https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/transformation-or-no-gillibrands-candidacy-underwhelming
I had hoped that Michael Sean would have taken the day off in observance of the King Holiday, or at least had done a column about Dr. King or the movement he left behind, which includes the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. He hear little from the SCLC, except in hagiography and the members of SNCC are dying off,. They continue with the mission that Dr. King left them.
When he was assassinated, he was on his way to DC, where and Marion Barry and Walter Fauntleroy had an office at 14th and U Street to prepare for him. Dr. King's movement was multi-racial and was going to include both opposition to the Vietnam War and the Poor People's March (which went on without him). He was about justice, not identity politics.
Marion and Walter were joined by Eleanor Holmes Norton and Lawrence Guyot. Norton carries out the work as a Delegate in Congress and Walter, who was our first delegate, is working on employee ownership issues. Brothers Guyot and Barry have left us. Their lives are now the stuff of hagiography Their work is being carried on by the Metro DC Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, whose most visible member national member is Representative Ocaso-Cortez (who needs a bit of seasoning before seeking national office).
The last battle of the civil rights movement was not the election of Barack Obama, it is freedom for the District of Columbia from the whims of Congress, particularly its conservative members. DC seems to be their favorite whipping boy, to use a term loaded with race, but is nonetheless applicable.
The next generation of SNCC, Stand Up! for Washington, DC, can be found today on MLK Avenue, Marching for Statehood for New Columbia. I am a Charter Member (I was one of Mayor Barry's representative to it) used to attend the parade, but it is too cold today for these old bones. It would have been worth a column today. Indeed, it always is, despite our demand for Congress to stay out of the bodies of DC women.
That being said, on to Senator Gillibrand. Michael Sean focused on her neo-liberal positions in the interest of her donors (who even without their money, are prominent in the New York area and have more than a tinge of the neo-conservatism in their support of Israel, which includes Michael Sean). As for her conservative past, she represented a district in up-state New York. She deserves credit for actually representing her constituents. Last I checked, it was part of her job. Still, I could care less about Kirsten's Excellent Adventure. Her glee at being on Stephen Colbert's show gives the impression that this is about her or her gender, not about any particular policy agenda.
We have already had a campaign where a Senator from New York sought to break the last glass ceiling and whose only political statement was that it was her turn, after standing by her man when most would have left. President Obama did not run on his race, but on his vision, which many shared in the primaries and many more shared that November.
If you compare Obama's accomplishments with his successor, the Donald is not even close. Trump's chief ambition was to undo all things Obama, which seems to include restoring respect for America in the world, which he has trashed through sheer incompetence and his allegiance to Russia. He probably believes that they work for him, when, as Clinton said in the debates, Trump is Putin's puppet. If Gillibrand is on an Excellent Adventure, Trump (to use another Bill and Ted reference) is taking us on a Bogus Journey.
For better or worse, Obama was a symbol of progress for African Americans (which he was by courtesy, his descendancy was American heritage that goes back to Jamestown and Plymouth (as is mine and many of our other presidents) and an actual African. Trump made his political bones as a racial reactionary, carrying the dreams of White Backlash.
Hillary put one of the whitest men in the Senate as her running mate to counteract that, but she should have chosen Senator Booker of Governor Patrick to keep the interest of the constituency in America that is most firmly Democratic. Her pandering to its other major constituency, pro-choice women, on the issue of partial birth abortion, activated the shameful support of Trump by Catholic bishops, which sealed her fate.
Identity politics is nothing new in America. Our founding in Plymouth was based on the perceived Romanism in the Anglican Church, while the conquest of Central and South America began by planting a Cross on the beach, which continued the identity politics of Catholicism that was finally repudiated with Garibaldi in the unification of Italy, which intensified the backlash against all things modern. This lasted until the Second Vatican Council, which undid the Anachronistic papacies of Pius IX and St. Pius X. The resemblance to Trumpism is astounding.
All politics is, to some extent, based on identity politics. Ancient Egypt had two concurrent dynasties in the north and south, likely relating to skin color, although it evolved into one of the most ethnically diverse portions of the Roman empire and the Coptic Church. Even Jesus focused on the Jews and was crucified as its King. Only the time of the Judges, which was a reaction to the God-King of Canaan, accepted all comers from the Hittites to the Jews.
Trump is not the first nor the last tyrant who depended on a cult of personality. Comrade Stalin was more a nationalist than a socialist. Indeed, he and Hitler were to the right of Attila the Hun. Libertarians like to include Naziism in Socialism because of this, but in truth, both were fascists, even more so than Trump. Real socialists can be found in Europe's ruling coalitions (both the Social and Christian Democrats) and in the campaigns of Eugene Debs and Bernie Sanders and the writing of DSA co-founder Michael Harrington. I am to the left of them.
As discussed last Monday, Senator Warren's entry in the race is not about her gender. She actually has something to say, as does Senator Harris, who has good policy chops.. Whether either Warren, Harris or Gillibrand can even get their campaigns off the ground depends on whether Vice President Pence was walled off of Trump's corruption or, like Sgt. Schultz of Hogan's Heroes saw :nothing, nothing." If he is not indicted, he will be the Republican nominee and Vice President Biden is his likely opponent (it seems to be his turn).
If Pence is indicted, then Speaker Pelosi becomes President if she wants to be, or can put in someone else as Speaker (one need not be a Member) so that they can be President. She knows better to not put in Clinton, so Biden would be the likely incumbent if Pelosi does not wish to serve, leaving Lindsey Graham the putative favorite for a dying Republican Party. This leaves the Democrats with a problem. A dying GOP, who will shed it's Wall Streeters and support Biden, and if he has one gaffe to many, possibly Gillibrand.
The Bernie contingent would likely create its own ticket headed by Sanders, Warren or a real socialist more akin to leftist politics. Such a party would love to have the Junior Senator from New York and her cult of personality as its opponent. She is our prefect foil. Bring her on! I even have some theme music for her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xxgRUyzgs0
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