Joe Biden’s and the Democratic Party’s uncritical support for Israel’s war on Gaza will probably cost them the next election. Growing support for third party candidates will also do Biden no favors. Just as the Democrats are taking it on the chin, a broad coalition of well-organized and well-financed far-right and Christian Nationalist organizations have announced a national “reorg” of the judiciary, the Presidency, the civil service, and they have their sights set on far-reaching legislative changes.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and the Trump campaign’s Agenda 47 both represent nothing less than an ambitious, detailed neofascist plan to jettison what’s left of America’s secular democracy and replace it with authoritarian rule and Christian Nationalism.
But if Democrats can’t hold the Presidency, then the damage to American democracy, such as it is, will have come from a party that has failed to capture the confidence of voters and has also managed to alienate even its own members.
Completely divorced from issues of his age, mental fitness and electability, a significant number of Democratic voters are furious that Joe Biden, who describes himself at every opportunity as a Zionist, has been complicit in a deliberate genocide that has moved from destroying an entire population’s housing and slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians, to harrying millions of people all over their open-air concentration camp, to now starving them to death and blocking food and supplies from reaching them.
Channeling outrage among Democrats of conscience, and with no Democratic candidates courageous enough to reject unconditional support for Israel, “Uncommitted” campaigns were organized in several states to use the Democratic primaries themselves to register protest. In Hawaii, over 29% of Democrats voted “Uncommitted” in the presidential primary. In Minnesota that number was almost 19%, in Michigan, 13%. Here in Massachusetts 9.4% of Democrats voted “Uncommitted” to North Carolina’s 12.7%, Colorado’s 8.1%, and Tennessee’s 7.9%.
Even with No Labels still trying to recruit a presidential candidate, there are still plenty of third party challengers: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Green Party’s Jill Stein, Cornel West, a slew of Libertarians who will select a candidate at their May convention, Claudia de la Cruz of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and Joseph Kishore of the Socialist Equity Party, to name a few.
There is something for almost every political taste — and all taste better than the featured entrees of a fascist and an accomplice to genocide.
As both major parties continue to lose faith with the electorate, the percentage of people voting third party has been steadily increasing. In 2012 1% of the popular vote went to the Libertarians and 0.4% to the Green Party. In 2016 the Libertarians received 3.28% of the vote and the Greens 1.07%. In 2024, based on an average of several polls, RFK Jr. would receive 12.4% of the vote, Cornel West 2.4%, and Jill Stein 1.8%.
If you listen to Republicans, America is at a crossroads for white privilege and white domination; only by reinforcing white Christian domination can the nation be saved from Marxists, atheists, diversity programs, and trans children. And if you listen to Democrats, America is at a crossroads for democratic ideals that have only been available to some Americans and never to those of the many nations Democratic presidents have invaded or destroyed.
While I would prefer to not have Project 2025 or Jesus jammed down my throat during a second Trump presidency, I’m no longer convinced that Democrats (like their GOP brethren) really care about, or can convincingly defend, American democracy. I’m also not convinced that American democracy and freedoms are any more important than everyone’s right to a democracy or freedom. Joe Biden’s administration advocates imposing an unelected government on Palestinians, who will remain under Israel’s yoke, as he continues to sell weapons to some of the world’s worst human rights abusers, including Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
If I vote for American democracy and thumb my nose at everyone else’s — as the Democratic Party chides me I must — how is this any different from what MAGA Republicans are asking of America? Aren’t we in this mess because too many politicians have exhibited moral cowardice and hypocrisy while pursuing political expediency and money? And are we really obliged to reward them with our votes?
Nope.
In my next post I’ll look at Project 2025 and Trump’s Agenda 47.
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