XPost: seattle.politics, alt.school.mates, chi.general   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: fuktrump@yahoo.com   
      
   With the selection of Kamala Harris to be the running mate of   
   Joe Biden, the framework of the 2020 elections has been set. As   
   was to be expected, the Democrats have chosen the most right-   
   wing candidates to run the most right-wing campaign possible.   
      
   There is a certain inevitability to the choice of Harris. In   
   July of last year, the World Socialist Web Site—based on a   
   survey of who would be the worst, most reactionary and at the   
   same time most suitable choice for second spot on the Democratic   
   Party ticket—predicted that Harris would most likely be named   
   the vice presidential candidate if she failed to win the   
   nomination. She had all the ruthlessness, narcissism and   
   careerism requisite for the job, plus the ethnic background to   
   suit the Democrats’ obsession with racial and gender identity.   
      
   Kamala Harris is a dyed-in-the wool political reactionary.   
      
   This year has seen mass demonstrations throughout the country in   
   response to the police murder of George Floyd. As a direct   
   result of the policies of the ruling class, nearly 170,000   
   people have died to date in the coronavirus pandemic, with the   
   daily death toll now at more than 1,000. There is growing anger   
   in workplaces over the homicidal back-to-work campaign and broad   
   opposition among teachers to the efforts to reopen the schools.   
   Tens of millions of people are unemployed, and they have been   
   cut off from federal benefits and face being evicted from their   
   homes.   
      
   In the midst of this monumental political, economic and social   
   crisis, and against the backdrop of so much suffering, the   
   American people are to be offered the “choice” between the   
   fascistic Trump, the conman from New York, and a Democratic   
   Party ticket headed by a corporate shill from Delaware and an ex-   
   prosecutor from California. This says everything about the   
   degraded state of American politics.   
      
   Following the announcement by Biden on Tuesday, the media leapt   
   into action with its nauseating effusion of state propaganda.   
   The selection of Harris has been universally proclaimed to be   
   “historic,” a watershed moment.   
      
   In terms of her politics, there is clearly nothing “historic”   
   about Harris. As district attorney in San Francisco (2004-2011),   
   attorney general in California (2011-2017), and, finally, US   
   senator (2017 to the present), Harris has compiled a track   
   record of backing the police, locking up workers and immigrants,   
   covering up for the banks and supporting militarism and war.   
      
   Wall Street is certainly happy with the choice. “A VP pick that   
   big business can back,” ran a headline on the inside pages of   
   the New York Times. As for the military, its main concern is   
   what will happen if the aging Biden doesn’t make it through a   
   full term. Since the beginning of the Trump administration,   
   opposition from the Democratic Party has been focused on issues   
   of foreign policy. Harris, who has no other agenda than her own   
   self-promotion, will be silly putty in the hands of the military-   
   intelligence apparatus.   
      
   The “historic” character of the Harris nomination is premised   
   entirely on her race and gender. She would be the “first African-   
   American vice president,” the “first Asian-American vice   
   president” and the “first female vice president.” She already is   
   the “first Black woman on the national ticket of the Democrats   
   or Republicans.” Everything is about the symbolism involved in   
   the choice of Harris, with not a word about the program of a   
   Democratic Party administration.   
      
   As if any of this makes a bit of difference for workers,   
   whatever their race, gender or ethnicity. As if, moreover, the   
   world has not already had the example of Obama, not to mention   
   Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton   
   and many others.   
      
   The selection of Harris exposes the utterly reactionary   
   character of politics that bases itself on race, gender and   
   other forms of identity—anything but class. In response to the   
   eruption of protests against police violence, the Democrats did   
   everything they could to obscure the class issues, promote   
   racial divisions and propagate the lie that the violence of the   
   police is an expression of the oppression of “black America” by   
   “white America.” The outcome of this racialist campaign is the   
   selection as their vice-presidential candidate of a right-wing   
   ex-prosecutor who once covered up evidence to keep an innocent   
   man on death row and worked to tear immigrant children from   
   their parents.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)