When Liberals Became Republicans and Republicans Became Goons

When you write about politics, there’s a convention regarding capitalization. There is democracy, which is a political concept. Then there are Democrats, which are a specific corporate entity managed and branded by the DNC. There is a republic, which is a political concept. Then there are Republicans, which are a specific corporation represented by the RNC.

Both of these concepts — democracy and republicanism — these were radical ideas both, once upon a time. But Democrats purportedly champion Democracy, so let me focus on that.

Democracy is definitively the rule of the people. Democracy is expressed as a continuum. You could always have more democracy just as you can have less democracy. But it’s not a binary. Too many people think it’s a binary, that you either have democracy or you don’t. But that’s not how democracy works.

Right now, Americans enjoy very little democracy. Others, even less. A lot of basic people will try to defend America’s anemic democracy by claiming that other places have it worse, but let me make very clear to you right now that what other countries do is entirely irrelevant to the grievance that America’s democracy is anemic.

We are, according to many, many, many political scientists, sociologists, and philosophers living under conditions of oligarchy. Whatever flimsy democracy we believe ourselves to have is not rule. Right now, we are afforded the full risk of surviving a Great Fuckery with little idea of how to escape getting fucked over ourselves. The safety nets have long been eroded. Millions of us are hurting with no recourse. The people do not rule. The people are ruled.

Whatever democracy Democrats claim to be championing, it’s sick, rotten from the inside, riddled with black tumors. To me, the only thing distinguishing the Democratic Party from the Republican Party is the kind of carcinogens they endorse we imbibe. Warren Buffett’s ok with gay people so long as they vote to fund underperforming schools with Coca-Cola vending machines, ok?

I don’t care what underrepresented group you are from, unless you’re a fucking banker, you are getting hosed by the DNC. If you think the Party cares about your interests, you’re naive. You were sold out decades ago. Your kids, they didn’t even us have in mind.

After Citizens United, the oligarchy is laid bare. We can’t even contest it. Instead, basic yams seem to believe Hillary, its biggest beneficiary by far, won’t let their corporate financialization affect her jurisprudence. Right.

Because liberals are apparently that fucking stupid.

Much democracy.

Very people.

Wow.

From my vantage, the most frustrating part of this election has been watching purported “experts” dictate to us our own colonization. They sell us on its inevitability. They insist we cannot escape this. If the poor must suffer their lot, Hillary Clinton might as well run the tractor.

Feminism!

The pundit class exists to trivialize our suffering. The pundit class exists to gaslight our poor. The pundit class exists to normalize our oppression.

Through the whitest of teeth.

I’m not the first person to say this. This is how propaganda works. The pundit class just exists to assure you that you can’t be tricked. You’re smart. You’re savvy. You got this.

Yas. Slay, Queen.

This week has been egregiously bad, however, for the pundit class trying to reassure its audience that Trump supporters are an anomaly. They aren’t like us, they wink. Those working-class white people are the uneducated masses. If they’re angry at the system, they reason, it’s because they’re ignorant and racist. Obviously, they insist, Obama is beyond the reproach of criticism. And thus through this magic halo effect, no legitimate criticisms can be levied against Hillary. Ergo, Trump and Sanders supporters are just ignorant and don’t “Get It.”

While wonks lose their shit trying every new way to browbeat ideological deviance, I’m sitting here on the sidelines laughing. Most people still didn’t vote in the primaries. Most Americans have checked out of this batshit. They don’t even care.

Most Americans just recognize this fundamental truth: this democracy doesn’t actually mean anything to us. We know our vote doesn’t actually matter. We know no matter who they vote for, horrible trade bills are going to get passed that send working-class jobs to Mexico. Whoever they vote for, they aren’t going to be able to afford to see a doctor if they get sick. No matter who swears in, America is going to continue to suck for statistically everyone.

This anemic democracy doesn’t mean anything.

Red or blue, it’s the same grotesque.

Neither side will fight the Great Fuckery. They won’t even admit it exists. Not when they can just blame it all on the Red or the Blue.

As if the Fuckery isn’t colorblind.

During this election, Liberalism has become a word shat on by pretty much everyone. Apparently, ideology is a polar binary of conservatism on one hand and liberalism on the other.

Except that’s not quite right. Not anymore.

Liberalism used to be a radical concept. The idea that individuals should be freed from the Great Monarchy was once a radical idea and to be Liberal — to advocate for individual rights — that was a radical identity. But now that we’re all forced to be free, the idea of radical independence is both a promise and a threat. We are now all freely alone and well fucked.

Hurray.

Society is pretty set on giving the individual as much freedom as they want, so long as most have to start in an empty quarry and those in power can commoditize all the ladders they need to climb to get out. This kind of liberty, it turns out, is quite profitable.

I know this comes as quite the shock, but Liberalism doesn’t seem to save us from the systemic problems of unbridled Liberalism.

So maybe, one of the problems we’re coming up to here is nomenclature. What is a Liberal? What is liberalism? Are you a Liberal? Are you liberal? If Hillary Clinton describes herself as a liberal and you believe she’s actually quite moderate, what does that make you?

These are good questions to ask because liberalism and conservatism are not mutually exclusive. These are not binary concepts. Both liberals and conservatives today preach extreme independence and believe collective social policy is politically unfeasible. On issues of healthcare, education, climate change and military, they are indistinguishably in agreement: privatize everything and let profit ring. In that respect, both are quite Liberal.

Hillary Clinton is an agent of societal stasis. This is why she speaks of increments, passing the buck of justice onto the next generation. Let tomorrow figure this mess out. Blackstone has to win today.

So I keep coming back to this idea that Liberals as a group suffer from the problem of political taxonomy. Would it help for me to point out that the campaign Hillary Clinton is running in 2016 sounds a lot like the campaign platform that Republican George H.W. Bush ran on in 1988? (Don’t believe me? Go read it.) Believe it or not, the Republicans were arguably more progressive and concrete in their policy offerings on many dimensions than Hillary Clinton is right now.

Hillary just knows not to make any promises. Then she can’t be held accountable for not doing anything. Speak confidently in abstract platitudes and you can rule the world.

Anyway, my point is this: you don’t need to identify as a Liberal. The term is on its way out. Many of us on the left no longer even respect it. We are dealing with problems that the liberal/conservative binary can no longer help us understand. The dogged allegiance to the label is stopping many from asking bigger questions.

Because during this election, I’ve watched ostensible Liberals endorse:

• voter suppression
• privatized healthcare
• crippling student debt
• drone orphans
• deporting child refugees
• homelessness
• undeclared perpetual war
• financial imperialism

Who are you people?

Radicals like me think Hillary supporters are basically conservatives who are defending a regressive status quo that allowed to persist will continue to hurt the young, the poor, minorities, and most definitely brown kids abroad. If you even suspect this might be true, you can stop pretending you’re with her.

If Slay Queen identifies as a Liberal, maybe it’s time you stopped.

Or you can stay basic, I guess.

Democracy.