I worked hard to elect this administration, first as an organizer for Vice-President Kamala Harris during the 2019 Democratic primary, then for the Biden-Harris ticket in the general election in the swing state of Arizona. I once saw the Biden-Harris administration as a beacon, blinking brilliantly as a hopeful symbol of democracy in the encroaching dark. But now, watching the United States’s complicity in the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, I am only reminded that in times of great horror, many with great power choose to do nothing
This is what you wanted. This is what you brought into the world. This was your choice so that you could personally gain. I hope this person drowns in the blood that they’ve spilled.
I once saw the Biden-Harris administration as a beacon, blinking brilliantly as a hopeful symbol of democracy in the encroaching dark.
It’s not what she wanted, though. Lots of libs are libs because they buy the bullshit that the U.S. empire is a positive influence on the world (and associated myths about how domestic politics work). Most dig in on that position when confronted with the terrible things this country has done – here’s someone with an immediate material stake in that position rejecting it instead.
She deserves blame for having every opportunity to educate herself earlier and failing to do so, and she deserves blame for whatever she did in the administration, but the choice she just made is a choice millions of other libs will have to make if we are going to get anything done.
Sure, wholeheartedly trust the rhetorical defense of someone who was okay with the invasion to this point. Who was okay with Biden’s policies to this point. Who enabled the most unpopular candidate in the primaries and then rode her coattails alongside one of the biggest racists in the senate. She made the choice that millions of other libs will make but she is jumping ship now to protect her own career, the same reason she boarded it. The purpose of a system is what it does and I don’t give a fuck how she justifies that to herself at night.
I’m not trusting what she says absolutely, but it does align with what I’ve heard from basically every other U.S. liberal I know. It’s a core part of how libs view the country. You should absolutely give a fuck about how libs think if you harbor any hope for building a mass movement.
she is jumping ship now to protect her own career
At best, this is a low-risk, temporary setback that will not be held against her going forward. The much more likely outcome is that she will never again hold this high of a political position and will also have the cushy revolving door jobs closed to her, because she is very much biting the hand that feeds.
What mass movement do you think she’s joining? She’s doing the “Welcome to Le Resistance” grift that you saw countless times during the Trump era. Give her a year to show any kind of actual repentance before you assume she’s the one moral K-hiver, who mind you ran against providing people healthcare during a pandemic. Right now she’s only written a puff piece about how she’s the cleanest of the wehrmacht and I guarantee this judas goat is going to land just fine somewhere just as evil as her last job. This is as cynical a move as everything before it.
I’m talking about liberals in general. For those of us in the U.S., there’s no conceivable path to a mass movement that doesn’t involve bringing millions of them around to our side. This means learning how they think is important, as is giving them a path to leave the Democratic Party and move left.
Most libs believe their own bullshit – it’s West Wing brain, we talk about it all the time. They aren’t cheering on horrors only to cynically cry about them when they think it’s appropriate; they really believe the shit they see on CNN or read in the Atlantic and have the object permanence of people comfortable enough to consume politics like they do sports. They don’t scoff at evidence of horrors because they support those horrors; they reject it because it deeply challenges the fundamental tenets of their worldview (i.e., that the U.S. is a good country). This is dishonest and cowardly – they’re libs, after all – but it’s not knowing exactly how the sausage is made and then perpetually lying about what they think of it, which is what you seem to think is going on here. My point is that this misunderstands how libs usually think.
This is what you wanted. This is what you brought into the world. This was your choice so that you could personally gain. I hope this person drowns in the blood that they’ve spilled.
It’s not what she wanted, though. Lots of libs are libs because they buy the bullshit that the U.S. empire is a positive influence on the world (and associated myths about how domestic politics work). Most dig in on that position when confronted with the terrible things this country has done – here’s someone with an immediate material stake in that position rejecting it instead.
She deserves blame for having every opportunity to educate herself earlier and failing to do so, and she deserves blame for whatever she did in the administration, but the choice she just made is a choice millions of other libs will have to make if we are going to get anything done.
Sure, wholeheartedly trust the rhetorical defense of someone who was okay with the invasion to this point. Who was okay with Biden’s policies to this point. Who enabled the most unpopular candidate in the primaries and then rode her coattails alongside one of the biggest racists in the senate. She made the choice that millions of other libs will make but she is jumping ship now to protect her own career, the same reason she boarded it. The purpose of a system is what it does and I don’t give a fuck how she justifies that to herself at night.
I’m not trusting what she says absolutely, but it does align with what I’ve heard from basically every other U.S. liberal I know. It’s a core part of how libs view the country. You should absolutely give a fuck about how libs think if you harbor any hope for building a mass movement.
At best, this is a low-risk, temporary setback that will not be held against her going forward. The much more likely outcome is that she will never again hold this high of a political position and will also have the cushy revolving door jobs closed to her, because she is very much biting the hand that feeds.
What mass movement do you think she’s joining? She’s doing the “Welcome to Le Resistance” grift that you saw countless times during the Trump era. Give her a year to show any kind of actual repentance before you assume she’s the one moral K-hiver, who mind you ran against providing people healthcare during a pandemic. Right now she’s only written a puff piece about how she’s the cleanest of the wehrmacht and I guarantee this judas goat is going to land just fine somewhere just as evil as her last job. This is as cynical a move as everything before it.
I’m talking about liberals in general. For those of us in the U.S., there’s no conceivable path to a mass movement that doesn’t involve bringing millions of them around to our side. This means learning how they think is important, as is giving them a path to leave the Democratic Party and move left.
Most libs believe their own bullshit – it’s West Wing brain, we talk about it all the time. They aren’t cheering on horrors only to cynically cry about them when they think it’s appropriate; they really believe the shit they see on CNN or read in the Atlantic and have the object permanence of people comfortable enough to consume politics like they do sports. They don’t scoff at evidence of horrors because they support those horrors; they reject it because it deeply challenges the fundamental tenets of their worldview (i.e., that the U.S. is a good country). This is dishonest and cowardly – they’re libs, after all – but it’s not knowing exactly how the sausage is made and then perpetually lying about what they think of it, which is what you seem to think is going on here. My point is that this misunderstands how libs usually think.