Y’all Excited for the Debates?!

Are you voting in the Democratic primary? Who are you voting for? Who do you think is the best candidate to go up against Trump?

Wait, don’t answer. I just remembered, it really doesn’t fucking matter.

Not that it doesn’t matter. But it sure doesn’t matter much. This is its theme song.

Far too much attention and airtime is being given to the upcoming Democratic primary, as if it is the be-all end-all event that will determine the fate of our nation and human existence. But unfortunately, even if it goes as well as possible, it won’t make much of a difference. This is also its theme song.

First of all, we’ve come to place such undue importance on the presidency. The executive is a powerful position, but they’re not a king, however badly a wretched being composed of melted Halloween Peeps wishes that were so. Even with all the powers abdicated by Congress to the president, particularly these past several decades, it is still a position of limited control. If anything, the burning paper bag of dog shit currently “leading” the country has highlighted the mistakes made in swelling the authority of the “commander in chief,” and the importance of rolling back those powers and diluting them back among the legislature, as the nation’s foundational documents intended. Because it’s ridiculous that a person who won a minority of votes from the eligible population should have the ability to make decisions that affect everyone. And it’s fucking ridiculous that such a thing could be possible and allowed in a nation pretending it is a democracy.

Even if we actually had a good and competent president, it would still be better that we undo the cult of personality that determines the president as much as possible, and relegate the position to that of a civil servant of only relative importance. Because the job of the president, the executive, in basic summary, is to execute the will of the people as represented by the legislature, and ensure the enforcement of the law as decided by the judiciary. Sure, Congress is notoriously inefficient, corrupt, conservative, and perpetually stalled, and sometimes executive action might be needed to fix whatever bullshit shenanigans they happen to be wasting time on, but it should be a rare thing. And so long as this nation purports to be a democracy, it should never be the case that one person’s will can overrule or supercede that of many.

When we get to the candidates running for the Democratic nomination, the more we are forced to come to terms with how small is the likelihood of anything meaningful being done. Sanders and Warren are far from perfect, only “good” compared to their opposition. Biden, the media-ordained “frontrunner,” is a complete piece of garbage whose only selling points are that he is not Trump, doesn’t have nice things to say about Nazis, and he is associated with Obama, whom many people believe was a good president. Everyone else is hardly worth mentioning, either because they’re poor candidates who won’t accomplish anything in the debates and primary other than potentially raising their national profile, or because they’re pointless and regressive nobodies with nothing to offer.

Biden would be a disaster as president, though that word is relative, thanks to Trump. Biden’s record is that of a conservative, in the mold of an oldschool Republican. He is not a progressive. Insistences on his part and by his defenders on that claim are lies. His record is anti-women, anti-minorities, pro-war, pro-business. All his smiles, bullshit platitudes, and forced blue-collar folksiness can’t cover for what he is. His record, his friendliness with the most detestable Republicans, and stated intentions to reach across the aisle and collaborate with them, make clear the fact that he is garbage. Yes, garbage, I say. Pure garbage. And a creepy, handsy weirdo, to boot.

Even the best potential president, a genuine progressive, a wonderful fantasy candidate far to the left of Sanders’ and Warren’s moderate liberalism, could only do so much. So long as the House and Senate are packed with reactionary ideologues and corrupt schills of both parties, and the federal judiciary and Supreme Court remain in the grips of conservative dirtbags, there’s little even a truly good and motivated fantasy president could do.

Before campaigning for the primary began, the DNC was already doing all it could to rig it and self-sabotage. Biden was declared the favorite to win long before announcing he was running. This is explained simply by the fact that he was the favorite, among the establishment; he is the favorite of party leaders and corporate backers. Because he’s a neoliberal tool in the mold of those the establishment repeatedly pushes, despite a lack of popularity among voters. Biden is the least threatening to them. He’s a hack with all the negatives of Hillary Clinton and none of her positives. He’s happy to be the corporate party establishment stooge, further hindering and blocking progress for the many, maximizing profits for the few.

Acting against the will and wishes of their constituents, the DNC has also refused to hold debates on the climate crisis. There is no more pressing issue than the climate crisis. Trump must be removed from office, along with all his cohorts; civil rights must be protected; people need to be able to access food, water, housing and healthcare for themselves and their families. But none of that truly matters, and most of it is impossible, without taking action to protect against impending doom of, and undo what damage is done where possible by, climate catastrophe.

The DNC has again, repeatedly, shown themselves to be a gaggle of spineless and corrupt corporate enablers, hardly better than their contemptible counterparts in the RNC. Their “moderate,” “middle of the road” bullshit, in addition to having been proven a poor strategy for winning offices, is also counter to the desires of the majority of people they claim as their base.

Looking at this simply as a competition between Democrats and Republicans, between Left and Right (more accurately Right and radical Right) is a flawed approach which fails to appreciate the complexities of our legal system and how profoundly fucked up it is.

No Democratic president will save us. The Democrats will for damn sure not save us. The best we can hope for from any of them are stalling tactics. The problems of our nation are systemic and too deeply ingrained to be undone by any election.

Full disclosure: I plan to vote for Sanders, again. But I do so without enthusiasm and with little optimism. I’d vote third party if that weren’t an action akin to shitting in a hat and hoping flowers will grow. We’ve allowed the two-party monopoly, in the stranglehold of corporate elites, for far too long. We need a genuine revolution and wholescale systemic change, or we resign our fates to being forever and irrevocably fucked.

Have a lovely day. This is its theme song.