It’s the Damned Wars, that the Politicians Keep Paying for.
Senator Lindsay Graham says the US should attack Iran’s energy resources. He forgets that Iran could block the flow of oil out of the Persia Gulf, sending the world economy into collapse.
—-Larry Johnson, former CIA officer and intelligence analyst, and former planner and advisor at the US State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism.
The Politics of Joy, Then and Now
The two Democratic Party conventions, that of 1968, and now, 2024 have ended. I attended the 1968 convention–well, that is, I was in a park just across the street from the convention hall, probably 200 yards away. I’d supported the first peace candidate, Gene McCarthy of Minnesota, whose position opposing the Vietnam War was clearer than Robert F. Kennedy, who jumped in late but was assassinated the night of his victory in the California Primary, which would have insured his nomination and probable win.
Anyway, I got my first real lesson in American democracy, as I watched the police beat the crap out of the demonstrators in front. I was lucky. I was no where near the violence.
Instead of Gene McCarthy, whose stand on peace in Vietnam marked him as an outlier and marginalized him, the Party Big Wigs muscled Hubert Humphrey, the Vice President into the nomination basically abandoning the primary election process.
Humphrey wasn’t a ‘bad guy’. He was a strong supporter of civil rights, and working class interests. But he was strongly anti communist and despite his misgivings about the Vietnam War, he showed his loyalty to LBJ, who had decided not to run again, mainly due to massive demonstrations and pressure from the anti Vietnam War peace movement. As the saying went at the time,
“Hey Hey LBJ, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?”….Now we hear cries about “Genocide Joe Biden”. And Kamala has stated she’s fully on board with his agenda…just like Humphrey was with LBJ.
When Hubert Humphrey didn’t have a leg to stand on given his support of the indefensible Vietnam War campaigned on “The Politics of Joy”…When you can’t campaign based on evidence and logic, appeal to emotion.
Several Commentators Have Noticed the Parallels
Several observers of US politics have noticed the similarities between then and now.
This mainstream website gives a sympathetic view of Humphrey’s career, and is worth noting. If it hadn’t been for the war, I might have been willing to vote for him.
https://millercenter.org/president/lbjohnson/essays/humphrey-1963-vicepresident
This article points out how the “Old Left” started cracking with the “New Left” comprised mainly of students questioning many of the assumptions of the “Party of FDR”.
When President Johnson declined to run for another term in 1968, Humphrey won the Democratic Party’s nomination. His campaign got off to a tumultuous start with the infamous 1968 Democratic Convention. Humphrey’s attempts at unity and references to the “Politics of Joy” seemed wholly out of touch with the riots and protests going on outside.
https://www.americanexperiment.org/magazine/article/the-tragedy-of-hubert-humphrey
However, Norman Solomon, a well regarded journalist and a ‘real Leftist’ as distinct from the fake identity politics Left which is used by the Democrats to weaken the real base, which is favorable to peace and ‘Bernie Sanders style’ Socialism, explains how Humphrey’s unwillingness to take on the War Machine undermined his campaign, resulting in his defeat.
https://scheerpost.com/2024/08/16/the-ghost-of-hubert-humphrey-is-stalking-kamala-harris/
The convention nominated him while, outside, tear gas filled the air during what a report from a special federal commission later called a police riot that meted out violence to antiwar demonstrators as well as some journalists. Inside the turbulent convention, dissenting delegates were outshouted, outvoted and suppressed by the pro-Humphrey forces.
The chaos and bitterness in Chicago underscored how the vice president’s deference to the war president had weakened the party while undermining the chances for victory. In polls, Humphrey trailed the Republican candidate Richard Nixon by double digits.
Kamala Harris and Her “Politics of Joy”
Vice President Harris is in a similar position to Hubert Humphrey. But there is a significant difference. Humphrey did have a record of promoting legislation that was favorable to Labor and the working class, as well as promoting civil rights legislation.
Harris, on the other hand, has a short record in the Senate, a stained record as Attorney General, who showed a lack of empathy for workers and especially people of color in her policies regarding prisoners.
What she has in common with Humphrey was, what I’d call “studied ebullience”. She loves laughing and her acceptance speech at the convention was long on “the Politics of Joy” while short on substance. Norman Solomon noted:
Last week, Harris described herself and running-mate Tim Walz as “joyful warriors.” Many outlets have heralded their joyride along the campaign trail. The Associated Press reported that “Harris is pushing joy.” A New York Times headline proclaimed that “joy is fueling her campaign.” The brand of the Harris campaign is fast becoming “the politics of joy.”
Such branding will be a sharp contrast to the outcries from thousands of protesters in Chicago outside the Democratic National Convention next week, as they denounce U.S. complicity with the methodical killing of so many children, women and other civilians in Gaza.
Campaigning for joy while supporting horrendous warfare is nothing new. Fifty-six years before Vice President Harris called herself a “joyful warrior,” Vice President Humphrey declared that he stood for the “politics of joy” when announcing his run for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination.
On the other hand she shares a common trait of politicians–saying one thing to appeal to one audience, while implying quite the opposite to AIPAC, the big bucks people. This clip came from an obscure website I found shared in a post in a private group. I think it says a lot about her ‘crocodile tears for Palestine’, while ensuring that the bombs keep dropping.
When Kamala Harris doesn’t have a leg to stand on given her support of the indefensible Ukraine and Palestinian War, she campaigns on “The Politics of Joy”…When you can’t campaign based on evidence and logic, appeal to emotion.
Here she is appealing to one audience’s emotions one way and her ‘real supporters’ she appeals to them with different emotion….Rank psychological manipulation worthy of a sociopath.
In Defense of Both Trump and Harris
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed the Trump rally with what many (even avowed Leftists) said was the best speech in years. He said that if Trump were elected, he would work within that adminstration to turn the disastrous state of health of the American people, by making sure that health, diet, exercise and focus on prevention replace the for profit system in place now. I agree with that.
Kamala Harris, in a recent speech addressed the housing crisis and the high cost of housing. She said she would work to build millions of new affordable housing units.
Both of these issues are important, and all things being equal and disregarding their respective records, one could make a case to vote for either one.
So, What Have We the People Learned Since 1968?
The problem is that politicians of both parties have promoted both the Ukraine War and war with Russia and a future war with China, as well as the current genocidal war against Palestine, which has been ongoing, in fact, since the 1948 war of terror on the Palestinians, which drove 700,000 out of their homes, many into Gaza, where they’ve been under constant attack, creating ‘the world’s largest outdoor prison’….and now the world’s largest out door death camp.
Both parties have with short exceptions for tactical purposes, been bent on world Hegemony, ever since the end of WWII. In fact, Andre Martyanov, a Russian American citizen and military expert recently pointed out that the US has been at war against Russia since WWII.
Conclusion
The reason why those of you who hate Russia do so, is because Russia now and the USSR then represented the resistance to US relentless drive to dominate the world. Hubert Humphrey intuitively understood that the Vietnam War was wrong. But he lacked the courage to oppose it, for his own political purposes.
Kamala Harris weeps crocodile tears for Palestinians, but understands that her loyalty to AIPAC and Israel ‘trumps’ her sentiments about the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
And the American people, for the most part, shove the issue of America’s constant wars of conquest, slaughter and stealing resources of other countries, under the rug, because they are bought off by promises of economic benefits that rarely get met.
It’s NOT The Economy, or the Fake Joy, Stupid..It’s the Damned Wars! That’s what YOU need to demand to stop. Stop the Damned Wars!
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