It’s the Morality, Stupid!

In Bill Clinton’s fist presidential run he won with the catch-line “its the economy, stupid!”. This is the last time the a Democratic candidate has run on any argument other than that “we’re not the other Party”.

In the current millennium – which is politically in the post 9/11 era – John Kerry ran on the argument that he wasn’t Bush. Obama and Hillary Clinton ran on the argument that they were a change from the other party; Obama promised hopes and dreams. After eight years of Obama’s hopes and dreams Hillary ran again, arguing that she’s different than the other party.

After losing the election to a Republican – who had often donated to Democratic candidates – that ran on a lark, Hillary disappeared for four years.

Her policies and her position that she’s not the other party have been replaced, through backroom wrangling and democracy at its worst, by Obama’s Vice President, Joe Biden.

After vanquishing twenty-five contenders this year – although he had and has no ground-game, and little financial backing – every one his opponents has mysteriously backed Biden. His most notable opponent, and one of the few that had an argument other than “we’re not the other guys,” Bernie Sanders was the last to suspend his campaign.

In general political speak Bernie Sanders is a progressive who calls himself a Democratic Socialist, advocating for tax dollars to be used to benefit people rather than corporations, and that corporations should be regulated by the government. Joe Biden is a liberal who advocates social causes but believes corporations have final say in things like wages, healthcare, prisons, and war – in other terminology, then Biden is a neoliberal, a person who advocates for social causes but thinks people, not corporations need regulation.

Joe Biden’s campaign is a continuation of the argument “we’re not the other guys”. With Trump as president that should be an easy argument to make, but beyond failing to propose concrete economic solutions to fix an economy – he could argue “it’s the economy, stupid!” – Biden has been accused of sexual assault – some would say rape – and the Democrats have lost both the economic and moral high ground.

For several years there’s been a rift in the Democratic Party between Sanders supports who argue drastic political reform is needed and supporters of neoliberal polices. – Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden. There was not, until recently, a drastic notable rift between the two factions in their moral stands.

A couple years ago during the confirmation of conservative judge Kavanaugh – who how has a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court – he was accused of sexual assault (or rape) and there was widespread condemnation of his moral capabilities by the Democrats, who used the #MeToo movement by survivors of sexual assault as a moral standing point. The Democrats had already forced the resignation of Senator Al Franken for the minor offense of making a joke about assault during his life in comedy.

I’m not here to tell you whether Joe Biden did or did not commit sexual assault. The Democrats claimed the moral high ground and emphatically said no to sexual assault, until Joe Biden was accused of it.

To say that there’s a war on the political left – if by left we mean both progressives advocating for change an neoliberal Democrats advocating for more of the same. Not only have most Biden supporters have contradicted their views from just a couple years ago, some are saying they’ll vote for Biden even if he raped their daughter, and others who have platforms in the media are calling for arrest of the journalists who cover the story (the story is whether he did or did not do it).

It has been said that the genius of Bill Clinton was to drive the Republican party mad and drive the Democratic party to the right. The Democratic party has actually gone so far right that it too has gone mad. The Democrats have actually reached a point where they can’t be differentiated from the Republicans.

It would be easy to say that this isn’t true, until you consider that Democrats are now condoning rape and joining the security-state attitude of arresting people that cover stories they don’t agree with. Do Democrats really want to not only lose the moral high ground and the economic high ground, but also their sanity and the sense of reason?