Be alert to a very common, subtle, but ultimately deceptive narrative we have heard repeatedly since Trump’s election. This story claims that the Democrats are paralyzed, pathetic, weak, invisible, disappointing, and feckless. In short, we are supposed to believe that the Democrats are failures when, in fact, they are one of the most successful and deeply entrenched ruling parties in the world.
They are only weak against the other ruling party. “It’s their government,” said Hakeem Jeffries as he retreated to business as usual. But, Jeffries found the energy to lash out at the idealistic liberals in his own party, still hoping that the Democrats would become an opposition party- smearing them as the “far left.” That captures it. The Democrats are weak against the strong and strong against the weak.
But here is the trick: the story of the disappearing Democrats allows just enough criticism to confirm the “left” identity of those telling it — and believing it — while offering the hope that the Democrats can be fixed and reformed. This story may be popular, but it’s totally at odds with the facts.
The Democrats have lots of power. It’s just that they use it in the name of empire and profits. I did not see any paralysis when it came to simultaneously waging two bloody wars. They blundered ahead with risky and decisive action against all odds and all warnings.
Palestine and Ukraine are rarely mentioned in this story of weakness because they are both exceptions to the narrative and beyond the bounds of allowable criticism. Why? In the long run, the wars reveal the crisis of empire — not something to be discussed in polite company. And, in the short run, it was the revulsion at genocide and the economic impacts of sanctions (on top of decades of austerity) that handed the government back to Republicans.
It took a lot of power to launch the Russia-gate conspiracy and the “Stand with Ukraine” campaign — both such stunning achievements of modern propaganda that they are rerunning them. And the loyalists — so thirsty for moral high ground against Trump that even the warped spiritualism of war will suffice — are lapping it up.
The Democrats’ pro-war movement attacks Trump as he retreats from the lost cause of Ukraine to restructure the empire in a “pivot to Asia.” Ironically, this “pivot” was first turned under the leadership of Clinton and Obama, who — in a thinly veiled counter to China — dreamed out loud that this would be “America’s Pacific Century.” This history is lost to the pro-war movement and shows, again, that the ruling parties agree on fundamentals. Take Palestine, for another example.
It might be that a sector of the ruling class still clings to older versions of “full spectrum dominance” or that partisan drama knows no history or limits. But, whatever their intentions, the main effect of pro-war demonstrators will not be to change Trump or Ukraine but to disrupt, confuse and obstruct the peace movement — one of the only social movements that stand in opposition to both ruling parties and the empire they manage.
And so, it cannot be missed that the Democrats have lots of power when it comes to containing, crushing, and co-opting opposition movements from Occupy and BLM 2020 to Standing Rock and the Sanders reform efforts. The Democrats had no problem flexing their muscles during the recent college protests in a frontal assault on free speech and assembly. Over 3,000 were arrested in a single spring in that supposed bastion of free thinking and dissent: the university. Harris pushed bi-partisan attacks on the peace movement when she smeared peace protestors as anti-semitic. Now it’s Trump’s turn.
The billion-dollar Harris campaign spent more money fighting the Green Party than the GP spent on its entire campaign. We know what happened in 2016, 2020, and 2024 when the DNC exercised dictatorial control by selecting their chosen candidates and eliminating others.
The Democrats’ loss was a totally normal outcome given their position as full partners in the system of crisis management we know as the two-party system. Their only weakness was their failure to hoodwink enough people into voting for them this time around. Someday soon, the Democrats will return to power, and they will be the same servants of power and profit they always were. No other outcome is even remotely possible.
Bernie Sanders is the lead character in today’s tale about the Democrats’ fall from grace and hopeful return to honor (on the battlefields of empire, no less). Don’t be fooled again.
When you hear voices complain about Democrats’ silence and weakness, you are hearing the set-up. Then enters the flim-flam man to empty your pockets and fill your mind with sweet promises of redemption, revival, and a shiny “democracy” we ourselves have never experienced.
It’s almost heaven to many, but it’s far from an analysis that correctly places Democrats – side by side with Republicans—at the center of the empire, the corporate oligarchy, the police state, and the system that manages the hell on earth they have created.
If the Democrats or their Republican counterparts were truly weak, we would have vanquished them by now. As we build an opposition movement outside the ruling parties, it would be foolish to underestimate their strength. Don’t be disarmed, and keep your powder dry.
Source: Counter Punch