THIS IS A POST about facing clear, hard reality. While that reality is hard, it's not as hard-hearted as the delusion that it opposes,
By now you know I think opinion polling begins in pseudo-science and ends in patron pleasing manipulations. I don't trust any of them because of the first and so I figure the patron pleasing manipulations are simply the results of the lack of honesty, of morality of those who engage in such pseudo-science to start with. I think the most cynical of them, and I figure they must all be pretty cynical after operating that racket for a while, knowingly give the ones paying them what they want. In the corporate media, that's pretty much what the owners and controllers of it figure is in their own financial interest, though some individual extra-financial obsessions might get figured into it. I'm sure those who are paid by someone like Rupert Murdoch will always figure his racism and misogyny into what they deliver to him.
So it should not surprise anyone that I am especially opposed to the blanket blame put on categories of People, large ones or small ones, in order to cast blame for the results of elections. I have, such as in 2016, used such pseudo-science which I don't believe in as a basis for arguing against the even then post-fasionable atheists of the blogs blaming Christians for Trump's win, especially relevant because he lost the popular election and was imposed by the abomination of the goddamned Electoral College. I pointed out that even the most conservative denominations were polled as voting for Hillary Clinton in larger numbers than all atheists and agnostics, pointing out along the way that from just below to just above a quarter of such voters voted for Trump, at least according to the Pew Research report.
It's not an unreasonable generalization to say that a majority of white men voted for Trump, I'd guess, especially straight, white men. Well, I'm gay but I am a white man as, by the way, were most of those I argued against in 2016 and as far as I know all of those I was arguing against were STRAIGHT, white men. Every man in my family voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris this time. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I wouldn't be surprised if most of the straight white men in New England voted for all three Democrats in those elections though I wouldn't be inclined to believe any polling that showed that or the opposite. But, then, I don't know many guys who are into the incel-scented, a-hole, "bro-kultur" that is so prevalent on the stupid internet, which most days seems to be the majority of it.
Well, if I'm not willing to make the blanket condemnation of straight, white men which I would be tempted to make out of anger and the worse angels of my nature, I sure as hell am not about to make a blanket condemnation of Black men, Latino men, or any of the other groups we are suckered into stereotyping by the "enlightenment" so-called science of opinion polling and exit polling and the ubiquity of a-holes in the most popular of media.
I will say that I think the numbers in the last three elections indicate one thing, that misogyny is stronger than gender-equality in the American electorate, much as I really wanted to believe that it wasn't. In saying that I don't think it is an exclusive bigotry on the part of men, straight, gay, Of Color or white, there are enough Women who buy into it to make a difference in our corrupt system.
All of this stereotyping, all of the soc-sci, poll dancing hype all of the blanket blaming is exacerbated by the fact that the fucking founders gave us a rigged system, the Electoral College that magnifies such tiny numbers in the margins of any divided vote and leads to the angry, irrational AND ENTIRELY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE stereotyping of whole masses of voters.
If I can find it, I remember writing on his when a marriage equality provision was voted down in California, of all places when Black voters were blamed for that. The only rational grouping to assign blame for that WAS THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED AGAINST EQUAL JUSTICE FOR LGBTQ+ PEOPLE. That was the only group that should have been targeted, and they were all held together by one common thread, bigotry against LGBTQ+ People.
The only people to blame for the loss of democracy to Trumpian fascism are a. those who voted for him and, b. those who neglected to vote against it. We might, possibly win a few of those who wake up from Trump cultism and we might persuade more of those who didn't vote NO MATTER WHAT CATEGORY THE GODDAMNED POLLSTERS AND SOC-SCI PHONIES CHOOSE TO PUT THEM IN. I think there are enough straight, white men who we might be able to win over and if there are enough to make that effort worth it, it's certainly not worth it to alienate those in other groups being blamed en masse.
I am ashamed of my country and deeply angry and even a little sad to conclude that Democrats should not run another Woman for President for the foreseeable future. I say that having voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary in my state, voted for her in the primary and for president in 2016, put Elizabeth Warren as my first and Kamala Harris as my second choices in Maine's ranked choice primary in 2020 (Joe Biden was my third choice) and voted for Kamala Harris last week.
We have never had a more qualified presidential candidate than Hillary Clinton in our lifetimes, the only one I can think of off had who I think might technically have been as or more qualified in history was John Quincy Adams. I don't think there has been another better qualified candidate than Kamala Harris - just as I thought that Elizabeth Warren would have made a fine if not great president.
But, clearly, America doesn't go for the best qualified candidates nor, as we learned in both 1972 and 1980 the most decent of men to have ever gotten the nominations of a real political party in our history. WE HAVE GOT TO GO FOR THE WIN THAT WE CAN GET, NOT THE WIN WE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE. I hate myself for having to say that but I am convinced that we should not risk running another woman for president for the foreseeable future. THE STAKES FOR WOMEN OF HAVING A TRUMP OR A BUSH OR A REAGAN ARE TOO HIGH TO RISK IT FOR THE SAKE OF BREAKING THAT GLASS CEILING.
---------------
As a post-script, one of the things I mentioned in a short post seems to have had some impact, at least if what I've read in comments about it are true. I've read many comments from angry Muslims and others about Bill Clinton's pro-zionist rant in the days before the election. BILL CLINTON SHOULD RETIRE ENTIRELY FROM SUCH STUFF AND KEEP HIS STUPID MOUTH SHUT BECAUSE HE CLEARLY DOESN'T UNDERSTAND HOW TO WIN ELECTIONS OR HE HAS SOME URGE TO SANDBAG DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES. He screwed over Hillary Clinton with his self-indulgent and stupid meeting on the tarmac with Loretta Lynch giving the Republican-fascists, the New York Times and James Comey the opportunity in the closing days of the 2016 election that got us Trump, he may not have cost Kamala Harris the election but he certainly didn't do anything to heal the division caused by Israel's genocide in Gaza.
I will also say that the "Israel right or wrong" that is demanded by zionists is a millstone around our necks. I have every suspicion that the October 7th attack was planned by Putin and his Iranian allies who run Hamas to have exactly the effect it has had. I wouldn't be surprised if the utterly corrupt Netanyahu was entirely willing to play his part - there isn't a genocidal opportunity he's been given that he didn't use to his political advantage no matter how many People died. Israel is just another country that always gets exceptional treatment. We have to start treating it as just another country, one in the control of a military-fascist apartheid regime. Those aren't ideas I dreamed up, they are attributes which I read used by the Israeli opposition who don't seem to be able to gain even as much of a hold on governance as Democrats do in the United States. The reality of the disaster that zionism has been has got to be faced, square on. I reject Israel's manipulations of our politics as much as I do Putin's or Xi's or the Saudi dictators or the Iranian theocrats. I'm very encouraged by the young American Jews who are rejecting zionism in growing numbers, Israel will never be what it was sold as being. The more I listen to Jewish anti-zionists and read the history they point out, the more skeptical I am that it was ever a viable project or a just one.
No comments:
Post a Comment