Monday, March 2, 2020

Jason Espada: Neoliberalism and the Problem With "Vote Blue No Matter Who"

Thank you to Jason Espada for speaking to these vitally important issues. Jason is among my trusted friends who can be counted on for telling the truth, for consciousness of larger pictures, and for ceaselessly working together with all of us towards creating a more just, compassionate, caring, sustainable, and peaceful world. — Molly


From Luis Mendoza::
The problem with "Vote Blue No Matter Who":
Since neoliberalism took hold (and took off) in the '80s under Reagan in the U.S., and Thatcher in the U.K., the corporatist party duopoly has been playing a sort of good-cop-bad-cop scam on the American people, with the neo-fascist Republicans playing "bad cop" and the neoliberal corporate Democrats playing "good cop," while both being on the same side: the oligarchy.
Forty-plus years of neoliberalism set us on a proto-fascist path, with an obvious destination: Trump's fascist regime. My point? Neoliberalism (which is the ideology of ALL corporate Democrats) is precisely what helped set the stage for a fascist backlash. It dismantled the regulatory framework, and helped corporate cartels capture ALL relevant levers of power, after which they engaged in a frenetic "pig-feeding-at-the-trough" period, bringing about a truly horrific and dystopian society (today's USA), resulting in the worst income inequality in the country's history.
This has caused unbearable pain and social dysfunction. Historically, when this type of socioeconomic dysfunction takes a hold on a society, there's always a fascist backlash as (some elements of) the "dominant ethnic" group lashes out against perceived culprits (in the form of "the other," immigrants, ethnic and religious minorities), egged on by fascist demagogues (like Trump). Voting blue no matter who (which is the game we've been playing for over 40 years) is precisely what set the stage for fascism.
In reality, we have two equally-urgent challenges: defeating Trump's fascist regime AND Neoliberalism.
These two things need to happen now, at the same time. Those advocating "vote-blue-no-matter-who" are either not aware of this history and these dynamics (and if so, I highly recommend they educate themselves about it), or know it, and don't care.
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And in response to a comment:
I think that what "vote-blue-no-matter-who" folks fail to understand is that the corporatist Democratic Party establishment (and their PR/propaganda machine) have been scaring voters into electing corporate Democrats (in the mold of Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama) for decades, using the same boogieman stories, whether SCOTUS, or identity politics. Their argument (always) is that "look, the other guys are exponentially worse," and in the meantime for the last few decades we've seen an almost complete evisceration of constitutional rights, rapid wealth accumulation, the formation of oligopolies, monopolies, and cartels, a huge increase in incarcerated people, rampant police brutality, rampant corruption (Wall Street, etc.). The lost of over 1,000 state legislative seats across the country, and more Republican-controlled states, than Democrats. Finally, the Party tried the scare tactic one more time in 2016, by imposing a quintessential corporate Democrat (after essentially stealing the nomination from Bernie). And how did that turned out? It's time to change course. We need to get rid of both, Trump's fascist regime AND Neoliberalism, now.
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It's useful now to think of there being three parties, in actuality. The right, which has almost completely merged with Trump, the progressive left, and the neoliberal corporate Democrat Party. This last one only pretends to have the same interests as progressives, but corporate democrats, who also represent entrenched inequality, militarism, and unsustainable climate policies would rather have a right wing dictator than a genuine social democrat in power. It was in part their arrogant strategy that landed us where we are now in conjunction with the mainstream media CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. A populist movement is needed now more than ever.

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