Dick Cheney's Kind of Democrat

Two hundred Republicans can't be wrong about Kamala Harris

Because she is one. Her foreign and immigration policy are to the right of George W Bush, and her criminal justice and surveillance ideology to the right of Reagan. Trump cannot be controlled by Wall Street and the war profiteers, but Republicans know that Harris already is.

In the first “presidential” debate of 2024 Kamala Harris boasted that she had the support of over 200 Republicans. The reason for that became painfully apparent as the debate went on and Harris championed her prosecutorial prowess against transnational cartels and gangs when Trump accused her and Biden of being soft on immigration, joining Republicans in conflating immigrants with crime and touting her draconian border bill which sports policy to the right of Bush and Reagan. When Trump went on about Democrats shutting down domestic energy production, Harris assured Republicans that the Inflation Reduction Act expands fracking. On foreign policy Harris rattled the sabres of US militarism, threatening China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, validating her commitment to the Biden Doctrine of pre-empting peace and diplomacy with war and intimidation. Harris perpetuated Biden’s lie in stating that that “As of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is an active duty in a combat zone, in any war zone around the world, the first time this century,” minimizing the impacts of her warmongering while abiding by the neoconservative fantasy of US world domination through proxy wars. On nearly every subject Harris offered rhetoric that could have been spouted by George W Bush or Ronald Reagan.

And even though Harris was often to the right of these Republican icons, one must still wonder as to how is it possible that Harris and Democrats are embracing the endorsement of Dick Cheney. Even if Harris is a Republican at heart, how is it possible that Dick Cheney is the subject of misty-eyed tributes by the same liberal media and elites that called him the “torturer-in-chief” and “Satan” less than 15 years ago? Why would a Democratic presidential candidate, or any presidential candidate really, be “honored” to have the public endorsement of a former vice-president who publicly endorsed torture techniques employed by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan? It would have seemed a sick joke just 10 years ago to fathom that the Democratic Party and their media would be courting the most notorious war criminal of the modern era as someone who is “honorable” and “courageous.” After all Cheney is the architect of the Bush Doctrine which explicitly states that America has the right to invade, bomb, occupy and/or change any country’s regime if there is even a 1% chance that they would plan to attack America. Or even if that 1% chance is fabricated with the use of flimsy evidence cherry-picked from politicized intelligence agencies. Cheney is the Henry Kissinger of the new millenium, amplifying the “Kissinger Doctrine” which prioritized absolute power and a US imposed “world order” over any consideration of humanity or justice.

What an “honor” to have his endorsement. Liberal media now portrays Cheney as a righteous savior of democracy. And as Harris offers her unwavering support for Israel’s systemic torture of Palestinian civilian prisoners it’s no wonder torture is as inconsequential as genocide to the giddy liberal base.

Perhaps the most egregious failure to stand up for justice and accountability by any contemporary president would be Barack Obama’s tacit dismissal of Bush and Cheney’s war crimes. Obama’s lofty speech claiming that “In all that we do, we must remember that what sets America apart is not solely our power — it is the principles upon which our union was founded” proved to be his usual empty pontificating, for when given the chance to prosecute Cheney and his minions for torture he deflected with the non-sequitur that we must “look forward instead of looking backward.” Obama had a habit of deflecting from history when convenient, in this case ignoring the war crime of the century (perhaps now second to the Biden/Harris Gaza/West Bank genocide) because he knew he would be committing a few of his own. But Obama’s failure to hold Bush and Cheney accountable not only set a new precedent for executive accountability that would help to make Trump’s immunity case feasible, it forced liberals to deprioritize the devastating impact of the Bush Doctrine and encouraged the the further dehumanization of Muslims by the liberal base. Obama’s flippant dismissal of the slaughter of up to half a million civilians and the systematic torture of hundreds of innocents made it clear that liberals would have to start hardening their psyches and face the fact that they would have to ultimately accept the Bush Doctrine and move on to the culture wars as their primary distinction from right-wing Republicans.

A 2014 media blitz by the Obama White House to promote the Iran nuclear deal portrayed Dick Cheney as consistently wrong, referring primarily to the illegal wars and torture that Obama casually dismissed. Ten years later all is forgotten and Dick Cheney is now as right as the Democratic Party.

Since Bush/Cheney’s Iraq War which was championed by every major US media outlet as well as the vast majority of Democrats, this “world order” has been executed with enthusiasm by both Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and is now being parroted by the arbiter of “lethal” military might herself Kamala Harris. It is now acceptable or even desirable in the eyes of the liberal base for a US president to bomb or occupy a sovereign nation, or assassinate its leader, at the mere insinuation that a particular body politic would not cooperate with America’s hegemonic vision. Or in the case of Israel if the financial and geopolitical influence of that country infiltrates our body politic to the point that genocide becomes no more than a nuisance, a triviality not to be mentioned should it negatively impact the electoral prospects of a presidential candidate. Such a blithe dismissal of US complicity in war crimes would not have been possible had Obama prosecuted Cheney and his torture mafia. Because he didn’t, and compliant liberals had to erase the horrors of Cheney’s Iraq War to excuse Obama’s cowardice (or “pragmatism” as the neocons euphemize it), the recent revelation regarding the systematic rape and torture of Palestinian civilians in Israeli prisons moves no one in the Democratic media or their base. The outrage expressed at the death of several Israeli hostages is amplified by politicians and state-run media, while the mass torture and mutilation of Palestinians is ignored.

The lowest that humanity has to offer makes Kamala Harris proud. A foul-mouthed sociopathic war criminal is now a Democratic Party hero. Although I suppose Biden is, or was, as well.

The Cheney/Kissinger doctrine of dehumanization of black and brown people around the world has come full circle in becoming a fundamental tenet of Obama/Biden/Harris liberalism. Harris supports draconian immigration policies that would outrage liberals had they been implemented by Trump. But because Democrats “need” Republicans in their corner to beat Trump such policies, including the building of Trump’s border wall, are now perfectly acceptable and are being touted by Harris on the campaign trail. The stifling of dissent on college campuses and the marginalization of protest is now central to the fascistic aspirations of both political parties. Climate change is now just a Democratic Party talking point, with “historic” climate change legislation promoting the expansion of fracking and containing requirements that millions acres of acres be auctioned off for gas and oil exploration before any lands can be offered for wind and solar farms. Foreign policy is not a competition between parties as to which can be more hawkish, Democrats currently winning in that march towards World War III with the Democratic Party Platform offering praise for the Biden/Harris administration’s bombing of four Middle Eastern countries and criticizing Trump for not taking military action against Iran (Trump’s assassination of their top military general was evidently not enough). The DNC platform is grotesque in its lies and distortion regarding the genocide in Gaza, but it even contains a clause condemning protest and the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions Movement and proclaiming that military aid to Israel is absolutely unconditional.

From a strictly politically expedient perspective Democrats should be unequivocally backing progressive policies. As Americans get less and less from the two-party political system, out of desperation for someone outside of the corrupted system. With an empty suit like Kamala Harris running (and certainly governing) as a Bush Republican, another Trump is waiting in the wings.

Making deals with the devil to beat the devil is the precise opposite of what Democrats should be doing. Instead of obsessing about the speculative implementation of Project 2025, Democrats should be obsessing about why Kamala Harris and the Democratic establishment choose to welcome Republicans into the fold while they work to make certain black progressives do not get elected. Actions do indeed speak louder than words when the Democratic Party shuts down the voices of Muslim women in their own party yet has no qualms about lionizing Dick Cheney and George W Bush. The ideology Harris is following is far closer to that of the right-wing Republicans with whom she shares donors with than the progressives who reject funding from AIPAC, war profiteers, private prison conglomerates, health care conglomerates UnitedHealth Group and so many other powerful influences that control both parties while working against the public interest. Harris’s means-tested policies like a $25,000 first-time home buyer credit are designed by the lobbyists and consultants from the corporate entities that pay her way. These neoliberal policies will do nothing to alter the trajectory of wealth inequality, economic discomfort and distrust in government that created a monster like Trump. Turning to the inhumane and racist right-wing Republicans to prove your presidential mettle and becoming the monster you once fought against shows the battle has already been lost. If Democrats think Trump should be in jail, where precisely do they think Cheney should be? Why would a prosecutor be “honored” to accept the endorsement of the war criminal of our century? Because she and Biden are next in line for that “honor.” Because like Cheney she has no moral compass and will do whatever she is told to do in order to maintain the power of those she serves.

During a debate performance that was somewhere between a kid dutifully reciting their lines for a high school play and a paid spokesman for a cellular service, Harris repeatedly noted that Trump was working for himself and not for “you.” But in her proud declaration of endorsement by hundreds of neoconservative Republicans, Harris is sending the message that she is not working for you either. She is working for the same interests that Dick Cheney and those 200 Republicans have been working for. She is working for an American empire run by rogue military and intelligence services whose mission is to crush dissent in the interest of maintaining the power of the ruling class. For a mercenary profit-driven health care industry whose primary goal is to deny care and make patients scamper like a rat in a maze desperately trying to find a way to access and afford their care. For a consolidated media that is compliant with their respective political parties in the interest of access to those in power and thus serves to amplify their lies and provide cover for their crimes against humanity. For a financial industry that bilks the average American with fees, penalties, high interest rates, insider trading and deceptive practices. Like Biden, she will impose austerity upon the working class, the elderly and marginalized communities, passing lobbyist authored legislation while the media lauds her throwing of scraps to the peasants, intensifying the public appetite for someone outside of the corrupted duopoly who understands the suffering caused by America’s failing institutions. That faux populist could be worse than Trump, so as they did when they ousted Biden and anointed Harris, the ruling class will mobilize to find a Democratic candidate who they consider to be a sure thing. Perhaps the next Democratic presidential candidate will be running against someone so threatening that they will be “honored” to receive the endorsement of Trump.