Sure, Both Parties Suck... But Only One Is Fascist— We'll Have To Deal With Her After She Wins

Its Not An Ideal Strategy By Any Means

I live in California and I never voted for Kamala for anything... and my expectations for his presidency are minimal. In fact, my expectations for her can be summed up in two words: Not Trump. I’ve tried to talk myself into a more optimistic view… and failed. But it doesn’t matter: this time “Not Trump” is enough, especially for anyone living in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin. On Wednesday she caved to her wealthy donors and to GOP name-calling and said she’d cut back on Biden’s already too modest plans to increase the long term capital gains tax rate on the very wealthiest Americans. Biden wanted to go as high as 39.6%. Kamala, reverting to form under pressure, is happy with 28%, which is basically pathetic.

Let me share the response from Morris Pearl, chairman of Patriotic Millionaires:

Vice President Harris is making a catastrophic mistake by capitulating to the petulant whining of the billionaire class. Last week, it was reported that Wall Street executives and Silicon Valley broligarchs were throwing a temper tantrum at the prospect of taxing billionaire income. Now, Vice President Harris seems to be making a policy choice based on the disproven, failed ideology of trickle-down economics, and giving billionaires a gift in the process.

Both on the economics and on the politics, this is a serious unforced error. The Patriotic Millionaires— and the American people— need to know why the Vice President believes Wall Street investors should get a tax break for pushing buttons on E-Trade while millions of Americans pay a higher tax rate on their income simply because they earned it by actually working. It’s absurd that our tax code rewards money more than sweat.

Vice President Harris, your retreat on capital gains is a baffling capitulation to Wall Street Billionaires that demonstrates a concerning lack of commitment to reversing destabilizing economic inequality.

You don’t need my years of experience on Wall Street to grasp the obvious. Big investors invest to make serious money, not to save a few percentage points on their tax bill. No one has ever made a lucrative investment decision based on a preferential tax rate. The incentive to invest is making money, not lowering tax rates. 

This ill-advised, destructive policy is a giveaway to the ultra-rich. We hope Vice President Harris will reconsider her position.

Normally, that would be enough for me to write Harris off. Trump and the rising fascist movement around him belies “normally.” Once again, the Democrats have trapped us into a lesser evil scenario. Although great evil barely begins to describe Trump and his movement. A reminder from Pramila Jayapal:

NY-17— Rockland and Putnam counties + northern Westchester County— is one of the most Jewish congressional districts in NY… and not Jewish in the sense of secular suburbanites who happen to come from a Jewish background. The Orthodox and Hasidic Jews of Rockland County… well their religion is who they are. Their former congressman, former progressive Mondaire Jones, changed his whole political identity to kiss that community’s ass in a bid to win back the old seat he abandoned for a failed run in a less religious district in Brooklyn. The current congressman, Mike Lawler, is a Republican and though most of his colleagues are mum on Tucker Carlson’s recent on-air celebration of Naziism, Lawler felt he had no choice by the speak up… fast and loud.

Carlson is usually subtle about his anti-semitism, but by bringing Hitler-loving Holocaust denier Darryl Cooper onto his show to denounce Winston Churchill as the chief villain of World War II… well, it was a little more openly Jew-hating than Carlson usually is. Jewish Republicans, meeting in their annual KAPO convention in Las Vegas this week, are embarrassed. Most congressional Republicans either agree with Carlson or don’t want to get on his bad side and are just keeping quiet about his Naziism. Mike Lawler can’t afford to do that. Not in his district.

“Platforming known Holocaust revisionists is deeply disturbing,” he said. “During my time in the State Assembly, I worked with Democrats and Republicans to help pass legislation aimed at ensuring all students in New York received proper education on the Holocaust, something Mr. Cooper clearly never had.” Weak tea, even compared to the only other Republican Member of Congress who’s gone on record over the Carlson-Cooper love-fest. Omaha incumbent Don Bacon: “Hitler conducted mass genocide against the Jewish people and triggered the most deadly war in human history… [there is] “no whitewashing this evil man’s history… I admired Winston Churchill for galvanizing Great Britain to fight alone after the fall of France and eventually defeating Nazi Germany with the U.S. and USSR. Revisionist history on the Holocaust is a lie and does harm in the fight against antisemitism.”

The Jewish Democratic Council of America had a more robust response in this new 30-second ad they just started running:

“The time to stand up to hate and fascism is now— before it’s too late.” OK, good; is anyone listening? On Wednesday night, during an interview at Duke University, Liz Cheney, (finally) came out and said that opposing Trump isn’t enough for Republican anti-fascists. “Because we are here in North Carolina, I think it is crucially important for people to recognize not only is what I’ve said about the danger that Trump poses something that should prevent people from voting for him, but I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states. And as a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

She also told these student audience that “Trump, no matter what your policy views are— no matter if you are a conservative Republican or not— Donald Trump cannot be trusted with power. The power of the presidency is the most awesome power of any office anywhere in the world, and the character of the people we elect really matters. And, so what I say is, I understand the desire to think that you’re casting a vote for conservative policies, but— first of all, he is not a conservative, and he’s dangerous, and this is not a policy election, and we can talk about getting this country back on track once we get through this election cycle— but Donald Trump, if he is reelected, will be far more dangerous than we have ever seen before.”

Tony Gonzalez (R-TX) was interviewed at the Texas Tribune Festival yesterday and he made some news when he said his party is going to lose control of the House. “What’s frustrating me is I firmly believe that House Republicans are going to lose the majority— and we’re going to lose it because of ourselves. It’s not rocket science here. You know the economy, it’s really real. I mean, more and more middle-class Americans are falling further and further behind in access to quality health care. Are we talking about this? Are we talking about some of these kind of kitchen table issues? No— it’s all about who we’re going to impeach.”