The Fix is In and Clueless Joe is Up at Bat

The excitement! The passions running high! This upcoming United States presidential election is starting to look more like the World Series! That is, the 1919 World Series. It’s not just because that was the year of birth for both of our main contenders….no, there’s another reason I’m thinking about a situation where the fix is More

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The excitement! The passions running high! This upcoming United States presidential election is starting to look more like the World Series! That is, the 1919 World Series. It’s not just because that was the year of birth for both of our main contenders….no, there’s another reason I’m thinking about a situation where the fix is in. Clueless Joe might be part of an attempt to throw this election on purpose.

Yes, it’s most definitely dangerous territory to tread upon—it starts sounding dangerously like a version of the kind of thing the January 6 Gravy Seals rail about, but hear me out and judge for yourself.

Anyone who has been following the information coming out about Project 2025 knows that most of it has been cribbed from The Handmaid’s Tale , Mein Kampf, 1984, and the last episode of Lost. Evidently these are the blueprints certain right-wing agents want to implement for the nation because life just doesn’t suck enough for the masses. It’s certainly a beatings need to continue until morale improves manifesto. The plans are completely terrible and would launch the nation into full-on theocratic rule in which a vocal and rabid minority could easily implement policy against the will of the majority. Sounds great, right? So wouldn’t you fight tooth and nail to stop such a thing being enacted, which seems to be very much tied to a Trump win? If you are the Democratic party of the United States, the answer is a resounding “oh hell no”.

It’s not imaginary that the will of the people is being shirked by both parties. It’s evident when states like Kansas have an actual vote indicating that reproductive rights are desired by most even in such a crimson-red state. Yet we keep lurching to the reactionary, religious-dominated right. During times of their majority rule, the Democrats did nothing to codify reproductive rights and they simply wring their hands when they are in the minority position. 5 pennies versus a nickel responses. We are to believe the Democratic party has no power when thoroughly in charge and also when they are not in charge. But somehow stubborn Republicans can pull off magic when in minority positions. When you truly consider it, it doesn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense. I think there’s been air let out of the tire that allows the car to turn left and it doesn’t seem to matter who is driving.

Biden was able to pull in voters from the left with threats and cajoling as well as the dangling of certain issues like student loan relief. None of these considerations came to pass in a manner that satisfied the left in any manner. Add to that the obscene loss of life in the US-backed war on the Palestinians. You couldn’t enrage the left much more if you tried.

Inflation is of course a major concern for most voters as well going into another election. Disaster capitalism allowed the initial excuse for high prices to be due to Covid, all the while bringing in overt record-breaking profits showing it was simply price gouging. But there was no clear response from the Biden administration in terms of these problems, not even a rhetorical response. It seems we are at a place where we don’t clash with corporations…..hell we don’t even criticize them. I guess being people and all, we might hurt their feelings.

The fact that our nation, especially post Citizens United, has fallen into fascism (by this I mean the unholy connection of business and government) is clear and it doesn’t seem to matter which party is in office. The descent does seem more precipitous and falls into regressive social policy when it is the Republican party in charge, however……so wouldn’t you want to send in your best and brightest to combat that?

Again, the answer from Democrats is no. There has been no primary like in years past (even the joke-ass rigged ones against Bernie had some discourse going in more left-leaning directions). No, it’s not as if there is even the semblance of a choice. It’s doddering old Joe Biden or nothing and you’ll be glad to have him. Now drink your Postum and turn on Lawrence Welk this Saturday night.

At first, I thought it was arrogance on the part of the Democratic party to not even dip their toes in the waters of public opinion (as in….who would you like to be your candidate), but I think now upon more thorough consideration that it’s much more insidious than even arrogance. I believe we’ve reached an era of such consolidation of power within the oligarchy that the Democratic party is simply the controlled opposition, to give a notion of choice rather than true representation. I know this is obvious to most Counterpunch readers, but I think the extent of it has been ignored. I think we truly believed prior that the candidate wanted to win. I don’t think that is the case any longer in terms of Biden and this election season.

It hasn’t been a good track record, of course–Biden has managed to bring about a period with higher Covid deaths, an inability to restrain Israel, even if just enough to keep it out of International Criminal Court, has been there overseeing the continued erosion of personal autonomy rights for women…..to be fair though, it isn’t surprising to see this from a man who did things like advance Clarence Thomas (he was in charge of those hearings that kept out women to back up Anita Hill’s story, after all). But that said, the Project 2025 crowd seems to want to put all of those failed policies from Biden types on steroids. It’s choosing between a finger amputation and a head amputation.

I know if I were truly wanting to combat that end result, that of full-scale implementation of Project 2025, I would not be running a failed jackass like Joe Biden. I’d be finding the most charismatic politician possible and even if I were a douchebag the likes of which the upper class seems to produce so many of –I would still throw some general quality of life bones to the masses (a little universal healthcare, some free college—kind of New Deal stuff to stave off revolution). But the Democrats seem unwilling to do even what was palatable to them in the 40s….in short, I think they are throwing this election on purpose because the ultimate aim of our “ruling elite” is to keep running us towards a more controlled theocratic set-up with the peasants in their place—little to no upward mobility and the only strife being civil war set-ups against each other, not revolutionary inclinations. The Democrats are in power for a bit but state nothing is possible, then the Republicans come in and say everything is possible as long as it is misery-advancing policy that fills elite coffers.

I think the current trajectory shows that with climate change, end stage capitalism, continued mass debilitating health events….the living ain’t going to be so easy. But the oligarchy is not willing to do the massive restructuring that would ensure sustenance and quality of life for most because they might lose their disproportionate wealth and power. And by the oligarchs, I am very much including the Democratic power elite in that group. So they do this song and dance, present a terrible candidate in the form of Joe Biden and hand it all over to Trump because in the end they get what they want and they don’t have to be the bad guys. They can continue to raise funds for future elections, continue playing the part of the toothless opposition and all the while the policies get put in place to put the little people in their place. How better to control populations and lessen dissent than to saddle people down with high birth rates in an atmosphere of debt and one step from homelessness?

I am not including local party Democrats who I am sure often still hold decent types hoping to make positive changes. I speak to those who have reached the upper limits of power and have traded in whatever semblance of a soul they possessed prior to be in the elite club. In short, people who are very much removed from constituents and consequences.

But anyway, if you truly don’t believe the Democratic apparatus is throwing this on purpose, think about the relationship Biden has with Israel. Biden is obviously running cover for Netanyahu who makes it very clear that he is hoping for Trump to win. Why would any politician in his right mind (well….I know) support so heartily a regime such as this to the extent that you earn the moniker “Genocide Joe”? That’s pretty self-defeating and that will stay with him forever. I think it’s a clear indication that the goals in most areas are truly the same for those who pull the strings of power. It’s not about candidates wanting to win, but about steering the cattle in the direction they want and using Temple Grandin to make sure we don’t freak out on the way. I think they use figurehead candidates like Biden and Trump because due to their ages, egos and in Trump’s case, personality disorder—they can be malleable and perform as needed even if they don’t even truly understand the machinations they are a part of.

So at this point it is looking likely that barring something truly unforeseen, we will have a Trump win. I think he will enlist RFK Jr as his VP (explaining the lack of true criticism from RFK Jr in Trump’s direction along with lovely birthday tweets RFK Jr. sends to Trump). So we will have the welcome addition of brain worms to this fiasco. This will all bring us lurching to the right, of course, and it won’t look good for individual liberties. It’s not clear if it will be much, but until the Democrats show they are truly acting in good faith as a bulwark against this reactionary and vomit-inducing 2025 plan, they don’t deserve our financial support and the whole situation needs the disinfectant of sunlight so we can figure out what to do next that would improve the lives of us all, not simply be unwitting pawns in a game with the rules invisible to us and drawn up by the .01%. We certainly need to pull the curtain to witness the “Great Oz”.

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