Reader Comments: Fate of Democracy, Preparing for the Future; They Want You To Feel Powerless And To Surrender; Readers respond to pre-Election posts; Exterminate, Expel, Resettle: Israel’s Endgame in Northern Gaza; Cartoons; more....
"While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change," said the Vermont Independent. "And they're right."
Bernie speaks for me both in his criticism of the Israeli government's assault on people in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon & in his support for Kamala Harris. Thanks to xxxxxx https://xxxxxx.org/2024-11-01/how-can-i-vote-kamala-harris-if-she-sup… for circulating Bernie's statement which I'd otherwise have missed.
Daniel Millstone
Post on xxxxxx
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The European Left as always been more intelligent than us.
On 5 November 2024 the world will be watching to see whether Americans choose Kamala Harris or Donald Trump to be their next president. Ahead of these pivotal elections, European Greens have called upon US Green Party candidate Jill Stein to withdraw her Presidential candidacy, and endorse Kamala Harris.
The stakes of these elections could not be higher.
Donald Trump has promised that if he becomes President again, he will extend abortion bans, deny members of the LGBTQIA+ community their rights, and deport migrants en masse. Like other ultra-conservative politicians across the globe with whom he has close relationships such as Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbàn, and Jair Bolsonaro he would undermine democracy.
The European Green family, made up of Green parties from across Europe, advocates for a politics that prioritises the planet, people and peace above corporate greed, systemic injustice, and violence.
We are clear that Kamala Harris is the only candidate who can block Donald Trump and his anti-democratic, authoritarian policies from the White House.
This election takes place at a watershed moment in the history of our planet. We face a climate crisis that is worsening every year, with heatwaves, floods, and a loss of biodiversity at a rate never seen before. Climate policies require democratic institutions, which we fear would be dismantled if Trump is elected.
On top of this, wars are raging and authoritarianism is growing throughout the world. In this crucial moment, Europe needs Kamala Harris as President of the United States, to be a reliable partner and to take the urgent, decisive action needed on the climate crisis, and to bring about a just and sustainable peace in the Middle East.
European Greens also highlight the divergent values and policies of themselves and Jill Stein’s US Green Party. There is no link between the two, as the US Greens are no longer a member of the global organisation of Green parties. In part this fissure resulted from their relationship with parties with authoritarian leaders, and serious policy differences on key issues including Russia’s full scale assault on Ukraine.
Right now, the race for the White House is too close for comfort. We call on Jill Stein to withdraw from the race, and endorse Kamala Harris for the presidency of the United States.
Mélanie Vogel, European Greens Co-chair and French Senator
Thomas Waitz, European Greens Co-chair and Austrian Member of the European Parliament
This isn’t a normal election. My community has been deeply traumatized by the genocide in Gaza and now the devastating war on Lebanon...Explain how punishing Vice-President Harris and enabling Donald Trump to become president will end the genocide...
They are justifiably furious at the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce U.S. laws that could rein in Israel’s unconscionable and illegal actions, and accuse them of enabling Israel’s impunity.
I have some questions for those who rightly hold this Democratic administration responsible for genocide and want to punish the Democratic nominee for president. When they say they are voting their conscience by supporting a third party, I ask them to explain how punishing Vice-President Harris and enabling Donald Trump to become president will end the genocide—especially as we have allies in the progressive side of the Democratic Party who support and have been working with us to advance our foreign and domestic policy concerns and will be with us to pressure a Harris White House?
Bravo to James Zogby for his intelligent observation and memories of Julian Bond in 1968.
As I recall, Al Lowenstein - who had persuaded Gene McCarthy to challenge LBJ in New Hampshire - nominated for vice president Julian Bond, who then had to decline because he was not yet 35 years old!
I worked for Al that election, and was very disappointed when he, Gene McCarthy and Paul O'Dwyer all announced their support for Humphrey. I was too young to vote (though not too young to be drafted) that year, and was proud that my parents voted for Dick Gregory, but also relieved that it didn't make a difference in NY State.
Read Craig Unger's books, though, on how the Republicans sabotaged that election, and 1980, and, and, and...I love Jill Stein (dated her in college) but please don't vote for her in the Blue Wall states!
A lot of households are not democracies; they’re dictatorships. This may mean voter intimidation and suppression. Lots of memes, tweets, posts and videos are popping up, assuring women they can keep their votes secret from their husbands or boyfriends.
Some unions are making huge efforts to talk to members about the stakes of the 2024 election. Rather than sit by while union members hear pro-Trump messages, unions like the UAW and UNITE HERE are taking leadership and engaging voters on the issues.
Trump promised wrath. Election day would be “liberation day.” Towns and cities that had been “invaded and conquered” would be scoured of “vicious and bloodthirsty criminals” and “savage gangs” in the “largest deportation program” in U.S. history. To roars of “USA, USA,” Trump called for “the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen.” He vowed to ban sanctuary cities. Trump spewed lies that Democrats had abandoned Southern states lashed by deadly hurricanes because, “They spent all of their money on bringing in illegal immigrants and flying them in by beautiful jet planes.” He claimed, “325,000 children are missing, dead, sex slaves, or slaves. They came through the open border and they’re gone.”
It’s the same script Trump read from in 2016, if a little more malevolent. For a decade, Trump has successfully racialized class grievances. Workers know they are being screwed over by the rich and powerful, but they lack the words and ideas to understand it. That makes many easy marks for a billionaire demagogue who says, “Blame the immigrants next to you for making your life worse,” and not his plutocratic buddies. In 2024, there are new twists that display Trump’s ability to steal ideas from any source and attack from both the left and right at once.
Over 800 people have been detained at protests calling for the release of the hostages since the October 7 attack, with some spending hours or days in detention. Five of the arrestees detail their treatment at the hands of the police, and whether it has deterred them from attending further demonstrations.
During WW2, Germany initiated its Plan for Lebensraumerschaffung for the Aryan nation. It was an expansionist Ideal which pursued Ethnic Cleansing as a means of consolidating the German Reich
Ture explained in his memoir, “Discovering that the government of Israel was maintaining such a long, cozy, and warm relationship with the worst enemies of black people came as a real shock.”
What Ture and his comrades recognized are the common mechanisms of oppression among Palestinians, South Africans, Black Americans, and Jews. Activists in SNCC and the Black Panthers eventually came to understand how movements that seem spatially distant and politically distinct are in fact structurally and materially linked, and they understood how these shared fates could be the basis of a transnational, more effective solidarity launched against the root causes of their mutual oppression.
They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them.
You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love.
The Wobblies used to say don't mourn, organize, but you can do both at once and you don't have to organize right away in this moment of furious mourning. You can be heartbroken or furious or both at once; you can scream in your car or on a cliff; you can also get up tomorrow and water the flowerpots and call someone who's upset and check your equipment for going onward.
A lot of us are going to come under direct attack, and a lot of us are going to resist by building solidarity and sanctuary. Gather up your resources, the metaphysical ones that are heart and soul and care, as well as the practical ones.
People kept the faith in the dictatorships of South America in the 1970s and 1980s, in the East Bloc countries and the USSR, women are protesting right now in Iran and people there are writing poetry. There is no alternative to persevering, and that does not require you to feel good. You can keep walking whether it's sunny or raining. Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the ten trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed.
[Artist note: Thinking about how I painted this almost four years ago and thinking about what will happen one week from tomorrow. I know I am a riddle of contractions: exhausted yet enraged, fearful yet hopeful, ready yet apprehensive, empowered yet shrinking. It’s a lot. It will never not be a lot. When the safety, rights, and wellbeing of people are at risk it will always be a lot. To hold. To handle. To do. But we will rise. We will come together. We will fight. It’s too important not to.]
