Jim Kavanagh,
writing in Counterpunch, offers thanks to Mike Bloomberg and the Democratic Party for demonstrating "the reality of class rule more clearly than reams of marxist analysis could".
The Democratic Party, the one political instrument that purports to represent working people and the only one through which they are effectively allowed to pursue their interests politically, defined a set of rules for participation in debates that were designed to ensure that only candidates with a certain depth and breadth of support among voters and donors could participate. On the basis of strict (and some would say arbitrary) enforcement of those rules, the party serially winnowed out a number of candidates, including women and persons of color, with particular attention to excluding an antiwar woman of color (Tulsi Gabbard). Then, after it was clear that the candidate with the strongest working-class agenda was taking the lead, and after receiving an $800,000 donation from Mike Bloomberg, the party changed its rules to allow Bloomberg to participate in the debates.
That would be the same Mike Bloomberg who enforced a Jim-Crow policing policy in the country's largest city. That's the stop-and-frisk policy ... that stopped 700,000+ young men a year, 90% of them Black and Latino, literally making more stop-and-frisks of young black men than there are young black men in New York City. That's the "walking while black" policy that, according to Bull Bloomberg, stopped "white people…too often, and nonwhites not enough." That's the policy he bragged about and defended until a month before he declared himself a candidate, and just ... lied about stopping.
That would be the same Mike Bloomberg who calls his women employees "fat broads" and "horse-faced lesbians," tells pregnant women to "kill it," and has settled dozens of lawsuits for sexual harassment and discrimination from women whom he still keeps silent under the discipline of NDAs.
That would be the same Mike Bloomberg who has "never been in favor of raising the minimum wage," is in favor of cutting social Security and Medicare, and thinks the financial crisis was caused by a liberal Congress forcing banks to end redlining.
That would be the Mike Bloomberg who is the ninth richest person in the world, with more wealth than 125 million of his fellow citizens.
That's the guy the Democratic Party ... welcomed—indeed, begged—to enter the race for their party's nomination, and changed the rules so he could. The same people who are now saying the party must allow someone who did not get the most votes to become the nominee because, you know, you can't change the rules.
So, thank you, thank you all, for confirming the marxist critique of liberal capitalist identity-politics and demonstrating conclusively—much more effectively than the leftists who have been saying it for four years—that the Democratic Party is not opposed to Donald Trump because of his racism, sexism, or reactionary economic views.
Yes, conclusively, since the candidate you've gone out of your way to make room for is demonstrably, unequivocally, worse than Donald Trump on all of those counts. ...
In terms of political substance, if Michael Bloomberg had won the presidency in 2016 as a Republican—which he very well could have—the Democratic Party could very well be trying to run Donald Trump against him now. ...
So what Mike Bloomberg is teaching us, with the help of Democratic centrists and pundits, is that what qualifies him ... to be a president is ... he is a member of the ruling class who will prevent the slightest challenge to its rule.
It is a wonderful lesson in the marxist concept of class dictatorship, where "dictatorship," of course, does not mean "one-man rule" but absolute political hegemony. For Marx, the class that has decisive control over the capital wealth of society also has ultimate political authority. A modern capitalist state is by definition a "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie" (the capitalist class), even if that absolute political hegemony is exercised through a carefully-circumscribed apparatus of elections, parliaments, and rights. ...
At this stage of US capitalism, the game is becoming a little too obvious, with those recruited agents having to be rewarded with ostentatious wealth and ruling-class entrée (à la the Clintons and Obama), and, as social discontent increases, capitalist magnates are eliminating the middleman and intervening personally and explicitly (à la Trump and Bloomberg). ...
Michael Bloomberg is not running to win the Democratic Party nomination, or to defeat Donald Trump. ...
Consider the question: If Bloomberg wanted to defeat Trump, why didn't he primary him?
The answer, obviously, is that he could not defeat Trump in the Republican Party, among the Republican electorate, no matter how much money he spends, and he knows it. ...
Michael Bloomberg cannot win the nomination of the Democratic Party, among the Democratic electorate, no matter how much money he spends, and he knows it. ...
Bloomberg cannot win either the Republican or the Democratic nomination, or the general election, where Trump would run to the left of Bloomberg and eat him alive. ...
What Bloomberg can do is ... hurt the front-runner. What he can do is ensure that no one else wins the majority of delegates. And the front-runner and only "one else" he entered the race to hurt is Bernie Sanders.
Michael Bloomberg is ... running for one reason: to stop Bernie Sanders. ... [H]e is running to make sure that someone else—who cannot be him—wins the nomination.
Here's the dilemma for the Democratic Party ... It must prevent Bernie Sanders from becoming the nominee, and it also must do all it can to prevent a widespread and radical rupture with the Democratic Party, which would imperil the two-party duopoly that's been a crucial support of class dictatorship. (N.B.: Beating Donald Trump in the general election is not on this list of party "musts." It would be nice and all, but important things first.)
Kavanagh predicts a scenario in which Sanders
will likely have a plurality of delegates, but with Bloomberg's help, the party can ensure that Bernie Sanders will not win the majority needed for a first-round victory. We know that, no matter how large a plurality Bernie has, on the second round of voting, deals will be made to combine superdelegates and other candidates' delegates to elect a nominee other than Bernie.
He sees Elizabeth Warren as the likely nominee which would
be a loser against Trump, but it carries the only hope of both stopping Bernie and preserving any semblance of 'progressive' credibility for the Democratic Party. ...
We have seen, I think, the first act of this horror show in the Nevada debate, where Warren pivoted back left, leading the charge against outrageously sexist billionaire Bloomberg.
If I'm right, this will become the ongoing kabuki theater in the weeks ahead, in which Warren sets herself up as the non-socialist and therefore "effective" anti-billionaire candidate ...
And the bonus: When Trump beats Warren, they can blame it on the people's sexism rather than their rejection of the plutocracy. And, of course, mobilize #Resistance and #impeachment2.0.
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