So, Kyle Kulinski's coverage of the 2024 Williamson run looks a lot like what my coverage would look like in early 2015 of the Sanders campaign. He seems shocked at all of the derision, and the fact that the democrats are just quietly burying coverage of Williamson. To which I say, "no crap, first time?" I mean, I saw this coming, and the reason I'm discussing this stuff on here is to add on to what he's saying and to make my case as to how they're treating anti establishment people running within the democratic party. There's a lot of gaslighting saying "there's no rigging going on blah blah blah", to which I say, well, it depends what you mean by rigging. if you mean stuffing ballot boxes, no. if you mean setting up the process to manufacture consent and to guarantee a certain desired result, I say yes. And now I want to turn my attention to how progressives in government are reacting to this. While Bernie himself seemed to be fairly positive, the progressive caucus has gone with Biden. And Kyle is over here like "why? arent they supposed to be progressive?", so I want to give my own take on this stuff.
As I keep saying, the democratic party is a political machine. It's not a good will organization that truly cares about "democraceh" as Kyle would say. They only care when it suits them. Push comes to shove they're only one step more democratic than the republicans in that they want two party rule instead of one party rule. And individual members have little freedom or autonomy, in my estimation, to actually give their own opinions on stuff. When you're on the inside, the pressure to be an insider is enormous. People often give crap to people like AOC over stuff like "force the vote", asking why she wouldnt defy the party and force a vote on medicare at all. The answer is, because if she did that, she'd be shut out of washington. The democrats would give her no committee assignments, she wouldnt be able to do anything, and then the democrats run someone against her next election cycle and probably win, because they'd frame it as AOC is worthless, doesnt get along with others doesnt get things done, and we need a "real progressive" who can get things done. And the dem voters are ignorant enough to go along with it. So it works.
The fact is, when you're on the inside, these guys enforce strict party discipline. It reminds me of the tactic the bad guy in the 007 movie "Licence to Kill" used: "plomo o plata". That means "lead" or "silver" in english. The bad guy was a drug lord, and his ways of dealing with local politicians was summed up by that phrase. Basically, here's a bribe, now be a good little boy and don't go against me, and if you do you'll get lead instead (implying being executed). NOW, to be fair, that's not LITERALLY what's happening here. No one is being executed if they defy the democrats (that I know about). BUT...the democrats' strategy is kinda similar. Basically, if you play the inside game, we'll give you little rewards, a committee seat you want, a couple superficial giveaways and compromises, but if you don't, well, you get nothing, and we will run you out of office. So if you care about your career and your future in politics, you gotta play the long game. You gotta go along with the party, endorse the right people, keep your mouth shut, be a nice team player, big smiles, put on the show, and be a team player. If you don't, boom, you're done. They'll get you thrown out of office and you'll be replaced by someone who is more willing to play ball.
This is why AOC is so meek in office, since i see a lot of progressives crap on her. This is why Bernie has also become so pacified. He has relationships in office, Biden bent enough to give him something to get him to play ball, and he's gone from being the outsider looking to change the system to the insider meekly trying to defend Biden's agenda.
To be fair, we've seen Biden's agenda, it does have some of Bernie's influence in it. Not that it mattered because of congress and people like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema standing in the way, but the fact is, if these old 2016 and 2020 outsider progressives go against Biden and the party now, you can kiss build back better and whatever nominal changes Biden wanted to do goodbye. He would be hard line centrist dem like he was for most of his career, and that's what you get. And that's how they got him.
This is why I kinda respected Yang for walking away from the Biden administration and starting his own party (even though he's sold out in his own way and I can't forgive him for that). This is also why I respect Williamson's run. She's honest, she's committed. She seems to portray a willingness to take this to the end, and if the dems stab her in the back, she's even openly suggested on Yang's program previously that she would be open to a third party run. She's there to change the system and get results. She's not a careerist. She's a spiritualist who has her own conscience and this is what she's being guided to do. I can respect that, and I respect her. I don't always agree with her, but hey, someone has to play that role, if no one else stands up.
And that's why the democrats are being dismissive. Ultimately, they're about damage control. They'd rather silence their competition than actually compete. So they dismiss her and go on about auras, and the progressive caucus backs biden in a show of solidarity with the party, and blah blah blah. Their hope is that williamson just goes away, or that she's suppressed enough where it's as if she goes away. They did it with Bernie too, and then went overboard trying to ensure that bernie supporters would vote clinton to a point it just drove me away from the party. Again, the republicans never acted like this as openly. I did have some suspicions about ron paul in 2008 being suppressed, but honestly, for the most part, the culture of forcing people into line isnt as prevalent over there.
Anyway, I just wanted to discuss the issue from my perspective. Andrew Yang kind of talked about this in forward too, talking about how politics are relational and how people often feel a tension between loyalty and their ideals. It's one of the reasons why political leaders sometimes make such questionable choices with endorsements. Politics runs on these kinds of relationships, and those relationships trump ideals. Again, it's why i respected yang for walking away from the democrats, and why im so concerned about his current direction with forward. He did the right thing only to then do the wrong thing. But I digress, this isn't about Yang, it's about progressive dems endorsing Biden. This article is why. Relationships and standing within the party trumps actual policy positions, and anyone who doesn't play ball gets kicked out of office. And that's why we shouldnt expect Williamson to get much help.
I respect what williamson is doing, by the way. I know I'm a bit more cynical, and I've diverged from Bernie's politics a bit to be more UBI centric, where I'm not as enthused about a Sanders style candidate this time around, and Im realistic about williamson's chances, but I respect her.
As for why I haven't full on endorsed her yet, it's because I like to wait until the end of 2023 before I make any reasonable decision. I want to see who is in, what they stand for, and I dont want to endorse williamson now just for a pro UBI candidate to jump in later. So I'm waiting to see how things shape up. But between williamson and biden? Williamson. She's objectively better, and I have no relationships with Biden where I feel he's owed my vote. Sure, he's done some things I like, but he's also done them in rather watered down ways. Ultimately I will support whomever is closest to my ideals, and Williamson scores objectively higher in that sense, as I evaluated when she declared her run the other day. And yeah. So we'll see how this shapes up. But tentatively, I'm for williamson for now.
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