So, I've watched a few videos over the past hour with different opinions on the whole left right situation, and I've been having a lot of thoughts. I really do feel mixed on Harris. She's okay, but I also feel both positive and negative toward her.
On the plus side, she's the best candidate we could've realistically gotten this election cycle. Sam Seder discussed this tonight and it's something that I've been aware of from the get go too. Biden did pioneer a new brand of liberalism that kind of split the difference between the centrist "new democrats", and the bernie win. It's still pretty mild and milquetoast IMO, but it did do some things right. And despite the centrists still effectively controlling the party, they didn't like that they didn't have someone even MORE centrist, and in pushing Biden out, they were hoping to have an open primary to push a more centrist candidate on us. Kamala Harris is, by my own admission, among the best of the candidates we could've gotten. She was Biden's VP, she actually has a history of being more progressive than how she's running this election. And let's face it, anyone the democrats would've let us have would've been worse. And then Tim Walz. Tim Walz was admittedly the best VP choice. Most of the people in the running were the people we would've gotten if not for Biden endorsing Harris. You know, bland centrists. Tim Walz kinda has that similar ideology as Harris where it's actually a bit of a non ideology. Is it progressive? is it centrist? it's actually this weird mystery meat and no one knows what they're gonna get. It's hard to attack because it's vague, but as we discussed, liberals want vague because specifics will alienate someone.
Honestly, IN THEORY, I can tolerate a Harris-Walz ticket. They actually are open to embracing a lot of my lower priorities, and Harris has a history of embracing universal healthcare. However, this is also where we see the dark side of this mystery meat ideology Biden/Harris/Walz are cooking up.
In 2020, I actually was highly critical of Kamala Harris. I called her a "fauxgressive" and basically said I fear she'll run left to win over progressive voters and then abandon them in office. For as much as Biden has shifting the party left, he's also kind of done things half way, and on topics like healthcare, you know, a big priority of mine, he's kinda left them high and dry. And Harris has...not surprisingly, abandoned her own 2020 healthcare plan in her 2024, fearing it will alienate moderates and the medical industrial complex. So...Harris is kind of exactly what I feared she would become. Someone who starts left and then walks things back to the center. Is she further left than some? yes. If she as far left as she could be? no. Is she still the best we're gonna get in 2024? Ugh, I guess she is. Kinda like how I was begrudgingly backing Biden, now I feel like I have to do the same with Harris. We're not in a position where we can be picky. Trump is dangerous, we only have a ~50% chance of winning, we need to make do in the political reality we have, not the one we want. Harris will at least give us some good stuff.
Now, the other video I watched, Marianne Williamson talked about the left. And she kinda made sense too. She talked about how we needed to be laser focused on our goals and support people, even if we don't like them on a personal level. I think she was talking about herself and how she held a lot of broadly held progressive goals and values, but very few people united behind her because they thought she was a crystal lady. For the record. I did. I voted for her in the primary. As I said, i'll be darned if I don't vote my values at least once my election cycle, and I was part of that 2-3% of people who supported her.
But then she talked in and out strategies, do we support dems, third party, what? And how we need to do both. And dont give up and keep pushing. I agree. I mean, here's the thing. I am kind of on the same wavelength as her here. We need to figure out priorities, push for them, and keep hammering away until we get them. And we should, in a normal election cycle, be willing to vote third party if we don't get them from the democrats.
Now, we can't do this this year because, well...Trump. You wanna roll the dice on that fascist getting elected and possibly breaking our democracy, have at it, but I don't want that, so I will vote for Harris just to keep trump out THIS TIME. But again, temporary alliance, if the dems go hard center, I won't do it again. If the dems push further left, I'm open to further voting and cooperation with them, but ultimately, I am loyal to my ideas. I just ain't willing to sacrifice democracy itself for them.
As such, I guess I do gotta back harris. I don't like it. In some ways, voting green MIGHT be better at pushing my top priorities. but at the same time, given the overarching emphasis on palestine I feel like my message will get blown over by those weirdos with that bullhorn. Which once again brings me back to the left.
I'm NOT on the same page, priority wise, as much of the left. my priorities have always been stuff like UBI, M4A, free college, student debt forgiveness, climate change stuff, housing fixes, etc. And while I guess the left cares about some of those things, their actual POLICIES vary widely from mine. Even if Stein supports UBI in theory in the form of an NIT, her support of it is akin to harris's support of medicare for all. I mean maybe but given her actual priorities are green new deal...not really. And GND...not really a huge fan of that. I actually like the Biden-Harris approach to climate better as it would allow me to spend more money on UBI and/or M4A.
And foreign policy wise...i LIKE Biden and Harris. Literally the only blight on their record IS palestine, and while i do acknowledge netanyahu is going too far, I literally don't care enough about the issue to vote on it. Meanwhile, Stein basically wants to cut the defense budget like 90% and pull out of NATO. That's just...insane. I mean. Can lefties stop being at least decent on my economic vision only to be insane on something else in a completely cringe and deal breaking way, please? Like, can we NOT have a foreign policy that basically would destroy the western world order? Or split the vote in a way to allow a literal fascist who wants to be a dictator to win? Pretty please? I like democracy and western values very much. I mean, my ideas are kinda based on them, and we wont even have the luxury to advocate for my most left wing beliefs that drive me to third parties in the first place if we dont have a safe environment to have these political debates in, thank you very much.
So again, driven back to Harris. Not even touching Cornel West going full anti vax trying to appeal to RFK voters. Ugh, can we like...not have third parties be complete crackpots? Seriously, i feel like this is why no one takes them seriously. It's like most third party candidates arent exactly well adjusted people themselves but have weird, cringey, extremist views and ideologies. And even if they're based on some stuff, they're cringe on other stuff to such an extent i literally doesn't matter.
So yeah...after parsing this stuff out, everything comes back to "yeah, just vote for Harris." I mean, she's not everything I want, and she is a major let down on at least one of my big issues, but yeah. I just can't justify voting for someone else this year. So...Harris, you win. I hope you have a good presidency. I hope you actually get pressured to do something with healthcare. And even though we won't get anything better until at least 2032, we won't get anything worse either. And hopefully by then the centrist dems will kinda ride off into the sunset and realize the era of the "new democrat" is over. FINALLY. FRICKING FINALLY.
No comments:
Post a Comment