{"id":168943,"date":"2020-09-21T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=168943"},"modified":"2020-09-21T08:42:54","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T07:42:54","slug":"changing-the-washington-guard-what-a-democratic-sweep-in-november-portends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/09\/changing-the-washington-guard-what-a-democratic-sweep-in-november-portends\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing the Washington Guard: What a Democratic Sweep in November Portends"},"content":{"rendered":"

19 Sep 2020 –\u00a0<\/em>At the risk of counting chickens before they hatch, what would the return of Team Blue portend?<\/p>\n

As is patently obvious, the US is in trouble. Climate driven heat waves and fires grip the nation. An already faltering economy with deep contradictions could only tank given the shock of the pandemic that has necessitated varying degrees of sequestering. In fact, the downturn<\/a> had already started before COVID-19 hit. An already largely privatized healthcare system run for profit and a social ethic that rejects \u201csocialized\u201d public health measures could only have proven inadequate. Added to this mix, an historically racist<\/a> nation was ripe for the righteous protests against overt injustices. These conditions pre-dated Trump\u2019s presidency and predetermined the current calamity.<\/p>\n

The designated chump is Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump is screwing up royally, but the root causes were unavoidable. Rather than owning up to the inherent nature of capitalism, which puts profits before people as its operating principle, elite opinion needs to point a finger at an offending scapegoat. Someone must take a fall and the designated chump is Trump. Witness Republican establishment<\/a> figures defecting to the Biden camp.<\/p>\n

Trump, under normal circumstances, would have a formidable advantage as the incumbent president. Of the thirteen US presidents since 1933, all ran for re-election except JFK who tragically did not have that choice. All but three won. These exceptions prove the rule that bad economic times doom the incumbent: Ford and Bush the Elder were defeated by recessions and Carter by \u201cstagflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s circumstances are not normal. Trump\u2019s incumbency may be a fatal flaw with conditions worse in many respects than the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

Added to a collapsing economy and a nation aflame with racial justice protests, Mr. Trump has not improved his prospects by his mishandling<\/a> of the COVID-19 contagion. A US passport was once the most accepted in the world. Now that the US leads the world in total pandemic deaths<\/a> and ranks a high eleventh in deaths\/population, only eight countries in the world are fully open to US tourists: Albania, Belarus, Brazil, Mexico, Serbia, Turkey, Zambia, and North Macedonia.<\/p>\n

The delusional fear that Trump will stage a coup<\/a> to stay in power begs the question of what army and security apparatus would back him. Not the US military<\/a>, nor the security state agencies<\/a> \u2013 FBI, NSA, CIA and other spooks. Those institutions of the permanent state are no more in favor of Mr. Trump than most of the active US electorate, who will likely<\/a> give him a boot this fall.<\/p>\n

The next act comes with perils<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the midst of the pandemic, when health insurance claims would be expected to be out of control, health insurers<\/a> have been garnering obscene profits benefiting from the public health emergency. Amongst the superrich<\/a>, Jeff Bezos of Amazon added $87.1 billion to his net worth since the beginning of the year and Elon Musk of Tesla accrued another $73.6 billion.<\/p>\n

Thanks in large part to the habitual intervention by the Federal Reserve<\/a> for the owners of finance capital, Market Insider<\/a> predicts \u201c2021 could be a boom year for stocks,\u201d while prospects for working people look grim<\/a> and ever grimmer. Yes, Bernie Sanders was right that the \u201csystem is rigged\u201d for the capitalist class.<\/p>\n

Will a Democratic victory in November change any of this? Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi<\/a>, the current highest ranking Democrat, said it all: \u201cwe\u2019re capitalist and that\u2019s just the way it is.\u201d Her net worth<\/a> is $120 million.<\/p>\n

Even major \u201cliberal\u201d Democrats, such as Elizabeth Warren, are doctrinaire \u201ccapitalist to the bone<\/a>.\u201d When asked to explain herself, the senator said: \u201cI believe in markets and the benefits they can produce\u2026for people.\u201d True enough. The \u201cpeople\u201d who benefit from capitalism are the capitalists.<\/p>\n

How about Democratic Party progressives like the \u201cThe Squad<\/a>,\u201d you ask? In the \u201cgraveyard of social movements\u201d that is the Democratic Party, they are relegated to diversity window dressing with AOC<\/a> getting only 90 seconds of fame at the Democratic National Convention.<\/p>\n

Nominal independent Bernie Sanders tried an end-run for the presidential nomination but ran into the DNC\u2019s \u201cno progressives rule<\/a>.\u201d And if Biden wins in 2020 and Harris in 2024 and 2028, 2032 would be the first chance for a progressive Democrat to even try to run.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the Democratic National Convention, Bernie Sanders praised Uncle Joe for \u2013 of all things \u2013 his health care policies. Michelle Obama carried chutzpah to new heights, criticizing Trump for immigration practices inherited from her husband. Can\u2019t the best speech writers that money can buy come up with more convincing mendacities?<\/p>\n

The enduring neoliberal project will continue with a likely<\/a> change of guard from one party of capital to the other in January, though with a kinder face. We won\u2019t have to contend with Prince of Darkness Pence and his buddy anymore.<\/p>\n

The new feel-good Democratic couple will be spreading the love. And no one is feeling the \u201cgood\u201d more than the capitalist class, rewarding<\/a> the Democrats with donations of $48 million in the 48 hours after the announcement of Kamala Harris as the vice-presidential candidate. Just about every mainstream media article gushed about her amazing \u201cqualifications,\u201d the foremost being fund-raising<\/a>. In plain English, her biggest asset is she is understood as serving the capitalist class.<\/p>\n

The record of Democratic presidencies<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may be too soon to exhale with a Biden White House. If past performance is any indicator of future outcomes, a brief look at recently past Democratic presidencies is advised.<\/p>\n

Under the watch of New Democrat<\/a> Bill Clinton, the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed, which was a factor leading to the Great Recession. NAFTA exported US union jobs while destroying small-scale Mexican agriculture. He dismantled Yugoslavia and bombed Iraq, contributing to the now perpetual destabilization of that part of the world. \u201cWelfare as we know it\u201d was abolished and mass incarceration instituted. Clinton was on a roll, with Social Security<\/a> next on the chopping block, only to be stopped by the Monica Lewinski scandal.<\/p>\n

While these were pet projects of the Republican wing of the US two-party duopoly, it took a Democrat to foist it on the populace. Notably, no major progressive legislation came out of Mr. Clinton\u2019s watch. He adroitly felt \u201cyour pain\u201d while inflicting it on the Democrat\u2019s captured working class and minority constituencies, much to the pleasure of the class he served.<\/p>\n

The next Democratic president, Barack Obama, had not even completed a term in the Senate before his meteoric rise to the Oval Office. Mr. Obama had the wiring, but part of his remarkable upward mobility came from being groomed and vetted by the ruling class to carry their water. He came out of the Brookings Institute\u2019s Hamilton Project<\/a>, which successfully sought to make the Democrats the favored party of Wall Street.<\/p>\n

After promising peace, Obama led the US into wars<\/a> in at least seven countries. Although no major progressive legislation came out of the Obama presidency, his many handouts to the ruling elites include bailing out the banks<\/a> with no one prosecuted for wrongdoing. He gifted Obamacare to the insurance industry while killing single-payer. He more than doubled fossil fuel production<\/a> for which he proudly took credit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lesson is that it is often more difficult to mount an organized resistance to regressive policies when promoted by Democrats than Republicans. Recall the massive resistance to Bush\u2019s war in Iraq that instantly vanished the moment Obama inherited that war and brazenly took Bush\u2019s Secretary of Defense Robert Gates into his cabinet. Similarly, we have seen Democrats sabotaging<\/a> Medicare for All, with Biden already pledging to veto<\/a> it if it came before him.<\/p>\n

Campaign promises Biden will keep<\/strong><\/p>\n

The only thing preventing Trump from self-destructing come November 3 is none other than the Democratic Party. Of all the potential candidates that could have walked over Trump \u2013 particularly Sanders with universal healthcare in a time of pandemic or even Warren with taxing corporations in a time of \u00a0record profits amidst a recession \u2013 they chose the one candidate who could lose.<\/p>\n

The former senator from Mastercard has already assured Wall Street<\/a> that their privileged position will be protected on his watch. The war mongers have been assuaged with the promise that the military budget<\/a> can only go up. The insurance parasites<\/a> know that government imposed private health policies are set in stone. The Zionists needn\u2019t fret about the US recognizing Palestinian rights<\/a> or of reversing recognition of Jerusalem<\/a> as the capital of Israel.<\/p>\n

Worse than the climate deniers, Biden believes in the science of global warming and knows its catastrophic consequences. Yet he will do little about it<\/a> and has already opposed a fracking ban<\/a>. Fossil fuel subsidies<\/a> will continue under the Democrats.<\/p>\n

Note that these dubious promises were made on the campaign trail, while trying to attract votes.<\/p>\n

A Biden presidency \u2013 austerity at home and imperialism abroad<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pelosi set the stage for a Biden presidency. The first thing the Democrats pushed through after \u201ctaking back\u201d the House in 2018 was the \u201cpay-go rule<\/a>,\u201d a fiscally conservative measure virtually guaranteeing that no progressive legislation can be funded. Then in March of this year the Democrats unanimously and without any debate helped pass the CARES Act<\/a>, the largest single transfer of wealth from the workers to the wealthy in the history of the world.<\/p>\n

Democrats, with the Obama\/Biden administration and since, have leap-frogged the Republicans to the right on foreign policy issues in important respects regarding Afghanistan<\/a>, North Korea<\/a>, Russia<\/a>, Syria<\/a>, Venezuela<\/a>, etc. Democrats even oppose drawing down US troops<\/a> abroad.<\/p>\n

Trump has been all over the map, ineptly and inconsistently pursuing d\u00e9tente with Putin and while threatening Xi Jinping. With a Democratic administration, we can be assured of a more consistent, skillful, and lethal US imperialism<\/a>, pursuing \u201cfull spectrum dominance\u201d over the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Those who complain about Trump\u2019s bungling should understand that the Biden alternative will be a more deadly and efficient rule of capital not only for the US but worldwide. We should be careful about what we wish for.<\/p>\n

________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Roger Harris<\/em> is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network, <\/a>associate editor at <\/em>Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), and the immediate past president of the Task Force on the Americas<\/a>, a 33-year-old human rights organization in solidarity with the social justice movements of Latin America and the Caribbean. He is active with the Campaign to End US-Canadian Sanctions against Venezuela<\/a> and is on the state central committee of the <\/em>Peace and Freedom Party<\/em><\/a>, the only ballot-qualified socialist party in California. He recently visited Syria for an international conference on the impacts of economic sanctions by the US and its allies on over 30 countries in the world. <\/em>roger.harris@comcast.net<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

19 Sep 2020 – Those who complain about Trump\u2019s bungling should understand that the Biden alternative will be a more deadly and efficient rule of capital not only for the US but worldwide. We should be careful about what we wish for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":146130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[867,392,70],"class_list":["post-168943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-anglo-america","tag-elections","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}