Letter to my Democrat Friend
By: Michael Carano
Tags: The Left, Democratic Party, Politics, Corporatism, Joe Biden

Dear “John Doe,”

Regarding our conversation the other night when I criticized a Biden appointee and you suggested we need to give him time, he not being in office yet. I originally said by his present choices it is apparent we are not getting the people we truly need in his cabinet and administration. Therefore, now is exactly the time to begin the fight. There should be no honeymoon period, even if he hasn’t gotten to the altar yet.

If Biden is doing Obama 2.0, as his cabinet suggests, then look for Republican to win seats in 2022 and god-forbid the presidency in 2024. Democrats foolishly gave Obama an eight year honeymoon. See what that got us — eight years of flowery rhetoric and Donald Trump.

Sure, the mainstream, corporate media is waxing poetic about the amount of women and people of color he is installing, but what good is diversity and indulgence in ecstatic multiculturalism if they are all warmongers, austerity hawks, and have deep connections to the same corporate interests and financial industry criminals who have spit on and ignored the working class for over 40 years.

“John,” this is not our grandfather’s FDR Democratic Party. It quit being that a long time ago. And FDR was only as good as he was because of the vibrant and vocal true Left that gave him no room. Even then, we must admit FDR had many faults that we cannot ignore. Not recognizing what the Democratic Party has become because Republicans are crazy assholes is not looking objectively at our current situation and how we got here; or recognizing how many crazy assholes there are in the Democratic Party.

Personally, I am not a good club member if the club doesn’t stand for what I believe in, and group thinking should always be strongly avoided. I don’t call myself a Leftist for no reason, and I object to centrist Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Neera Tanden, and Nancy Pelosi who claim progressive/Leftism but water down what being on the Left means. They have no choice but to limit it to identity politics and empty platitudes, all while ignoring deep systemic economic problems, the incarceration system of criminal justice, the economic basis of racism (other than in ways that are mere lip-service), or desire the rollback of a U.S. foreign policy that is based on overthrows, war, death, and empire.

These are the issues that should be the Left’s main focus if we are to fix the U.S. and the decades long assault on the working class and poor and on the peoples’ of other nations. Yes, I left rooting for the home team long ago when I left behind the colors and uniform of my high school. I am not going back to the blind ignorance I had as an twelfth grader. And, once you remove the blinders, there is no putting them back on.

So, I promise I won’t discuss politics with you anymore due to friendship, which I value, if you don’t like open discussion and the juggling of opposing views, but allegiance to the Democratic Party regardless of what it does or is, well that is not what adults should do in a democracy. This unfortunately is the same discussion I have with my MSNBC and CNN watching brother, and it’s one I have had with quite a few others whom I hold dear. Like you, they grow defensive, which is natural if you feel your world view is being challenged. I don’t like to take part in that conversation either if it causes rifts between comrades. Honestly, most often we cannot get the conversation started. When we do, they typically lack a good defense of their opinion, usually only getting defensive, which usually terminates discussion.

Team thinking is exactly the reason we got Trump and why the worthless Republicans are always running roughshod over Democrats, like they did with Obama, who as he said publicly would be considered a moderate Republican in terms of his policy — and as his record exemplified. He had no fight because he was comfortable with the status quo; he served as protector of that status quo and is now a wealthy member of that status quo.

While president he lost over 1000 seats across the country at the state and federal levels. There were reasons those losses started early in his presidency. I won’t give you numerous examples because they are readily available to whoever critically is interested in looking for them.

If Democrats keep going the DLC, Clintonesque path we are sure to get even more dangerous Republicans than Trump. They will not be so buffoonish and will be more conniving and effective. That’s my assessment, and many of others I know agree with this. I feel this is realistic political analysis. But, of course, we are all biased to our own way of thinking. Still, I believe some thinking is sounder and more critically honed than some.

Worst of all, if Biden is not exposed, the material needs of millions upon millions of U.S. citizens will not be met. Housing, debt relief, improved infrastructure, educational needs, a sane single-payer Medicare for All health care system, the end to unending wars, none of these will be possible.

So let us with good companionship discuss these issues, and not ignore them, which is impossible really since it is a shadow that works against our friendship if not dealt with. Let us be realistic in our assessments. Let us not give Biden and his corporate minions the least bit of room, smothering every opportunity they take to serve the interests of the few over the rest of us.