“Ghetto”… as if it’s only poor black people who have ever rioted… Are we forgetting decades of race riots by white people?
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Drawing attention to a problem everyone else would prefer to ignore – even at great or fatal cost to oneself – is an accomplishment for a desperate person. For example:
No, because the people threatening to do that tend not to be desperate and marginalised, but white male brocialist crybabies who are pouting because their messiah dropped out and who don’t understand that, for the moment, we’re stuck with a duopoly system in re: political parties.
[And to be clear, I say this as a strong Sanders supporter who’s been very critical of the DNC establishment’s attempts to undermine him at every turn]
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Good point: unfortunately when conservatives take up destructive acts, they always do them in someone else’s neighborhood. And, they’re usually radically successful in their aims. Not exactly the role model I’m looking for, but for whatever reasons, they always manage to control their rage until they can direct it outwardly.
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Exactly.
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Unless you’ve got a time machine there’s no “going back.”
The question before us in 2020 is “which available option will yield the best outcomes moving forward.” At this time, the only two candidates who have a reasonable chance of winning the 2020 election are Trump and Biden. Choosing “none of the above” isn’t a principled stand, it’s an abdication of responsibility.
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Because the penalty for taking the fight to the oppressors instead is extreme.
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Which accomplished what good, exactly? The Diệm continued to rule until he was assassinated and replaced with worse and then the US burned Vietnam to the ground to try and protect the military dictatorship.
To be clear, I am not advocating for or against riots, I am saying that are a historically complicated phenomenon and should be treated as such. Social change comes out of complex set of phenomena, that can include acts of violence, which can end up with positive outcomes. We can say the same about riots that become revolutions. Violent actions do have a way of spinning out of control quickly and unpredictably (the Syrian civil war for example). But they can also contribute to people thinking hard about cause of riots and how to make social change that doesn’t come from the barrel of a gun.
And how we discuss that violence is often dependent on the outcome and spin about the outcome. The events that happened in the American colonies that included violent actions by colonists against people perceived as supporting Parliament are not considered “riots” so much as justified actions by an oppressed people. The Watts Riots not so much. We still don’t talk much about the actual over throw of a duly elected government that was in fact a coup, because the people in charge were either black or in favor of integration.
And now back to baby yoda…
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This is what I’m telling myself:
Democracy is bleeding out. Under a second term of Trump-- it will die. Biden’s not the surgeon we need to repair the damage, but he’s a tourniquet that will slow things down and give us a little longer to survive.
It’s still a bitter pill to swallow, and goddess knows, it hurts going down. I can’t say there isn’t a tiny spark in me that hopes for a miracle at the convention… but under the current system, that’s the choice.
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As noted, it brought worldwide attention to the policies of the Diem regime. It marked one of the points where a significant number of Americans started wondering if that oppressive government was worth supporting with the blood of our troops, planting the seeds for the later anti-war movement. It’s still an iconic image today.
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Right. As with Nazi punchers, we can be against rioters while at the same time understanding why they might have to resort to violence.
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None of these would give Bernie the nomination. If he unsuspends, so would at least one of the moderates. Most likely there would be a brokered convention, and Sanders has zero chance in that instance. Possibly Warren could emerge from that as the nominee, but it is unlikely. In any event, the chaos of this would destroy any chance of beating Trump in November.
The idea that a Biden implosion is a path to a Sanders nomination is purest fantasy. Sanders certainly knew this, and included it in his deliberations over his decision.
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Let alone a Sanders victory in the general election.
If Sanders couldn’t get the new voter turnout numbers he was counting on in the primaries when he was at the top of his game, then it would be a long shot for him to count on getting those votes in a general election in the chaotic wake of a major implosion within his own party’s nomination process.
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Bernie’s campaign staff:
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How did we get from
Hope and Change, to
I’m With Her (bad - should have been She’s With You), to
Wanna take it outside, Buster?
in twelve short years?
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The DNC has already taken care of that, speaking of fantasy.
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Bernie speaks on dropping out and on Joe Biden:
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Of course, more tedious incrementalism, but Biden isn’t the only Democratic boomer who really, really believes in this shit, isn’t the only Democratic boomer whose self-worth in part depends on feeling more clever than those uppity millennials*, and their vote and money do not just dominate the Democratic party but will, ultimately, be key to the general. Ignore them and vote.
* Nobody of either generation even remembers that Gen X exists.
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Nice post and all, but Biden’s not a boomer.
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