I had basically given up on electoralism for years at this point.
I do not believe the western working class by and large has any revolutionary potential, basically JDPON-pilled.
But the genocide in Palestine really made me more invested in this whole dog and pony show again.
I guess I figured like…sure bourgeoise democracy will not bring about socialism, but at the very least you can still get some concessions potentially out of it.
Perhaps I was naive, but like…I wanted to hope there was some way the Democrats could be convinced to stop it by November, even if it was electoralist bullshit I feel like the Palestinians deserved (and still deserve) even a futile attempt.
But seeing the shit with the DSA, especially the SMC and Groundwork caucuses, seeing unions who oppose the genocide endorse Biden/Harris right out the gate, seeing the Uncommitted movement do the same while the Harris campaign has done nothing but spit in their face….
I am filled with a helpless rage. Americans are the most pathetic contemptible creatures on this earth.
I’M NOT EVEN ASKING FOR SOCIALISM! ALL I’M ASKING FOR IS THE DEMOCRATS TO COME AROUND ON AN ISSUE 77% OF DEMOCRATS AND 61% OF AMERICANS OPPOSE!
BUT EVEN THAT IS TOO MUCH, TOO HARD FOR THESE ORGANIZATIONS TO FIGHT FOR EVEN WHEN IT IS ALLEDGELY THEIR WHOLE REASON FOR EXISTING!!
I knew Americans were useless and selfish, and short-sighted and stupid…but I didn’t think they were to this extent.
That was my mistake I guess.
I’ve been having a similar flashes of “Wait, what if Kamala is the most progressive candidate possible and America has always been this shitty and indifferent to atrocity.”
But I think there’s genuinely a sense that the decay has been getting harder to ignore and it’s making the people who don’t want to see the cracks (most of them) go a little crazy. Everyone’s hyperfocused on villains. Convinced that all we have to do is beat Putin in Ukraine and defeat Trump in the election and then things can finally go back to normal and the grinding decadence will stop.
There’s a stench of desperation wafting off the enthusiasm for Harris and the repetition of “this is the most important election of our lifetimes” to the extent that it has become a meme isn’t so much a statement of stakes as it is a prayer, an optimistic statement that what’s left of the middle class will be able to retreat back to comfortable complacency after ensuring the reins go back into the hands of a competent technocrat who will fix things.
It has led to a willful and dangerous blindness and I feel some anxiety for when the time comes that it no longer becomes tenable to maintain.
