Bernie and the Squad betrayed us
Biden is not doing a good job
In a recent interview on State of the Union, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once again confirmed that she thinks Biden is doing a “very good job.”
This is simply not the case. Biden has an approval rating of 39% according to the latest Morning Consult poll. This is the lowest rating of his presidency so far and all appearances point to it going lower with record inflation and no relief in sight. Would it be too much to ask that AOC, who calls herself a democratic socialist but supports capitalism, would agree with the majority that he has done an awful job as president? Apparently so. Instead of calling out the failures of the Democratic Party, she wants to focus on “winning a majority.” The Democrats have a majority and have done nothing substantial with it.
And where is Bernie in all of this? He is supporting Biden’s reelection bid in 2024.
As reported by CNN:
"I think it's a little too early," the Vermont independent, who caucuses with Democrats, told CNN when asked if he would back Biden in 2024. "I think Biden will probably run again, and if he runs again, I will support him."
There is a word for this. It is called spineless. Biden is waging a very successful war against the working class. Yet the self proclaimed working class champions in Congress are lining up behind him and his corporate donors.
And Bernie and the squad have completely abandoned the antiwar movement. Biden just sent US troops into Yemen, breaking every promise he made on ending US support for that war.
And to underscore our commitment, we are ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales. - President Biden, February 4, 2021
For many years, activists in Yemen and around the world have worked to bring an end to the devastating Saudi-led war in Yemen, which has led to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. In 2018, I helped lead an effort to pass the first War Powers Resolution in history, calling for the United States to end its unauthorized participation in that war. Today’s announcement by President Biden that the United States will end support for offensive operations in the Yemen war, and his naming of a Special Envoy to help resolve this conflict and bring aid and reconstruction to Yemen, are important steps, and a tribute to the work of so many activists over the years. - Bernie Sanders, February 4, 2021
A small number of United States military personnel are deployed to Yemen to conduct operations against al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS. - President Biden, June 8, 2022
Bernie Sanders has not released a statement in response to this latest deployment of US troops in Yemen. Biden’s regime, led by war hawk Antony Blinken, has gone back on every promise to end this war. Where is the outrage from the squad? From Bernie? It has been a week since Biden announced that US troops were back in Yemen, but they remain silent.
Biden is now traveling to Saudi Arabia to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Biden has no interest in human rights or in ending the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. He is more interested in selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and buying their oil. And not a word of protest from these “progressives.”
A month ago, Biden approved redeploying troops to Somalia, there has been no response by Bernie or the squad. Bernie can score some easy points debating Lindsey Graham, but why won’t he call out Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer or Joe Biden? He was willing to challenge them in 2016 and 2020 in the primaries, but now they appear to be untouchable. Will Bernie not admit that he was disastrously wrong about Biden being the most progressive president since FDR?
The so called socialists in Congress have abandoned the people. Every single one of them voted for the $40 billion Ukraine bill. That included $3.5 billion more in weapons than even Biden had requested. Jamaal Bowman takes the lead as the worst of these fake socialists with his vote to send $1 billion in military funding to Israel. But they are all complicit in their support of the corrupt capitalist Democratic Party.
You can’t support cutting the military budget at the same time as voting for sending money to the military industrial complex in order to arm neo-Nazi battalions in Ukraine. Progressives have lost the last vestiges of credibility they had remaining.
In an interview with the Intercept in 2018, AOC said:
My campaign so intensely relies on the communities that are issue focused that are anti-war, that are anti-criminal justice, that are anti-imperialism, and so on, that because I rely on them to organize our campaign to knock on doors, to win re-election, I would like to think that in the same way that many democratic establishment incumbents rely on their donors and make legislative decisions based on what their lobbyists tell them: that I try to rely on these movements to inform a lot of those policies as well.
This sentiment is long gone. Anti-imperialists don’t send weapons to a proxy war in Ukraine. Sending billions to the Military Industrial Complex is pro-war, not antiwar. Being antiwar is a very low bar to clear. It is the least we could hope for from our representatives, after all, military spending bills always pass. A vote against giving billions to Raytheon and Lockheed Martin would be a protest vote, but it would say that they stand with the people and not with the war mongers and merchants of death. But apparently this is too much to ask for from the “left wing” of the Democratic party.
Eugene V. Debs would call out these “progressives” and “socialists” just like he called out the fake progressive party of Teddy Roosevelt.
The Progressive Party as a party is not only not progressive but it is reactionary. In the aggregate it is a middle class protest against trust domination. The middle class will furnish the votes and the trusts, in the event of Roosevelt’s election, will take care of the administration. - Eugene V. Debs
The Progressive Party will become great in futile protest. This party is surely a protest against Republican and Democratic corruption and misrule, and it will never see power on a national scale. It is too late in the day for a third party whose only claim to recognition is that it proposed to reform capitalism or [to be] the benefactor of a dying middle class. - Eugene V. Debs
Capitalism cannot be reformed. Progressives within the Democratic Party are barely even fighting for reform, let alone actual socialism. They have shown that they would rather side with the corruption within the Democratic Party than to fight for the people. The working class cannot keep backing politicians who do not stand with them. This will only lead to disaster. The “progressives” and “democratic socialists” in congress appear to have made their choice - they stand with the corporate establishment, not with the working class. This is an outrage and we should be angry.
Excellent article! Thank you!
Well written. Well sourced.