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Democratic Party

Fear Is Still The Motivation For Black Voters

The always prescient Glen Ford wrote those words in February 2016 as he correctly hypothesized that Black voters would continue their tradition of supporting the candidate they believed was most likely to defeat a republican in that presidential election year. Eight years later his words still ring true. Donald Trump’s defeat of Kamala Harris has engendered anger, fear, and retrograde politics, but surprisingly little criticism of the Democratic Party which failed its most loyal voters so spectacularly. The Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign raised more than $1.5 billion , more than the Donald Trump/J.D. Vance campaign was able to raise.

How Trump Won And What Black People Should Do

On the evening of November 8, 2016, this columnist realized that Hillary Clinton had lost. She hadn’t yet conceded, the polls were still open on the west coast, but she lost Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to Donald Trump. When he turned these formerly democratic states republican, he secured a victory in the electoral college and became the 45th president of the United States. Late that night and in the early morning hours I wrote, “Dump the Democrats for Good” and pointed out what is still true eight years later. “Black people are now in fear and in shock when we ought to be spoiling for a fight.

What Led To Trump’s Win?

Former president, TV personality, and businessman Donald Trump was elected on November 5 to serve a second term as president of the United States. While polls from just before the election showed one of the tightest races in US history, the results indicate that Trump not only won every single swing state, but also received more votes in total than Harris (i.e. the popular vote), which a Republican presidential candidate has not secured since George W. Bush in 2004. According to the preliminary results, Kamala Harris even did worse than Hillary Clinton in 2016, who also lost to Trump.

The Politics Of Cultural Despair

In the end, the election was about despair. Despair over futures that evaporated with deindustrialization. Despair over the loss of 30 million jobs in mass layoffs. Despair over austerity programs and the funneling of wealth upwards into the hands of rapacious oligarchs. Despair over a liberal class that refuses to acknowledge the suffering it orchestrated under neoliberalism or embrace New Deal type programs that will ameliorate this suffering. Despair over the futile, endless wars, as well as the genocide in Gaza, where generals and politicians are never held accountable.

Trump Rally, Washington Post And Michelle Obama Generate Fake Outrage

Nothing reveals the corrupt nature of U.S. politics like a presidential election. The theater of the absurd is played out every four years, giving the illusion of choice between two parties that more often act in agreement than not. Millions of people become emotionally invested in candidates who use red meat to generate support from their respective constituencies while defense contractors, big pharma executives, and oil company oligarchs sit back and watch, knowing that they will get what they want regardless of the outcome.

Not Too Late For Uncommitted Movement To Hold Democrats Accountable

The activists had them right where they wanted them. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had done everything they could think of to suppress the growing public outrage over their administration’s complicity in the genocide in Palestine, but hundreds of thousands of potential Democratic voters weren’t giving in. Led by the Uncommitted National Movement, they’d refused to pull the lever for Biden in the primaries, and were now threatening to withhold their support for Harris in November unless she and her current boss placed an embargo on America’s weapons shipments to Israel before the 2024 US presidential election.

Inside The Uncommitted Movement’s Failure To Move The Democratic Party

The Uncommitted National Movement* was formed by activists and delegates to the Democratic National Convention following months of protest against the Gaza genocide and a groundswell of opposition against the Biden-Harris administration for its support for Israel. Although the pro-Palestine movement succeeded in carrying out a historic campaign that gathered hundreds of thousands of uncommitted and protest votes during Democratic primaries across the country, the Uncommitted Campaign thus far has failed in its efforts to shift the Democratic Party, or its presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, in any meaningful way on U.S. policy toward Palestine.

The Cautionary Tale Of Angela Davis

Angela Davis is certainly correct in speaking these words. They are an important reminder of how we must view and relate to the electoral process. But unfortunately, she followed those remarks with highly questionable assertions which put at risk all that she says she seeks to achieve. Davis has a habit of engaging in some very grave contradictions, which we have analyzed over the years here at Black Agenda Report. In 2012 Angela Davis felt compelled to give fulsome praise to Barack Obama, including claiming that his rise to the presidency showed a connection with the Black radical tradition. The false statement was quite alarming, as Davis ignored the obvious, that the Obama campaign was a creation of the neo-liberal and imperialist elites who needed a more attractive face in a moment of crisis.

Blue (MAGA) In Green

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to refute the sentiment that the mainstream environmental “movement” has lost its way, assuming that it ever had a clear one in the first place. This election cycle has illuminated the fact that this cadre of the larger non profit industrial apparatus has aligned itself more with a political party, the Democrats, than with the principles necessary to confront the quintessential climate crisis that’s edging the planet and requisite systems for survival to a junction of entropy. It must now be said that the abject intransigence of mainstream environmental groups poses a clear and present danger to climate and environmental justice that in some ways, it could be argued, rivals that of former President Trump.

‘Vote Joy’ — A Delusion Of Nostalgia

Many commentators have attempted to describe the astonishing devolution of Democratic Party politics into sheer marketing: Kamala Harris as product, “new and improved” like a laundry detergent or a frozen dinner. Vanessa Beeley calls it “cartoon theatrics,” and it’s as good as I’ve seen. In two words the British journalist captures from a useful distance the infantilism of the Harris-for-president campaign and the Hollywoodization of American politics. I thought I’d seen everything in this line until a few days ago, but in this, the most unserious political season of my lifetime, it is incautious to make any such assumption.

The Democratic Party Is Trying To Kick Socialists Off The Ballot

In key states for the 2024 US Presidential elections, the Democratic Party machine is carrying out attacks on the democratic process, attempting to limit ballot access for socialist candidate Claudia De La Cruz. In the critical states of Georgia and Pennsylvania, which historically are often toss-ups between the presidential candidates of the two major establishment parties, Democrats are attempting to secure their victory by pushing left-wing progressives off the ballot. De la Cruz’s campaign won a major victory on August 29, however, when Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ruled that there was no basis for the campaign to be excluded from the ballot.

From Kente Cloths To Keffiyehs: The Legacy Of Liberal Gaslighting

Last week during the Democratic Party’s annual convention in Chicago, the story wasn’t just about the speakers who took the stage. For all of the hoopla surrounding compelling speeches offered by Democratic Party brass including the Obamas, the Clintons, and the Vice President herself, all of this was overshadowed by who was not allowed to speak - Palestinian Americans and, in particular, the Uncommitted Delegate movement who secured over 700,000 protest votes against the Biden administration for their continued military support of the State of Israel and its ongoing genocide of the people of Gaza.

Activists Who Heckled Kamala Harris Call For Nationwide Disruptions

A group of young pro-Palestine activists who heckled US presidential candidate Kamala Harris earlier this week, due to concerns she wouldn't pursue meaningful policy changes towards Israel if she won the race for the White House, have started a campaign to disrupt her election rallies across the country. In an exclusive interview with Middle East Eye, representatives of the small contingent of activists from Michigan who protested Harris during her address in Detroit, said they were convinced the Democratic Party had no intention of changing its policies towards Israel, let alone prioritising a ceasefire or an arms embargo as demanded by anti-war protesters.

New York Time’s Predictable Advice For Kamala Harris: Go Right

As the Democratic Party began to coalesce behind Kamala Harris, the New York Times‘ popular Morning newsletter (7/23/24) quickly put forward the knee-jerk corporate media prescription for Democratic candidates: urging Harris to the right. Under the subhead, “Why moderation works,” David Leonhardt explained that “the average American considers the Democratic Party to be further from the political mainstream than the Republican Party.” As evidence, he pointed to two polls. The first was a recent Gallup poll that found Trump leading Biden on the question of who voters agreed with more “on the issues that matter most to you.”

Bernie And The Squad Cut A Deal To Save Biden

Bernie Sanders, with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC), Ilhan Omar, and others in the left wing of the Democratic Party are lining up to try to save Joe Biden’s crisis-ridden campaign — a campaign for a deeply unpopular millionaire whose main legacy will be supporting a genocide in Palestine. That might seem shocking. The leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — and of Jacobin — have made supporting Bernie and the Squad the tentpole of their strategy since the Sanders phenomenon started. Those electeds were supposed to be the left wing of the Democratic Party, moles inside the Party working against the grain to drive radical politics.

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Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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