Biden's address is already being framed as "radical" and "socialist," but it was simply a reckoning with very real problems.
That it could be treated as dangerous is proof of just how far the Right has lost its grip on reality, and the purpose they serve.
2/
Let's be very clear.
The GOP's only purpose at this point is to obstruct progress, redistribute wealth from the poor to the wealthy, and convince Americans the government can never do anything to help them and then redirect their anger toward vulnerable populations.
3/
The GOP isn't actually a political party.
It's a PR front for the wealthy and powerful and is bankrolled explicitly to keep their taxes low and stonewall any potential reform.
They have no ideology beyond the pursuit of power and profit.
How we arrived here is a history Americans should know, because this moment of inequality, government powerlessness, and division was an intentional demolition.
That we're here, trying to make up for DECADES OF LOST TIME, is no accident.
5/
Ronald Reagan's legacy is that of a pitchman for a radical redistribution of wealth from the poor to the wealthy, a project that has completely hollowed out the country, created our current crisis, and has resulted in America falling behind in every possible way.
6/
Biden wasn't wrong. Trickle Down Economics never did work.
But it was never supposed to. It was half-baked economics that gave the Right legitimacy to completely turn our economy upside down and turn it into a cruel engine for growing inequality and governmental destruction.
7/
The era of hypercapitalism was ushered in by Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
It taught citizens to expect nothing from government and that if they fell behind it was their fault, that they were lacking, that they deserved it.
It was institutional abuse.
8/
Meanwhile, Reagan partnered with the Religious Right to grant this gross inequality and disgusting economic philosophy an air of religiosity, resulting in a white supremacist worship of power and wealth that has infected our culture and brought us to the brink of destruction.
9/
As Reagan and the Right funneled money away from social and human projects, it neglected to modernize us, prepare for the 21st century, even engage with the idea that human beings deserved even a modicum of dignity.
It collapsed society and unleashed terrible forces.
10/
This is why I saw Donald Trump was a symptom, not the disease.
He recognized the growing frustration resulting from hypercapitalism, and instead of trying to fix it he used it to make a buck and redirect anger from those responsible to his enemies and vulnerable peoples.
11/
To protect its redistributive project, the Right has continued to stoke white supremacy and white paranoia, leading to a moment in this country where declining material conditions produces radicalized violence.
These people are meant to protect the economic order.
12/
To keep their base in line, and protect the accumulation of wealth, the Right has sold Americans on the idea of "Replacement," or that people of color and "shadowy forces" are out to destroy them.
What we have seen though is an intentional shredding of the social safety net and economic protections laid out by FDR in the wake of the Great Depression.
It was a radical departure concealed behind stars and stripes rhetoric and white nationalist appeals.
14/
If you want to know what "radical" is, look at FDR's proposed Second Bill of Rights.
Guaranteed work, home, education, and healthcare.
We could already be there if it wasn't for the Right. We could be addressing climate change and progressing. That we aren't is a crime.
15/
I understand the need some have to frame Biden as FDR, but the truth is that none of what he's talking about is radical.
It's modernizing. It's common sense.
Do not let the Right define the debate. It's one of the only things they're good at.
16/
Refuse this framing that Biden is pushing something outlandish or radical.
It's common-sense, noncontroversial stuff.
There shouldn't even be a debate. It's about recognizing reality as it is and as it has been.
It's about smashing through the Right's twisted propaganda.
17/
If we're going to avoid destruction, whether through fascism, climate change, or economic collapse, we have to start by understanding the Right intentionally destroyed government and redistributed wealth while delaying necessary modernization.
That's simply the truth.
18/18
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The most important story of the 2024 Election is going untold.
Kamala Harris isn’t just facing Donald Trump, JD Vance, and the GOP. She’s squaring off against fascist Tech billionaires using them as puppets to destroy democracy.
Vance becoming Trump’s VP pick was a political marriage between MAGA and Far Right Tech Fascism. They are now a front for Musk, Theil, and a generation of tech oligarchs who have been quite open about their desire to co-opt government for power and profit.
What is happening with the Tech Fascists is the same thing we’ve seen before. Industrialist always use their obscene wealth to corrupt government and then find authoritarian puppets to finish the job and multiply their power.
This is yet another chapter in a long, long story.
JD Vance is a historic piece of shit who sold out his family and people to make a buck and gain power. He’s in bed with techno-fascist billionaires and is one of the foremost advocates for a literal fascistic ideology that seeks to take MAGA to the next level of oppression.
It’s bad enough that Vance is such a colossal asshole and that his ideology is literally fascistic, but he is capable of taking the MAGA baton and turning it into a force the likes of which most have yet to even imagine.
Terrible, terrible day for the country.
If our media returns to fawning over Vance because they want to hate poor people, I’m going to lose my everloving mind.
This is serious, serious business. And we all got a whole lot less safe today.
For years MAGA has promoted a culture of violence and oppression.
Now, in the wake of the shooting, calls to lower the temperature disgustingly obscure that fact and also undermine the need to protect millions of Americans from authoritarianism.
This isn’t a “both sides” issue. One side has waged an authoritarian war on democracy predicated on violence. The other has said people deserve safety and dignity and shouldn’t be hunted and systematically erased.
This false equivalency is disgusting. And telling.
The Center in America has now revealed what it truly believes. Fighting authoritarianism is “ugly” and “dangerous.”
It’s much easier and more pleasant to wring hands and welcome the authoritarianism and make nice with it. The media and political class enjoys that privilege.
Absolutely disturbing but unsurprising that they’ve managed to equate a movement’s constant fearmongering and calls for literal violence and murder with people saying, hey, maybe this other side calling for literal violence and murder is dangerous.
I just want people to remember that the reason this environment is so charged is because 1. One group has spent years openly talking about carrying out a bloody, reactionary revolution and 2. There are literal human beings whose lives and fates are on the line.
When you say, “Hey, let’s all take it down a notch,” you’re spitting in the face of women, people of color, immigrants, gay and trans people.
The stakes are actually as high as they can be. But there is one side constantly pushing a bloody resolution.
Trump has used Christianity’s persecution complex and obsession with apocalyptic danger to his advantage, crediting imaginary battles between Good and Evil.
Now, they have a ready-made situation that will inflame those fears and necessitate more extremism.
The ground was prepared for the MAGA Cult when evangelicals merged with the GOP a half century ago. Now, Christian Nationalism and the MAGA Cult are logical evolutions of a religious-backed push for power.