Matisyahu's Blog

Just before I start I should put my cards on the table regarding where I am coming from politically – I sit on the left economically and socially I’m a libertarian so for someone like me Bernie Sanders is closer to where I sit politically but that being said I’m realistic. I understand that there is a fine line between what you want vs what is possible politically so it isn’t always possible to get ones ideal candidate so one supports someone close enough to that. In the case of Joe Biden I expected him to be yet another Obama like centrist but what happened in reality is that he ended up being a lot more centre left than most people had expected – Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS and Science Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act not to mention the many executive actions such as increasing the minimum wage for federal contractors (Executive Order 14026) along with many others.

The question is with the upcoming election isn’t about disagreeing with Joe Biden’s policies because I would say the vast vast majority of Democrats and voters in general support his policies, the problem is about the ability to go out on a campaign trail and not only defend the policies but to also weave a narrative of where the democratic presidential candidate would like to take the country in the next four years. The problem is that if you have a presidential candidate who are unable to push back against the right wing BS vortex coming out of the Republicans then it won’t matter how good your record in terms of policies is if it you’re unable to articulate a robust defence when Trump and his sycophants start fire hosing their lies through the media.

I’ve been biting my tongue but I might as well put this out there – Joe Biden should have, before the Democratic primary season started, announced that he would be a one term president, that he would like to see a new generation come through (as noted by Mitt Romney when he said he would not seek re-election for the senate), said that he would endorse Kamala Harris but also say that the Democratic party process needs to be robust so that the members of the Democratic Party are united by the presidential candidate representing the Democratic Party. With that being said, when the rumours started my guess was that if he were going to step down it would be after the Republican Party convention.

Oh, and on a side note Republicans are throwing around threats of running off the court – clue to the clueless young Mikey Johnson, a political party is a private organisation, how and who the party chooses to run for which political position is an internal party matter along with what happens if the nominee steps down and as a result needs to be replaced. If in a party constitution says that to be the presidential candidate you have to participate in a punch up for 20 minutes and whoever is standing at the end is the nominee then the is the process the party has collectively decided to be the process – once again, meaning the state has no say in say in that process. Then again this goes into the large issue I have with politics in the United States – the State should not be running the primaries, the only thing the state should be doing is registering parties, candidates and running the general election.

Oh, and something even more funny was the post on ‘Truth Social’ by Donald Trump (obtained from the video where the issue was discussed over at Brian Tyler Cohen (link):

So it is the Democrats fault that you orientated all your messaging around a single person rather than policy? If you were smart you would have made your message something along the lines of “regardless of whether it is Joe Biden, Kamala Harris or anyone else, they’ll be all heading in the same direction which we believe is the wrong direction for America…” but then again that would require that the Republican Party isn’t run by the local brain trust. Once again Republicans playing the victim as they feel the consequences of the decisions they have made.

Regarding her running mate, I personally think that someone like Pete Buttigieg or Katie Porter because the risk of taking a governor from a state where the Democrats have a thin majority may cause more problems long term. In the case of Pete Buttigieg, he’s moderate, middle of the road the ability to go onto Fox News and push back against the avalanche of BS that the right wing media outlet put out there. I also think that he represents a generational change with Kamala Harris representing generation X and Pete Buttigieg representing the millennials – the Republicans representing the past, the Democrats representing the future. Katie Porter has a great skill at breaking down complex issues, pointing out Republican nonsense for what it is etc. Both Pete Buttigieg and Katie Porter would be great for that position – let’s hope that Kamala learns from the mistake Hillary Clinton made when she chose a relatively unknown person for vice president.

The other part is how will be how Kamala positions herself – Republicans are running on claims of a rising crime rate and how Democrats are supposedly soft on crime (see Republican references to New York and California) so Kamala could play her card as a prosecutor, that when people broke the law the held them accountable. The question is, if Kamala does lean into her prosecutor experience does the left and progressives in the Democratic Party throw a temper tantrum and walk off in a fit, “I’m not going to vote for Kamala the Cop” as if some how threatening not to vote is going to magically change everything just to meet their unrealistic demands. What I hope is that the left and progressives aren’t short sighted and learnt from the 2016 fiasco where the same people claimed that fear about a conservative majority picked by the Federalist Society overturning Roe vs Wade was a scare campaign by the liberal elite – funny how those who claimed it was a ‘scare campaign’ suddenly disappeared off Twitter when Roe vs Wade was actually overturned.

Oh, and to add more craziness to the mix, Republicans had a melt down because Mike Pence said something very normal (link) regarding Joe Biden deciding not to run for a second term. It truly is amazing how, with the display of shear lunacy that there are ‘undecided voters’ when the Republicans have lost the plot entirely. Expect the Kamala Harris to drive the right wing crazier now that there is a young articulate candidate at the top of the ticket who push back on Republican nonsense without fumbling it.