Identity Politics on steroids: how the liberal elites will use their favorite Obama female version to crush progressive resistance within and outside the Democratic Party

globinfo freexchange

It was not a big surprise as it was easy to predict. And it shows that the liberal establishment becomes more and more predictable concerning its moves and picks that are destined to become its new, shiny puppets in power.

We are talking, of course, about establishment's new golden girl, Kamala Harris.

Joe Biden finally picked Kamala Harris for the Vice President position and the first step of her rise, up to the US presidency, is completed. We already wrote on early August that, as the establishment players who pull the strings know very well Biden's profound weaknesses, they want to make sure that he will be replaced by their best puppet in case he will become unable to fulfill duties. It seems that the puppet is called Kamala Harris. And in fact, it seems that the establishment players are eager to replace Biden with their top female Obama, in the end.

As Max Blumenthal put it, speaking with Jimmy Dore: "Now you have a scenario where Kamala Harris could be the next president, very easily ..."

Indeed. Everything shows that the liberal elites are seeking to restore neoliberal order by using the same trick (as they did with Obama), amplified. That is, identity politics on steroids through the recruitment of an Obama female version.

As we wrote in June, 2019, "It appears that Kamala Harris is establishment's most preferable candidate because she has all the characteristics that could revive identity politics and drive the electorate away from the substance of politics and towards the neoliberal center."  

And therefore, because of the fact that she is rather unpopular especially among progressives, Kamala Harris has been put at the VP key position by the establishment against popular will. And her primary mission for the moment is to crush progressive resistance within and outside the democratic party. 

From now on and until November general election we should expect from the liberal machine to attack every progressive voter who would dare not to compromise with the Biden/Harris neoliberal disaster duo. And the operation will be carried out through the typical smears, as all these uncompromising progressives will be painted as racists, misogynists and even Trump crypto-sympathizers.

In fact since already 2017, Briahna Joy Gray identified such an operation. As she wrote back then:

There are therefore both principled and pragmatic reasons why people on the left might be skeptical of a Harris candidacy. There’s a serious question about whether Harris can be counted on to advance progressive values when doing so might require political sacrifices. But there’s also a question of strategy: from a leftist perspective, it’s unwise to run yet another presidential candidate whose ties to banks could make them “untrustworthy” in an era of low public trust in elected officials. Given the crushing defeat of November 2016 (which was all but predicted by certain insightful progressives), it would seem obviously beneficial for the Democratic Party to listen to progressive criticism early and adapt candidates and their messaging accordingly. Yet progressive critiques of Harris were met with swift and unyielding hostility. After a Mic article documented the lack of left-wing enthusiasm for a Harris candidacy, investigative journalist Victoria A. Brownsworth suggested that a better headline for the article would be: “Kamala Harris, biracial senator and former Attorney General of the most populous state, faces misogynist white men defaming her.” (This despite the fact that every critic quoted in the piece was female, and one was a woman of color.) Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden, a close Clinton ally and frequent defender of the Democratic Party, declared she found it “odd” that “these folks” (meaning Bernie Sanders supporters) “have [it] in for Kamala Harris and Cory Booker” in particular. “Hmmmm,” she said, implying that criticisms of Harris and Booker were racially motivated. MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid said the Mic article simply reported the opinions of “3 alt-left activists,” “alt-left” being a term used to brand leftists as racist analogues of the neo-Nazi alt-right. In Cosmopolitan, Brittney Cooper wrote that the left in general, but in particular the “Sanders Left,” “has a black-woman problem,” a charge I’ve addressed elsewhere. Cooper said that those criticizing Harris “think that black women who care about establishment politics lack vision” and that the debate “isn’t about Harris, but about the emotional and political labor that black women are expected to do to save America’s soul.” “Angry white Sanders voters,” she said, must “get off [Harris’s] back.” In large part, responses to skepticism about Harris have simply dismissed the substance of the analysis, instead suggesting a “targeting” of Harris because of her gender and/or race.

The main target of such an operation will be to make progressive voters forget the idea of a real alternative through the Green Party, or a grassroots third party.

Lol Kamala Harris is a center-right neoliberal who proudly called herself "California's top cop." She supports war, opposes Medicare for All, and is beholden to Wall Street. Harris doesn't have a progressive bone in her body. She would just continue the bipartisan Bush consensus. https://t.co/7OS8u9X5RF

— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) August 12, 2020

 
Harris' other part of her primary mission could be proved much more difficult because she will have to deal with the progressive onslaught inside the party. This part of the mission appears to be more difficult for two main reasons:

First, the progressive wave is growing stronger, as more progressives who are not backed by big money are winning in the Democratic primaries. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar renewed their terms through recent victories and Cori Bush, another progressive of critical importance, has joined recently the progressive wing (among others), through a stunning victory.

Second, the liberal machine can't do much to assist Harris to "sabotage" the progressives using the identity politics weapon, as the most popular of them are women of color.

Harris will have to wait for the never-Trump republicans to assist her after Trump's potential defeat. With Biden/Harris duo in power after November general election and the rebound of the moderate Republicans, progressives inside the Democratic Party will become the last barrier against the liberal machine towards its primary mission to restore neoliberal power.



Yet, with Trump being neutralized, the liberal machine won't be able to use the Trump-scare card anymore. And it will be even more difficult to smear the progressives inside the Democratic Party. Then, Harris will have to put all her efforts on pushing progressives towards more and more compromises until their final assimilation from the neoliberal status quo. It won't be an easy mission at all.