe when all the top dems converged to ditch him because EVERYONE knew he couldn’t win?
A couple of points below Kamalageddon.
When everyone knows you can’t win, your strategic votes aren’t strategic anymore.
Had Joe been allowed to continue to November 5th, there could have been the situation where everyone knows their guy can’t win and, therefore, tens of millions of strategic votes are
not strategic anymore.
That’s the tipping point.
Not-voting would be anything but a passive act. A not-voting movement would have to be active, positive, and responsible – whereas our participation in elections under the present system has become passive, negative (in that we vote not for something but against something perceived as being worse; meanwhile the better itself becomes worse and worse), and irresponsible (in that we vote for candidates we know will allow wrong to be done).
Think of it as forming a political party that would urge people, loudly and with conviction, not to vote.
What would that accomplish?
There is a potentially more effective response than just boycotting elections:
A large plurality of US voters now register as independent. Gallup has 63% of registered voters favoring a viable third party. Not all these people agree with one another as a candidate, so this does not really constitute a voting bloc in the usual sense. But it is a major vote of no-confidence for the parties-that-be.
Why not go and vote 3rd party pretty much all the time, all up and down the ballot? You can make an exception any time the R’s or D’s produce something worthy of respect; that won’t change many votes, if any. This does not solve the opaque voting process thing. And it does not dissolve the Electoral College, nor get rid of “super-duper delegates” or similar hedges.
What it would do is to force the thieves to steal more openly.
I doubt that there is much more time left to attempt something like this, without bombs or without guns, and with the traditions of electoral politics still having some play. As the ruling class and the media consolidate and congeal, such actions become easier to just deny.
why should ” they ” be concerned about low turnouts;they can manufacture them if necessary-the abyss is also certain
If enough people vote for Jill Stein and she gets 5% of the vote, we finally have a third party who will be eligible for the same federal funding as other candidates. It’s called taking the long view, because it is not likely, so they say, that she will win, but it would be a win to have better choices on the ballot if the world is able to survive the next four years.
I only have one question for Mr. Kavanagh. Where is the hell have you been since the end of Barrack Obama’s first term.
I mean considering your credentials and all?
I’ve been writing and appearing on shows extensively since 2012. See my Substack page hxxps://thepolemicist.substack.com/ and my legacy website www(dot)thepolemicist(dot)net and my X/Twitter feed @ThePolemicist_
Also look me up on Counterpunch and The Greanville Post.
Jim time was then and is now of the essence, mess you describe may have been avoided had the hapless democrats had any real character and not mailed in their dismal effort of selecting a candidate.
They showed me nothing but lust for power and ignorance of the disdain the public held at the time for Hillary. They proved as much when they caved to the Queen of Chaos ($$$$$) and rubber stamped her candidacy.
You have responded. I recognize your points and stand duly corrected. In addition I was unfair in that I didn’t address your description of the two candidates. I happen to agree with you 100%.
Interesting you mention SubStack. Understand, I consider myself as not being a professional writer, but rather one person, who struggles from time to time to write anything coherent. I struggle with using everything available technologically also.
Just so you know I describe myself as being an agnostic, dyslexic insomniac, who lies awake at night wondering if Dog (ma) really exists.
However, I also submit comments to Jeff Morley’s JFK facts at SubStack. I’ll promise you I will look for your stuff. I wrote several comments for Jeff’s Oct 14, 2024 JFK Press Conference: Inside the CIA’s Secret JFK Files. I would be greatly pleased and honored if you were to go there and read the comments mine included.
This said I intend to get my licks in. I feel the country would be better off if more folks like me vented their spleens. We Must use our freedom of speech or lose it.
I appreciate your response and I’m thinking you might be more forgiving of my words here if you better understood understand where I’m coming from.
I’m not making excuses but given the current state of affairs of our government, the election process, two rather worthless political parties, the corrupt SCOTUS and fighting wars of choice I’m rather exercised at this point in the latter stages of my life.
I do wonder though, have you no thoughts on my comment of Oct 15th @ 23:23 here below.
With new found respect Grumpa, 76 and still learning.
Thanks CN
If everyone who is disgusted by the corruption of this system voted for Jill, she would win. She is on the ballot in enough states to win the electoral college. It’s fear that prevents them from doing so. At this point we really have nothing to lose by voting Green.
Lois the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
My comment above @18:36 may need an explanation for some here.
Way back when I started frequenting this site I seldom noticed anyone referring to a third party, other than commenting such an effort would be a waste of time.
When the democrats paved the way for the Queen of Chaos to run against Trump the party absolutely blew it.
Instead of thinking realistically they lost control of themselves much in the same function of arrogance, greed and placating bad actors as the republican party did. The democratic party in their effort to present a totally bogus unified front to voters turned a deaf ear to those who protested against the democratic party’s heavy handed bogus candidate selection process.
The right life cannot be lived wrongly. The extreme right wing republicans, a crew of aged greedy minds succumbed to a billionaire and his incoherent ravings. It’s all pretty simple actually.
The SCOTUS Citizens United VS the FEC decision paid dividends to the super wealthy elitist who I have written about ever since. The ruling is killing the voting process by dominating the MSM. remember both democrats, Hillary and the republicans, George W “SHRUB” both filed lawsuits to gain the ruling from the SCOTUS.
The voting public at large were eliminated from influencing elections because the ruling said money IS speech, which it clearly is not!
“We the People” the largest segment of the voter nationwide fail to understand the the super wealthy elitist have taken control of both parties buying who they want to represent themselves not us by pouring unlimited amounts of money onto election campaigns. SEE: the MSM ads, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!
The result a third party is needed on the most dire way. Something that was abundantly clear at the end of the Obama administration leading to Trumps election in 2016.
When we look around today we see that results of the SCOTUS ruling staring back at us.
Y’ all best make damned sure Trump don’t get elected again before trying any late planned alternative. If you don’t you very well might no get another chance to vote.
Others and myself tried to tell you folks what was happening. Take a long hard look around, do you get the picture now! IF the democrats win we need to let them know there will be No Next Time and start working for a third party. However the SCOTUS ruling must go away if a third party can not make serious inroads into the election process.
I figure after this upcoming election the Trumpists cause enough bedlam you might finally figure this stuff out.
Winston Churchill once said, ” You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, . . . after they try everything else!”
Seems in this case he may have been right!
Thanks Cn!
“The voting public at large were eliminated from influencing elections because the ruling said money IS speech, which it clearly is not! ”
The public can indeed “influence elections” – by voting, other than bribing our elected officials, where do you suppose all that 1% money goes to – the spending around elections is all aimed at influencing the voter – to get elected you need money AND votes – you can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t have the votes, you lose …
Thank you Lois, you are absolutely right!
“The proper response to this should be an organized public, political boycott.
The ruling class doesn’t much care about which duopoly clown emcees the circus; the majority of the people not voting, sapping legitimacy from the system, is what it fears most.”
I don’t think it fears low voter turnout at all – after all there is no rule that a minimum % of the electorate votes to declare a winner – if only 50 people voted in a State, say, 26 votes would win that State, and the overall winner could say “I got a mandate from the voters!”
Silence is assent – and silence at the polls is assent to the results ….
What it does fear the most is a 3rd Party – so we are told that “3rd Parties can’t win”, which is nonsense, since any candidate on a ballot can win if enough people vote for ’em, and the D/R duopoly knows this, which is why it makes ballot access for them sooo difficult – in NY, e.g. they raised the signature requirements so much that it makes it virtually impossible for any 3rd Party, not backed by mega bucks, to meet them (notice, neither Ds nor Rs have the same signature requirements, all they have to do is “win” the nomination from their Party – frankly, I think these requirements should be challenged in Court) And if any 3rd Party makes it to the ballot, they are accused of being a “spoiler”, which is also ridiculous because any candidate running wants to “spoil” it for every other candidate – the Rs want to “spoil” it for the Ds, e.g. and vice-versa.
The end result is that we are told we have only two choices – and must either boycott or pick a LOTE – think about that, we must choose an “evil” – so we vote, for the most part, not for what we want, but against what we don’t – and that is how we wind up with these 2 miscreants – has any one noticed, that “lesser evil” gets more evil with each election, all they have to do is just be a little less evil than the other “choice”, who has itself gotten more evil every time …
There are other, better choices on the ballot – but people say they are not “viable” – the 3rd shot fired – but any party is “viable” if enough people work, support and vote for it – neither the DP nor GOP would be “viable” if nobody supported or voted for it …
The bit about the “black-box” voting machines is legit – their software is “proprietary” and “recounts” are simply running the ballots through the same process – the answer is to get rid of the machines altogether and go back to hand counted paper ballots – of course that process could be monkeyed with as well, but with strict security for required transfer from place to place, such monkeying would have to be done in a coordinated fashion over a wide area to make a difference … How did we ever elect anybody for decades, centuries even, without the machines. Of course this is time consuming – good heavens, we might have to wait for some days, even weeks, before the results are in! Good grief!
“We the people” could take this system back – if we thought it was worth it — the first thing we have to do is debunk all the BS we are told about it …
Probably. Check with the Sec of State office, or whoever runs the elections.
It used to be they would tally all write-in votes. Then they got tired of having to count all the votes for “Donald Duck” and “Mickey Mouse” (and probably worried that they might ‘win’ someday), so they stopped counting those and now they make actual ‘candidates’ apply in advance to be a ‘legitimate’ write in votes. It usually doesn’t take a lot, but its form to fill out and maybe a bit more.
Parties like the Greens and Libertarians usually do this, and I’d guess West at the “Unity” party would have as well. But be aware, for the Race for the White House, you usually have to write in Both the Presidential Name and VP name, and get them correct, so you might want to jot them down. Another good reason to check with the Sec of State website to get it correct and don’t give them an excuse to say your vote counts even less than it normally does in our Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
I couldn’t agree more, about both candidates and the current president.
I’m not sure I buy the premise of checking out of voting altogether though. First, because state and local politics still matter. Second, because I don’t think the powers that be give a flying fig about legitimacy of elections and turnout. And third, because I don’t like surrounding what infinitesimally small control I have over the federal government (compared to their control over me).
I’d love nothing more than a return to the 90s, when an actual serious third party challenger stepped up, and actually talked policy and economic impacts of said policy. Can you imagine either candidate today walking through a highly informative Ross Perot style infomercial on economic policy? At one point, Perot was even leading the race before his campaign fell apart. Still, he did managed to peel off enough conservative votes to block Papa Bush from getting a second term, which was nice. Even Ralph Nader’s 2000 run, while having only a shadow of the impact of Perot’s runs, talked policy and had actual principals and strong beliefs, versus just saying whatever he felt would get him a few more votes.
I was hoping RFK Jr could have a similar impact in this election, but he fizzled out rather quickly and then quit. It’s a shame that 3rd parties are so ineffective. I think a lot of it is that many fear the vitriol that comes their way if they help swing an election. This is particularly true on the left, where Nader, Jill Stein, and RFK Jr were treated as traitors and heretics for potentially costing the Democrats an election. Republicans don’t despise right-leaning 3rd party candidates that take away votes from them in the same way Democrats do. Lawfare is another reason 3rd parties are weaker than ever. The big parties fight tooth and nail to keep them off of ballots, and in the case of RFK Jr, Democrats fought to keep him off the ballot when he was in the race and are now fighting to keep him ON ballots after he dropped out of the race. Some enterprising screenwriter should make a political comedy/farce based on the whole thing.
Yeppers Mr. Kavanagh, that be about it…
In further news, it considered by many a good thing that George W. Bush Jr. or Arnold Schwarzenegger cannot run for President. Even as a Democrat.
Although it hardly matters if they lead us into WWIII, on the domestic front there actually are a few significant differences between the candidates, that will probably make a bit of a difference over the few years I’ve got left. But I don’t live in a swing state so I’m still voting for Jill Stein
I like your article a lot. It’s high time a good source of news called out both candidates’ glaring flaws. Not many have done that. Thanks. There is a difference between these two incompetents. Trump was censored when he was president–a sitting president, for god’s sake. The only core thing he insists upon is free speech, the bedrock of any democracy. not that the US has ever been a democracy, at least it has the First Amendment. With Harris, that’s GONE. And that’s the worst thing that could happen, especially when we know people like Hillary Clinton will be the deciders of what we can read, buy, hear, see or where we can go; it will be the end of protests, an honored tradition that has brought about end of war (Vietnam), labor laws (unions). etc. Censorship is already in full swing, happening in all mediums; notice the great journalists who’ve been banned on legacy news because MSM kowtows to the Democrats. That’s why two good candidates, RFK, Jr. and Jill Stein weren’t allowed into the presidential debate, because either one would have beaten the socks of both Harris and Trump. The American public weren’t allowed to hear them. Trump is also adamant about NOT having digital IDs and CBDCs forced upon us, meaning books I like (by dissenters) I won’t be allowed to buy. Those things will control every minute of our lives, falling onto the same censorship mentioned above..notice in the college protest over the genocide in Palestine, the donors called the schools’ presidents who called the police who showed up and arrested the protesters, not the pro-Israel troublemakers.
Except Trump is NOT a free-speech warrior. He has explicitly called for siccing soldiers on protestors and for “closing the internet,” mocking people who “will say: ‘Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech!’ These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people”
Thinking Trump is going to save free speech or drain the Deep State swamp is as foolish as thinking Kamala is going to “move left.”
See my “Bobby’s Bounce”https://thepolemicist.substack.com/p/bobbys-bounce
Sorry, Mr. Kavanaugh, the Democrats want a Digital Act here as Europe has. Hillary Clinton says without censorship, “we will lose total control,” and she’s in Kamala’s ear on all issues. In fact, she wants to shut up people who are against war. How many Americans know Biden/Harris decided in January to perpetuate an open-ended war on Yeman, the poorest country in the Middle East? The lies about threats from Russia and China come from Democrats. Trump, yes, says what Adelson wants him to say and admits it because she bought him with $100 million, just as AIPAC has bought our Congress. I think you and I can agree that private money should not be allowed in politics and public money be equally distributed. Both major candidates are pro-genocide, obviously. Why don’t either stump for healthcare/education for all? I grew up voting Democrat. Can’t now since it’s switched ideologies with former Republicans, like Cheney whose endorsement Harris happily accepted. Here’s the best difference between them: RFK, Jr. will be in Trump’s cabinet, and the rotten choices Trump made last time (Pompeo, etc.) won’t happen this time.
Nor will digital IDs and CBDCs hich would leave us with no freedoms at all. Whatever, Jill Stein gets my vote for calling a genocide a genocide.
Say what? Trump “insists” upon free speech as a “core” value? You haven’t been paying attention, have you?
Republican/Democrat loyalists be like, “Yeah? Well people are still trying to move here, so…”
I don’t know which is more terrifying: climate chaos or “clownish” chaos.
On the contrary, both Harris and Trump are sufficiently competent figures for the role of leading us into the abyss.
As for avoiding the abyss and leading us elsewhere …
Jim, I am almost 100% with you on the boycott idea. I say “almost” because if Jill Stein were on the ballot in my state, I would vote for her – the same goes for Cornel West. However, I live in Oklahoma , where it is very difficult for third parties to get on the ballot and, unfortunately, Jill Stein is not on the ballot in Oklahoma. I have come to the same conclusion you have reached – we need to boycott this rotten to the core system. The fact that our Country is now participating in the genocide of the Palestinians made the decision very easy for me – I will not vote for any candidate who supports the genocide. Jill Stein unequivocally opposes both the genocide and funding the racist, genocidal, criminal state of Israel. Israel is not our ally; on the contrary, Israel is a huge liability to the U.S. We should not be sending even one penny to Israel and, if the U.S. government had any decency, it would put an end to the genocide by cutting off all aid to Israel. But our government is spineless, corrupt and utterly lacking in decency.
Is Stein available as a write-in in OK? She is in NY ….
Write-in votes are not counted in OK.
It appears that no one can ‘be available as a write-in candidate’ in Oklahoma. I don’t see why a voter can’t exercise the act of writing-in any name they want, though.
Spot on Jim Thomas!
Will some one plz ‘splain to me how voting for Jill Stein is — in any important way –different from not voting at all?
I’ll try, if you’ll try to ’splain to me how voting for Kamala Harris is.
See my comment on the thread.