When your goat washes

A bit over 60% of Americans disapprove of Israel’s military action, with only 32% approving and the other 8% “not sure”. The difference becomes even starker when you account for democratic voters, the vast majority of whom believe Israel is committing a genocide which the United States has a hand in, and also a responsibility to end. Logically, believing that multiple parties would be a sign of the health of democracy would then have one believe that there would be a viable party which supports cutting Israel off from the teat of unconditional Western diplomatic, economic and military support and pressuring it to not only end its genocidal onslaught but pursue an end to the apartheid system. I’m sure everyone here knows well enough that isn’t the case. Even after the Democratic establishment has more or less caved like the rest of the Western world’s political establishments as images of starving children come out of Gaza, they are eerily silent on the possibility of running a platform on Israel that won’t just be a repeat of Biden’s. Their “change of heart” is merely a performance, albeit one which puts strain on Israel (hence their constant moaning).

Naturally, Palestine is merely just the most poignant example when it comes to Democratic party policy matching up more with wealthy donors, party bureaucrats, lobbyists, and “non-partisan” governmental entities than with their actual constituents. On issues like support for a universal or single-payer healthcare system, police defunding, minimum wage increase, climate change action (which includes curbing fracking), infrastructure, housing, and many more, the democrats ignore if not outright contradict their own base. But seeing the Democrats drag their feet in regards to a genocide most people can see with the little computer tucked away in their pockets just makes it even more obvious how farcical the idea of equating democracy with partisan decorum is. I’m sure the people attacking Cuba would agree if the PCC introduced political parties into its otherwise non-partisan system, which would be comprised of a PCC Red Version, a PCC Blue Version and a controlled social democratic opposition party. Hell, they even give actual one-party states like Japan a pass.

Democracy, fundamentally, means “people’s power”. In essence, it’s how much the state’s actions align with its citizens’ will. The polities which were lauded as early forms of democracy by the architects of Liberalism, the Greek City-States, had their citizens directly vote on referendums. This isn’t the only way for democratic governance to be achieved in theory, since we have various forms of representative parliamentary democracy and Soviet socialist democracy historically also claiming to best represent the people’s wishes, but it does highlight how absurd it is how the meaning of democracy has been so mangled beyond comprehension. If we follow democracy to its purest essence, Cuba is more democratic than the United States and its not even close.

The latest faux-discoursed caused by DSA-rightists and unaffiliated libs pearl-clutching over DSA-IC’s latest solidarity trip to Cuba is a litmus test of its own almost as much as Palestine is. It exposes one’s understanding of pretty much everything, but especially 1) the reason for why the US is trying to strangle Cuba in the first place (if you think the country giving arms to a genocidal regime legitimately cares about human rights and democracy in Cuba, you’re ngmi) and 2) how political systems work beyond the superficial liberal parliamentarian paradigm. If you want to criticize Cuba’s political system, it’s perfectly fine but you shouldn’t be taken seriously when your “criticism” begins and ends with “only one communist party instead of 2+ competing bourgeoisie parties” after a quick search on Wikipedia which deliberately tries to frame Cuba’s system as a liberal democracy (in the sense that you can only cast the ballot to one party despite the PCC not actually running in the elections) to make it look undemocratic.

I follow Omar and like his posts most of the time but its clear he and a lot of people disillusioned from mainstream politics but holding onto the same assumptions still have a lot to learn. In a way, it reflects the failure of the Left’s ability to educate and agitate. To his credit, he acknowledged that the US isn’t democratic… only to then say it’s more democratic than Cuba and to uphold fucking Canada as a model liberal democracy.

Didn’t mean to turn this rant into an essay but I’ve heard this asinine discourse on Cuba get repeated for so long I just wanted to get it off my chest. Relevant video on Cuba’s system if you haven’t already seen it.