Genocide Joe is no defender of democracy

Democrats unapologetically embrace fascism while blaming it on Trump

Barely 10 months remain before a presidential election that many observers believe will either vindicate—or instead destroy—democracy in America. Those voices may have good reasons to cling to their unfounded optimism, but their vision remains sugarcoated nonetheless.

Setting the stage

Part one of this series addressed how each of the major parties’ presidential candidates have openly violated any pretense of respecting democracy. Both have chosen to duck debates, and refuse to accept the legitimacy of primary elections. Both remain repeatedly indulged by compliant journalists who seem more dedicated to promoting the establishment and building cults of personality than promoting transparency or accountability.

Part two examined the unfortunate tendency of recent Democratic presidents to embrace Republican policies, and what that suggests about visions of democracy in America. It reflected on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr, whose warnings and wisdom—which remain more salient today than ever—offered a way for America to avoid the trap into which it was led by its own ignorance.

This installment will examine the role of the militarism shared by Democrats and Republicans in fulfilling the terrifying prophecy of President Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower was ironically the last war hero to win the White House, and issued a prolific warning in 1961 that an ignorant nation tragically forgot immediately. He warned, in no uncertain terms, that: 

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.We should take nothing for granted.

Fears of a fascist future are entirely legitimate. They are also rose colored, overlooking the contemporary reality in the United States that too many writers lack the independence to recognize.

Biden supports genocide

Any number of voices in Washington have tried to spin the reality that is all too obvious to the rest of the world: Israel continues to violate human rights, and its violations grow more outrageous with every passing day. Yet both parties in Washington remain committed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite his belligerence, and none of them support either the international law or human rights principles adopted after the Second World War.

In that context, it is even more disingenuous to suggest that democracy is on the ballot this November. Democracy has no friends among the major parties’ candidates.

Last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced its interim ruling favoring South Africa’s legal challenge to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The opinion, which Washington and Tel Aviv have spun to their benefit despite its scathing terms recognizing Israel’s actions as genocidal, should surprise no one. South Africa overcame its own legacy of apartheid more recently than any other state, and has international credibility to observes its similarities in the only remaining state in the world that continues to embrace it.

First, it’s worth remembering that Israel’s occupation of Palestine has long been illegal to begin with. It was the refusal to recognize repeated United Nations resolutions calling for human rights—and Washington’s repeated use of its veto on the U.N. Security Council to allow Israel to ignore international human rights—that prompted the October 7 attacks that shocked the Israeli defense establishment.

Second, the scale of death & destruction in Gaza at the hands of Israeli authorities can not be overstated. The Associated Press has reported that Israel has “wreaked more destruction [in Gaza since October 2023] than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II.”

Few observers abroad recall that Israeli commanders were warned of the October 7 attacks in advance, or that IDF commanders shamelessly ordered the deaths of Israelis taken prisoner by Hamas in order to avoid the political inconvenience of bargaining for their lives. Many remain under the illusion of documented disinformation promoted by Western journalists and President Biden, himself.

The ICJ is relatively immune from the political bias favoring Israel that pervades both Congress and the ranks of American journalists who pretend to be free and uncontrolled from Washington. Its ruling reveals its independence, and just how internationally isolated Washington & Tel Aviv have grown over the course of the past three months.

Of course, neither Tel Aviv nor Washington accepts the ICJ’s jurisdiction. Their rejection reveals that, despite the convenient pretenses of leaders who claim to follow a “rules-based order,” might makes right in the world today.

What would MLK Do?

Earlier this month, America celebrated a holiday dedicated to a civic prophet and national hero: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

People who claim that Biden is a lesser evil, and perceive that as a sufficient basis to support him because Trump also appears on the ballot, might learn something from reading Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

[Frequent readers of this column might find that reference familiar, since I invoke it often. The Letter from Birmingham Jail is among the most crucial political texts in U.S. history, yet writers across the country reveal their ignorance of it—and MLK’s legacy—on a daily basis.]

MLK’s letter from jail was an invitation 60 years ago for White America to learn what solidarity means. But, sadly, “the…moderate” decried by MLK remains all too willing to abandon urgent calls for long overdue justice from communities confronting escalating crises from economic precarity and homelessness to state violence from Ferguson to Jerusalem.

Dr. King’s timeless legacy remains suppressed, even while his memory has become the object of widespread acclaim. He would roll in his grave at the choices presented to voters by Democrats who today mouth his words while undermining his vision. It’s no mystery to me who he would be supporting today, were he allowed to live his life, unfettered by a documented FBI plot to drive him to an early grave.

He certainly wouldn’t support a president enabling a genocide while absurdly claiming to be progressive.

MLK would more likely stand with the voice who has spent decades championing the same vision that he promoted. One candidate in the 2024 election stands in Dr. King’s shoes, and he has no peer in either politics or the academy. Yet you won’t hear much about Dr. Cornel West in election coverage, because journalists and editors in the U.S. are widely dedicated to suppressing the transparency on which democracy relies.

Gaslighting the public

Biden continues to duck debates, perhaps because his record is indefensible, and Democrats can’t tolerate dissent.

Meanwhile, he also follows the strategy practiced by Clinton and Obama, each of whom embraced policies once favored only by conservatives in order to invite support from donors and voters friendly to Wall Street.

But beyond supporting Republican policies, and disrespecting the democratic process, Biden has also openly rejected international human rights by unapologetically supporting the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Many liberals will pretend that Biden is better than Trump. That’s easy for them because Biden’s bombs aren’t killing their family members.

Paid subscribers can access a further discussion below and a live interview this evening with me & host Jen Perelman. Among other things, we will be discussing Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s recent comments inviting FBI investigations of Americans who support Palestine, based on her latest baseless smear accusing us of being Russian assets.