So why do they always disappoint me?
Top of the list: demand an end to the war in Iran, and stop giving Israel support for genocide. Is this too much to ask? It’s the bare minimum exercise of human decency. Stop killing people. But too many Democrats are in the pocket of AIPAC to take a forthright position on something so simple.
Next on the list, but still pretty important: disband ICE. I know it was pushing it too far to ask to defund the police in general, but ICE is nothing but a right-wing murder squad. They killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Maine yesterday, and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas last week. Their new excuse: they were fearing for public safety
, so they were justified in gunning down a member of the public who was not threatening the public safety. That’s a damned fine excuse, one they could use to justify shooting me, because it’s so vague.
It’s all so nebulous that the goons who murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti are still running free, the FBI has been stonewalling Minnesota authorities (sub-goal: fire Kash Patel and have him arrested), and they only recently allowed prosecutors to examine the evidence, more than 7 months after the murder of Good. ICE is basically an interstate assassination cartel operating on behalf of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, specifically looking for an excuse to kill brown people and antifa.
If a candidate for office can’t pass those two easy hurdles, they will not be getting my vote. I’m fed up with politicians who refuse to address those two simple issues.
It’s the problem of always being the lesser of two evils: The line between the two evils grows thinner every time. And then they have the audacity to be surprised when would-be voters give up on the process.
In Minnesota, Klobuchar is running for governor, and she’s OK by my criteria. She talks the talk, but I’m less satisfied with the way she walks the walk.
Peggy Flanagan and Angie Craig are competing for the Minnesota senate seat. Craig voted to enable ICE, a vote she now regrets, but I’m still holding it against her. Peggy Flanagan is getting my vote.
Craig can eat shit for her weak excuses.
I’m not the biggest fan of Klobuchar, but her running mate showed up to one of our anti-ICE protests and borrowed one of my signs that explicitly called them out as fascists.
Side note, AIPAC has lost a lot of influence recently. It was never about their money but about appearing to be on the side of a historically oppressed people. When many of that same ethnic group are criticizing you for supporting genocide, that goes out the window.
oh it’s absolutely also about their money. us politicians are historically cheap dates and openly corrupt in this respect.
Not all Democrats.
A lot of them have been vocal and effective in opposing the christofascists of the GOP.
That would include AOC, the new mayor of NYC, Senators like Sanders and Patti Murray of Washington, governors like Newsom of California, etc..
Then again, Chuck Schumer to take one prominent example, does a great imitation of a house plant.
Schumer is also the Senate minority party leader, which makes him one of the most powerful elected Democratic party leaders. I’d pay money to see Schumer get primaried out of office.
PZ’s summary of ICE is correct.
In a just world, those ICE killers of innocent people like Rene Good would be tried for murder. So would the leaders of ICE and the Border Patrol.
No Statute of Limitations for murder.
It may happen yet, even if it takes a decade or two.
Not all Democrats, but far too many fall short of what we expect of our politicians. The good ones are the exceptions who tend to be suppressed by the political money machine.
I really hope there’s some big series of trials on ICE members in the future. No one who joined that organization should be able to live in peace after what they’ve done or enabled their colleagues to do. They have to be made to face justice.