By LUIS FELIPE MIGUEL
Donald Trump has a lot in common with Kamala Harris, just as he did with Joe Biden. Like the unconditional support for Israel and the genocide taking place today in the Gaza Strip
It took a while, but Joe Biden bowed to the facts and withdrew his candidacy. He is campaigning for his vice president, Kamala Harris, to take his place on the presidential ticket.
The support of Joe Biden – but not yet from heavyweights in the Democratic Party, such as Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi – and many millionaire donors makes Kamala Harris a clear favorite for the nomination, but this is not a given.
What is surprising is seeing part of the Brazilian left embarking prematurely on pro-Harris triumphalism.
Talíria Petrone, for example, posted on Twitter: “One step forward! Defeating Donald Trump is a global mission and the choice of Kamala Harris is the right one. We must not hesitate to elect the first female president of the USA.”
The image of Kamala Harris, a woman of Indian and African descent, appeals to progressives. Her role as vice president, however, was erased. And, when she appeared, she frustrated those who thought she would have more advanced positions on issues such as immigration, incarceration, police racism or drug policy.
Not to mention, of course, foreign policy.
Donald Trump is a coup braggart without any of the intellectual or moral qualities that would allow him to exercise a role of power. Since he demonstrated political ambitions, he has done nothing but degrade public debate and weaken the institutions of liberal democracy. A type, in short, well known to us Brazilians.
Despite the differences, however, Donald Trump has a lot in common with Kamala Harris, just as he did with Joe Biden. Like the unconditional support for Israel and the genocide taking place today in the Gaza Strip.
Joe Biden sponsored Benjamin Netanyahu's actions from the beginning, armed and financed Israel, vetoed actions by international organizations, collaborated in the defamation campaign and cut funding for the UN agency that assists Palestinian refugees. Kamala Harris supported all of these actions. She doesn't go so far as to classify herself as a “Zionist”, as Joe Biden does, but she isn't far off.
Faced with this, Donald Trump had no better response than “calling” his then opponent “Palestinian” and promising even more support for the genocide.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump, candidates, showed themselves to be racists, unconcerned with the most basic human rights, devoid of a sense of humanity.
The problem is not alone, nor mainly in them. It is the American political system, driven, as we know, by the power of money.
Only AIPAC, the LOBBY official Zionist, is pouring 100 million dollars into Democratic and Republican campaigns, with the aim of stifling the debate on Palestine. Many large private donors, linked to Zionism, act along the same lines.
AIPAC, in fact, which financed Kamala Harris's political career with more than five million dollars. And she received, in return, vehement support for the Israeli war machine.
Therefore, in establishment American politician, as well as in the media, the tragedy of the Palestinian people is echoed so little. Even if only a minority of public opinion is in favor of military support for Israel, the priority is not to displease large campaign financiers.
The Democratic Party has the chance to choose a candidate who opposes genocide. But he is unlikely to do so.
If this scenario is confirmed, for voters, the choice on November 5th promises to be dramatic. Choosing Kamala Harris or opting for Donald Trump, you will be validating the massacre of a people.
In the 1930s, would it be reasonable, in the name of the “lesser evil,” to choose one of two candidates who actively supported Nazi Germany and the Jewish Holocaust? How would we view, today, a choice like that, made at that time?
Unlike the PSOL deputy, I know that I don't vote in the USA and that my comment about the “global mission” of defeating Donald Trump is of no importance. But I remember that in American elections there are options, although there is no chance of victory. Green Party's Jill Stein and independent Cornel West are the two “runt” candidates who oppose the ongoing massacre in Gaza and courageously express this position.
The priority given to the fight against the extreme right has, as a first consequence, the reduction of the field that opposes it to its lowest common denominator – that is, its most backward members. There is a reduction in the quality of debate about society and the world in which we want to live. This is the first great service that the extreme right provides to conservatism.
But where is the dividing line? Can we turn a blind eye to genocide, in the name of convenience? Are we going to proclaim that Palestinian lives are worth so little that we won't even fight for them? That they are not even worth repudiating those who sponsor the massacre, with money, with weapons, with disinformation?
There are limits that cannot be crossed. There are values that prevail over pragmatism. Donald Trump's victory does indeed accelerate the decline of American democracy. But signaling that the genocide of the Palestinian people is not acceptable, that our common humanity obliges us to raise our voices in solidarity, is the greatest imperative in the current historical period.
* Luis Felipe Miguel He is a professor at the Institute of Political Science at UnB. Author, among other books, of Democracy in the capitalist periphery: impasses in Brazil (authentic). [https://amzn.to/45NRwS2]
Originally posted on the author's social media.
the earth is round there is thanks to our readers and supporters.
Help us keep this idea going.
CONTRIBUTE
