What Did You Think a Political Revolution Was Supposed To Look Like?

[Ichingcarpenter]

As we prepare for today’s corporate media “reporting” on behalf of the establishment’s chosen democratic candidate, let’s take a moment to reflect. How did we get here? Where are we going?
I’ve grown accustom to political disappointments amongst groups far less class-heterogeneous than that of the U.S. electoral left. It’s not exactly as if I didn’t see this coming. As a Sanders supporter, I’ve been criticized by fellow revolutionary leftists for having “sold out” or, perhaps in the best of cases, deluding myself. Even amongst other supporters, I’ve been called a “splitter,” for having the gall to say the Democratic party could not be reformed.

The daily calls by many within those ranks to “unite blue” and “hold your nose and vote for her” are a constant reminder of the subservient mentality which has engulfed the U.S. electorate. Don’t push back too hard! You might alienate the Clinton supporter. Or worse… you might make Bernie look bad.


Just recently, I’ve been told by the very same people I’m not supposed to alienate that I have a pathological hatred for a female leader. As the son of a working-class mother who sacrificed any potential moment of relaxation to the benefit of my own success, I’ve also been informed that the organized efforts of her sisters in the medical profession are on par with the disgusting corporate influence of Goldman Sachs executives and “dark money.” Of course, neither of the aforementioned stories will receive the same level of coverage as the one we’re about to see.



Bernie’s suggesting that there’s an establishment nature to Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign, despite his steadfast defense of their organizations and their causes, cannot stand.

Why? Because unlike the statements from the Hillary camp, Bernie’s statement shines a light on the political character of the system itself.


You see, dividing people by sex and gender doesn’t threaten the system. While it may be encouraged or discouraged to win political points amongst various warring factions of the billionaire class, by and large it ensures people are too distracted to fight the broader oppression they suffer. Similarly, by equating the political organization of the working class to the political organization of the capitalist class, particularly in the way of money, we see a reinforcement, not a weakening, of the narrative formalized under Citizens United.

It’s perfectly fine for Human Rights Campaign to draw attention to its own corporate sponsorship in order to flaunt its connections. It’s not OK, however, for anyone else to point it out and especially not OK when the follow-up question is going to be, “how does that influence your organization?” Additionally, while Republican law-makers are delighted with trying to strip public funding for Planned Parenthood, they wouldn’t think to cut off government subsidies to its private funders.


It doesn’t matter that in both instances Planned Parenthood receives funding. Ted Cruz doesn’t actually give a shit about women having abortions one way or the other. What matters is the mechanisms by which they receive funding. Only some of those mechanisms enable the dependency on those institutions which meet the approval of the ruling class. Truly democratic governance and working class organizations like unions are not those mechanisms................................


https://medium.com/@mattsah/what-did...fb5#.todot77pu

[TBF]

1. Bernie's right of course but I don't expect he will

really go that far into it because it really requires looking at capitalism with a very discerning eye. The thing with any of the charities, NPOs, 501c3's ... however you'd like to refer to them is that at the end of the day they serve an important purpose for the ruling class. This is how we deal with the casualties of capitalism - we encourage the "losers" in capitalism to seek help through these organizations, we pat ourselves on the back for our "helping" nature, and finally we get a tax write-off while doing so.

It's not that they are bad or that the people running them don't care about others. That is going to vary like anything else and really isn't the point. The bottom line is that they are just another system (much like the tiny houses we discussed yesterday) put in place to prop up capitalism, an inherently unequal and quite barbaric system.