XPost: mn.politics, alt.madonna.is.a.whore, soc.culture.israel   
   XPost: alt.politics.gossip   
   From: jthomq@gmail.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.   
      
   Those invested in the racialist campaign have jumped on the   
   bandwagon to declare the selection of Harris “historic.” Ibram   
   Kendi, author of How to Be An Antiracist and one of the chief   
   inspirers of the New York Times’ 1619 Project, wrote on Twitter   
   that “the Democrats now have a presidential ticket that reflects   
   the American people better than the GOP ticket and every   
   presidential ticket in US history.”   
      
   According to Kendi, politicians “reflect” the American people   
   not because of the socioeconomic forces they represent, but   
   solely by their racial and ethnic background and their gender.   
   Interests are determined by race. This is not progressive   
   politics, but right-wing and racialist politics, which shares   
   much in common with the fascistic politics of Donald Trump.   
      
   Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King wrote that he was   
   “incredibly proud to see a brilliant Black woman, and HBCU   
   [historically black colleges and universities] grad, chosen as a   
   vice presidential nominee.” This was, he added, the stuff   
   “dreams are made of.”   
      
   Commenters on Twitter quickly pointed to the contrast between   
   this statement and his declaration in November 2018 that he   
   would never support Biden or Harris because “they both helped   
   build & advance mass incarceration.”   
      
   Political principles have never been a strong suit of Democratic   
   Party hacks. They look forward to positions within the Biden   
   administration and other opportunities that will reap financial   
   rewards.   
      
   Then there is Bernie Sanders. In the Democratic Party primaries,   
   Sanders won widespread support for his attacks on social   
   inequality and his calls for a “political revolution” against   
   the establishment. On this basis, he emerged as the main   
   contender against Biden for the Democratic Party nomination. In   
   the end, however, the “Sanders wing” of the Democratic Party got   
   nothing.   
      
   This has not, however, stopped Sanders from praising the   
   outcome. Sanders tweeted that Harris “will make history as our   
   next vice president.”   
      
   Since packing in his campaign in mid-March, Sanders has assumed   
   his assigned role as principal cheerleader for the Biden   
   campaign, along with Elizabeth Warren, et. al. The more that   
   social anger grows, and the more the Democrats are exposed, the   
   more determined is his support for the Democratic Party.   
      
   What an exposure of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA),   
   Jacobin magazine and other political agents of the Democratic   
   Party who claimed that Sanders was the path to the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)