So, from the most notable names, I noticed something among the most high profile democrats who haven't supported Harris, most notably Obama and until very recently, Pelosi: they were the ones pushing hardest to get Joe out. The ones who were calling for an open convention fell into two groups: anti establishment progressives in the social media sphere, and establishment party leaders. Now, Pelosi has since endorsed Harris. But she didnt come out of the gate doing this. This is a "finger in the wind" move. She was originally calling for an open convention.
Why did these dems do that? Because they not only wanted Biden to vacate, they kinda didnt want Harris in. Why? Because theyre listening to donors. And Harris is progressive, and the centrist new democrats want their party back, and they dont want to share power with progressives at all. This is why I have quickly endorsed Harris, as have many Biden allies in congress. They wanted an open convention to try to push someone more moderate. Someone more "third way" friendly. Meanwhile Biden and Harris have pioneered a lane between the centrists and progressives that is relatively palatable to both. And most who didn't want harris were on one of the extremes of that debate.
Again, this is a power struggle. By endorsing harris, we put a quick end to it. We shut the door on the possibility of an electoral coup at the convention. And yeah, it's a good move. We on the left don't really want an open convention. I know some on the far left have been calling for this, but it's foolish. What do you think is gonna happen at an open convention? Are we gonna magically get Bernie? No, of course not. Any shift from Harris is probably gonna be toward the center on the guise that we have to move right to be "electable". I can read these people like a book, don't buy it.
That said, let's talk about the left. There are some elements of the left who havent endorsed Harris either. Some of them, like Cenk for example, make their living on sowing discontent. They claim to want democracy, but let's face it, the time for democracy was January. We cant organize an actual primary in a couple weeks nationally, and even if we did, Harris is the shoe in anyway, I've seen the polling on that. So this convention is just party elites fighting amongst themselves. Trying to undermine the more progressive candidate for a more centrist one. I get the calls for "democracy", the democratic party is anything but democratic internally, but that said, harris is the right compromise choice for everyone involved right now.
Btw, just saying it, but a right wing talking point is also to weaponize the whole "democratic party isnt democratic" line that some on the left are spouting. Its intended to whip up discontent in the party, and honestly, again, what do you think is gonna happen if we did have a convention? Again its too late for anything other than some open convention where delegates (party elites) fight it out. And that's gonna work AGAINST the left, not in favor of it so idk why some are arguing for this. it's just creating disunity. And I know im not a party unity guy, but this time we do need to come together and harris is actually palatable to my own goals. So I'm sticking with her.
And then there's the other group. "The left", ie, the far left. And I'm going to be honest. I've been falling out with these guys HARD over the past election cycle. When I bernie or busted in 2016, it was over policy. My idea was that if the democrats promoted policies I liked, I'd vote for them. The democrats aren't as far left as I'd like them to be but one of the reasons I'm so enthusiastic about Kamala as a unity pick is because she actually offers reasonably progressive policy on many of my top purity tests. She's literally bernie lite. Is she perfect? No. Do I want more than what she offers? On some fronts, yes. But can i settle for her? Absolutely.
A lot of the left left doesn't. And I feel like these guys are in their own little world. They're still screeching about the genocide in gaza and opposing harris because's a "capitalist" and basically no nominee the dems could ever put forward would support them. These guys have recently turned on AOC with the DSA openly cutting their support for her over her current moves (meanwhile I'm in the pro AOC/Bernie camp). And honestly in retrospect, idk why they even supported Bernie. Their ideas on electoralism are so extreme, and their mentality is so "burn it all down" that I don't understand why these guys even vote.
And on stuff like Kamala Harris, like compare Kamala Harris to Jill Stein. Is Harris more moderate? Sure. But how much of Jill Stein's top economic goals does Harris actually support in some form? Probably 70-80%. And what do I always say about someone who you agree with 70-80% of the time? That you're not gonna get much better than that, and you should support them.
Maybe there's more divergence over say, social issues, where Kamala is "tough on crime" for a leftie while the far left is full "ACAB" and maybe Harris is a "dirty imperialist" for daring have almost the same positions as Biden on foreign policy while they want like, some crazy unrealistic approach to policy that no one can ever achieve. And yeah....sorry lefties, i dont fricking agree with you. I'm just a liberal who wanted more progressive economic policy in the vein of Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang. Harris actually is, in theory the great compromise here on that, at least given where we are in 2024.
So yeah, leftists are gonna screech about how nothing is ever good enough for them, and I'm perfectly fine to let them stew in their own echo chambers. And I'm just gonna my fellow liberals, i know lots of you guys have this "blue no matter who" mentality and wanna voter shame them, it won't work. I mean, I'm far more reasonable than these guys and I still dont react well to that. These guys are on their own PLANET policy wise. Like they're not on the same page, they're not in the same book. They're not in the same library. Nor are they on the same planet. They're not. Their weirdo radicals who will never be satisfied, and honestly, I'm perfectly fine with the rest of the party just letting them self isolate. Let them do what they want and vote for jill stein and stay home. They can't be reasoned with, I tried to point out the strong economic positions harris has and they're just full on "ItS nOt SoCiAlIsM!!11!" Screw socialism. I am so sick of socialists and their stupid socialism. I dont care. I'm not a fricking communist. And yes, I've read some theory. I've also been trying to write my own theory. And it's better than their theory. Seriously, just...screw those guys.
But yeah. That's where we're at. As such, let me just say, for those who have rallied behind Harris, I'm glad we can all be on the same page. We might not all see eye to eye, but that's coalitions in a nutshell. it's about keeping diverse interests happy, and I'm glad we can actually find a unity candidate this time. The only people on the left who don't see happy with this are radicals on the one side and the donor class on the other. But hey, it's not 1992 any more, and Clinton style politics are dead. And even if we shift left into social liberalism, we're never gonna be communist either so communists should just fricking give up already.
Harris seems to unite everyone in between those two extremes, and I'm kinda happy to see it.
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