THE PARTY CHOICE
ALL HAIL THE MACHIIIIIIIIIINNEEEE
NOTE: additional political analysis from the summer of 2024 is, like this piece, caught up in an unfinished collection of writings with the working title Fearing & Loathing on a Very Big Boat. This one was was extracted out for its particular pertinence.
Biden is out of the race - officially certifying himself as the lamest of ducks. Since then, as aforementioned, my brain has been in a state of rot and thus communications from the homeland have barely been able to get through, the receiver being covered in the fleshy muck from the rot and having started to corrode. But regardless, it is quite evident that Kamala Harris, the current Vice President, has already begun seriously solidifying her position as the Democratic heir, with party leaders, media figures, and most importantly, big donors, all lining up quickly and seemingly in a fairly orderly fashion behind her. It is the logical move, and there is no surprise in it.
There were whispers of perhaps something radical happening - sidestepping the VP for an interesting ticket of some combination of Democratic governors, or something of that sort. It’s fun for the various analysts to imagine such scenarios when it’s all still far off and so not real. But then the moment of actuality comes and the sitting President, for the first time since 1968, announces he will not be running for re-election in the middle of the Great Contest. Then imagination is beaten down into small pieces and swept into the dustbin, unceremoniously taken outside and thrown into an obscure dumpster in the alley. Then it’s fuck imagination - there is only political reality. If you’re one of the Party Apparatus at that point and you start to allow in imagination, you allow in the potential for chaos and panic. No, no - it cannot be.
And so we also saw the great and vast and impressive lack of forethought or planning as the Party swung quickly and efficiently into lockstep behind the least imaginative option available. There had been no plan for this eventuality despite the whisperings of it amongst the greater populace since the last election! The average man on the street, if asked to place his wilder bets, could have seen Biden stepping down, or even dying, before the Great Contest was complete. But the Prestigious Insiders were unable to speak of this beyond the faintest whisper in the darkest most obscure corridor - they could not imagine. And so there was no plan formulated. There was nothing. Just an extremely obtuse stubbornness followed by a great and stupid panic after the first debate, then a chaotic chorus of calls for Biden to step down, and then… well, then an instinctive pivot to the safe and default. And now we have the beginning of the new narrative, that our very unpopular and sidelined Vice President has never been those things; she’s just been waiting for her time to shine. It’s an incredibly stupid showing by the Party Machinery and company.
But then, why wouldn’t it be? That’s perhaps the least surprising development in all of this. The modern Democratic Party has shown itself to be quite capable at beating its members into rapid and total submission, and quite horrifically inept at just about everything else, particularly at gauging the pulse of The Nation and taking into consideration the will of the people. It’s an efficient machine, cold and calculated, a more evolved AI than we believe is yet available, hellbent on its own aims and incredibly adept at achieving them, and yet somehow nearly totally detached from human consciousness or will, devoid of things the greater populace is familiar with and desires, and so the outcomes, though somehow successful by its own foreign AI standards, seem bizarre and disappointing to us - even like failures.
And so here we are - the narrative now will pivot to the first woman, the first woman of color, the woman that has been patiently waiting on the sidelines, though was NOT sidelined, simply dutifully standing in the shadow of the Great Man Whose Time Has Passed, and now that he is ever so responsibly retreating from the sunlight, she can step out and SHINE at last. Sure. Never mind her previous political failings, never mind her past as a prosecutor (aka, narc), never mind her odd infrequent moments in the limelight in which her ramblings could be more incoherent than Biden’s. Never mind her unpopularity with the greater populace as shown in multiple polls, and more so, in the way that the Great Political Wizards will never understand - the simple wider sentiment, the instinctive feeling that is loose in the ether and can’t be quantified. Fuck all that. THE PATH FORWARD HAS BEEN CHOSEN BY THE GREAT AND INTELLIGENT MACHINE!!!
There were whispers of perhaps something radical happening - sidestepping the VP for an interesting ticket of some combination of Democratic governors, or something of that sort. It’s fun for the various analysts to imagine such scenarios when it’s all still far off and so not real. But then the moment of actuality comes and the sitting President, for the first time since 1968, announces he will not be running for re-election in the middle of the Great Contest. Then imagination is beaten down into small pieces and swept into the dustbin, unceremoniously taken outside and thrown into an obscure dumpster in the alley. Then it’s fuck imagination - there is only political reality. If you’re one of the Party Apparatus at that point and you start to allow in imagination, you allow in the potential for chaos and panic. No, no - it cannot be.
And so we also saw the great and vast and impressive lack of forethought or planning as the Party swung quickly and efficiently into lockstep behind the least imaginative option available. There had been no plan for this eventuality despite the whisperings of it amongst the greater populace since the last election! The average man on the street, if asked to place his wilder bets, could have seen Biden stepping down, or even dying, before the Great Contest was complete. But the Prestigious Insiders were unable to speak of this beyond the faintest whisper in the darkest most obscure corridor - they could not imagine. And so there was no plan formulated. There was nothing. Just an extremely obtuse stubbornness followed by a great and stupid panic after the first debate, then a chaotic chorus of calls for Biden to step down, and then… well, then an instinctive pivot to the safe and default. And now we have the beginning of the new narrative, that our very unpopular and sidelined Vice President has never been those things; she’s just been waiting for her time to shine. It’s an incredibly stupid showing by the Party Machinery and company.
But then, why wouldn’t it be? That’s perhaps the least surprising development in all of this. The modern Democratic Party has shown itself to be quite capable at beating its members into rapid and total submission, and quite horrifically inept at just about everything else, particularly at gauging the pulse of The Nation and taking into consideration the will of the people. It’s an efficient machine, cold and calculated, a more evolved AI than we believe is yet available, hellbent on its own aims and incredibly adept at achieving them, and yet somehow nearly totally detached from human consciousness or will, devoid of things the greater populace is familiar with and desires, and so the outcomes, though somehow successful by its own foreign AI standards, seem bizarre and disappointing to us - even like failures.
And so here we are - the narrative now will pivot to the first woman, the first woman of color, the woman that has been patiently waiting on the sidelines, though was NOT sidelined, simply dutifully standing in the shadow of the Great Man Whose Time Has Passed, and now that he is ever so responsibly retreating from the sunlight, she can step out and SHINE at last. Sure. Never mind her previous political failings, never mind her past as a prosecutor (aka, narc), never mind her odd infrequent moments in the limelight in which her ramblings could be more incoherent than Biden’s. Never mind her unpopularity with the greater populace as shown in multiple polls, and more so, in the way that the Great Political Wizards will never understand - the simple wider sentiment, the instinctive feeling that is loose in the ether and can’t be quantified. Fuck all that. THE PATH FORWARD HAS BEEN CHOSEN BY THE GREAT AND INTELLIGENT MACHINE!!!