The hard road ahead for us......

 

Here are a few comments from folks that help clarify our difficult road ahead.

Dave Obey from Wisconsin had a damning assessment of Hillary and the Democratic Party abandoning the Rust Belt.  Trump didn't throw them even a crust of bread during these 4 years so they returned to the Blue Belt. There are always forces that will fill the gaps left by the neo-Liberals and globalists. The Left has caved in.
~ Andre Brochu, Sweden is an American who went to Sweden to resist the Vietnam war

This is the essence of the Peace Dividend strategy. It is a direct appeal to the 165 million people on the bottom of the economy in their language on their terms reflecting their priorities. I find it impossible to get anyone to understand .... that it is not intellectual surrender to talk peace in everyday language. The typical citizen is overwhelmed trying to feed their kids, pay their bills, stay safe, find decent medical care. They are worried about their jobs, their schools, their communities. Perpetual war overseas is perpetual war on these people. They feel the pain of aggression because the skewed values of our neocon warmongers deprives them every single day of their fair share of our nation's vast wealth. Maybe there's not as much blood, but these folks are as much victims of our military madness as those on the receiving end of our military aggression across the globe. Talk peace to them and the fraud of war in terms of their poverty and suffering and they'll listen. Give them something they can do about it, and they'll come running.
~ Tarak Kauff, Woodstock, NY is a member of Veterans For Peace

 

At least Trump opposed much of this Russiagating McCarthyism because he was a target of it. At least he called out the CIA, FBI and Democrat McCarthyite media propaganda as fake news. While Trump was president, at least the White House was not under the control of this Russiagate McCarthyism. Biden is going to be 100% on board with this new McCarthyism. Insofar as we are effective in countering his interventionism and war threats, we are going to be a direct target of the corporate media, the national security state and now the Executive Branch.  At least with Trump there was a movement against him, against Biden there is not. And at least with Trump, the US's imperial allies took some distance from him. With Biden, they will become close allies in imperialist interferences again.  I suspect our work is going to be more difficult with Biden as president.
~ Stansfield Smith, Chicago, IL is a member of United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)

Going against Trump was easy but most of the people doing it were against 'Trump' and unaware that Trump is just a reflection of the system.  So, maybe we are not as badly off as some think. We just got rid of a huge distraction from the real issue.  Biden will not do better no matter what excuses he makes.  So it is time to get down to business and focus on the fact that for a very long time, and at least for 20 years that everyone is aware of, presidents (and other representatives) of both parties had been responsible for pursuing the same policies, on the global scene and domestically as well with the same results.
~ Judy Bello, Syracuse, New York is an activist with United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)

Not being confused by the liberal framework that advances a cartoonish understanding of fascism that Trump’s bombastic theatrics evokes in the public imagination, it is clear the threat of increased authoritarianism, the use of military force, repression, subversion, illegal sanctions, theft, and rogue state gangsterism is on the agenda of both capitalist parties in the U.S. and the Western European colonizer states.  No matter who sits in the white peoples’ house after the election, we will have to continue to fight for social justice, democracy, and People(s)-Centered Human Rights.  It is important to re-state that last sentence because the left in the U.S. is experiencing extreme anxiety with the events around the election. They want and need to have order, stability and good feelings about their nation again. But for those of us from the colonized zones of non-being, anything that creates psychological chaos, disorder, delegitimization, disruption of the settler-colonial state and demoralization of its supporters is of no concern for us.
~ Ajamu Baraka is the national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace

 

Black people will get nothing from a Joe Biden administration except fiscal austerity and the precarity that comes with it. Democrats don’t want to talk about low wage work, housing insecurity, lack of health care and student loan debt but millions of people don’t bother to vote because their experiences are barely ever mentioned. The voters who Democrats need in order to win choose to stay out because they have been rendered invisible. Instead the Democrats again launched an attack on the most progressive candidate, Bernie Sanders, and rigged the process against him. Sanders chose to be a good soldier and capitulate but no one was fooled. His claim that a Biden presidency would be the most progressive since the days of Franklin Roosevelt was obvious nonsense. Only wishful thinking liberals were impressed and hoped that the ruse would work on those who are once again marginalized. There is another factor at work here. This is a deeply racist country, and the Make America Great Again theme still resonates for millions of people. They like Trump precisely because he is a true believer in white supremacist thought and policies. The term white supremacy should not be misunderstood.. The men in pickup trucks carrying AR-15 automatic weapons are the public face of this belief system but they are not the only adherents.
~ Margaret Kimberley, New York city writes for Black Agenda Report