Jeez. This article from a Yahoo! National Correspondent about Biden breaking from Obama is such propaganda. I really think the DNC is worried that progressives are going to start an independent party--notice I did not say third party; hence, this carefully constructed article where the Biden White House operatives practically wrote the article for this putz of a reporter.* This article is designed to obscure the fact corporate power has long captured the two parties, and how, in a time where the Dems have control of the Senate, House, and White House, the DNC has figured out how to continue to not listen to the general public. What is not ever stated in any of these types of articles is that the progressives have won the policy arguments with the general public, when one compares the policies progressives want in the economic realm and public opinion polling data. Thus, Joe Manchin serves the interests of corporate power, and Joe Biden continues to act as if Joe Manchin is president--and at best give lip service to a need for structural changes. Then, Biden and now progressives in Congress, while wringing their hands, tell us, "Sorry, this is the best we can do, which is a few things around the edges..."--all while the planet burns, and structural inequality continues to run rampant inside the United States. This idea that Biden is being "aggressive" in changing course from neo-liberalism and fascism--the article obscures the ideologies in talking about "Obama" and "Trump" in celebrity-driven politics mode--is simply nonsense.
Today, April 15, we will learn how much the Squad has raised in the first quarter 2021 compared to the first quarters 2019 and 2020. I am hoping there will be a big drop in donations. I removed myself from their email lists and stopped giving my usual $25 (as one of millions of small donors upon which they have relied). However, I am of the view that too many progressives--the kind who ignore what Jimmy Dore says on the topic of strategy, and simply dismiss him an asshat--are themselves too tamed by celebrity-worship-posing-as-politics, and therefore may have continued to give money to the Squad. Every progressive currently in Congress has been weak, craven, and a leadership failure in this unfolding Biden era. Every single one of them, including my long-time favorite, Bernie Sanders. They have willfully refused to seize the moment. They, too, have let Joe Manchin be president. They have let down the people of our nation, and the people and creatures of our planet.
Please understand: This critique is not to let the crooks, i.e. McConnell and every single Republican, as well as Pelosi, Hoyer, and Manchin, off the hook. And trust me, Pelosi, Hoyer, and Manchin are crooks. Look at their stock buys. Look at their corporate investments. They are crooks. Also, my critique is not said in a way to let off the hook corporate owned media--which too many Democrats continue to trust for opinion formation (don't just read the headline in the link; scroll down and note 73% of Dems trust corporate media cable news that they eagerly watch). Instead, we must face the fact the progressives we elected have shown themselves to be unworthy of further support. We pushed for these progressives to be elected to Congress with their promise that they would leverage power to get structural changes that our nation has long needed--not just get along with the power structure. Again, we need to demand our friends and families analyze for themselves the polling data on issue after issue over the past five years. Progressives have won the policy arguments--and yet, we see progressive politicians playing into backroom politics, which is where the corruption is most palpable and powerful. They refuse to shame Biden, Manchin, Sinema, and the rest by going into the states of those senators, talking up the policies the people in those states support with the progressives, and withholding votes while saying, "Put in the policies the people want!" We will never complete the New Deal, or save our planet, with the current type of get-along politics these progressives are practicing.
Finally, one will note, after the reporter/stenographer quotes a Princeton political scientist, the writer throws in the usual corporate media bullshit about the parties being polarized, implying what is needed is bi-partisanship. Sorry. The parties are not polarized about listening to big corporate and financial donors. They are all together on that. I doubt the Princeton prof would have agreed with the sentence about polarization at this point, if that prof has any understanding of the moment we are in. We are well past that type of thinking, and yet corporate media continues to push that propaganda. Sigh. And yes, I saw how the article writer quotes Noam Chomsky near the beginning, but precisely on something where Chomsky has himself fallen into celebrity-posing-as-policy. Funny how now Chomsky gets quoted in a corporate media outlet article. That the article favorably quotes Chomsky is one of the clues as to how we know this article is the result of a White House operative telling the reporter, or the reporter's boss:
"Hey, we need an article showing how Biden is really doing the progressives' work. Don't worry. We'll give you a bunch of sources from which you can pick and choose and help you write it. If you do, we'll give you more access. We know the right wingers don't read articles like this, and it won't hurt our corporate donors' feelings. They know Joe Biden is in their corner. We just need this for the egghead progressives out there to feel better."
Trust me, as someone who knows the history of American journalism. That is how this article came to be written, and how it is part of the charm offensive for progressives, who have begun to take a lot of heat from the grassroots on the Internet. It is just like the Bloomberg article, extolling AOC and the progressives for their "inside" "court the Establishment" game. The timing is unmistakable.
* Fat chance for any new party. I had hope for the Movement for a People's Party, but I am seeing essentially nothing happening. They should be starting in precisely the areas where the Democratic Party brand is most toxic, and pushing out the husk that is the Democratic Party in those largely rural and smaller populated state places. I don't see any activity, and I know I gave them $50 late last year in a fit of hope. Oh well. Chalk that up alongside of those progressives who told us, "Don't worry! We are going to work hard to push Biden left once he is elected. " As Daffy Duck would say, "....It is to laugh." Instead, we are seeing the same old shaming tactics.
