Letters from Our Readers

Jahan Chowdhry, BAR Comments Editor

06 Feb 2019

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This week the reader discussion was on the limits of electoral democracy in the United States and the accommodation of diversity in American imperialism. “The “Feminism” of Rich, Mass Murdering Women,” “Freedom Rider: Trump, Democrats, and International Fascists Attack Venezuela,” and “When Politicians Use Marginalized People As Shields” made you pen responses.

“Freedom Rider: Trump, Democrats, and International Fascists Attack Venezuela” by Margaret Kimberly that both the forces behind Trump and the those behind the liberal resistance are on the same page on the fascist attack on the Latin American nation.

Tom Graf writes:

“I appreciate Ms. Kimberley calling out (yet again) the total hypocrisy of the Democrats in this latest pathetic US move to undermine democracy and the endless Russian meddling chorus.
That said, I do take exception to the reference of the Gore and Clinton campaigns of being cheated out of the election. I’m all for getting rid of the electoral college, but to assume that if we didn’t have that the elections would have tilted in these two candidates favors is not knowable. How many Texans, for example, don’t bother to vote because they know it's going ‘red.’ Many I can tell you as a citizen of the state. And it must be noted that these two candidates ran hoping to game the Electoral College. Hillary did so blatantly by ignoring states she thought she had in the bag.
“Popular vote-count presidential elections would be an improvement as it would force candidates to more accountability to all voters. That’s what we should be peddling on the progressive side of the equation.”

In “The “Feminism” of Rich, Mass Murdering Women” Dean Spade points out thefallacy in “the logic that any population should know it’s free when it has the opportunity to become executioners, police or soldiers and work inside those institutions that produce harm.”

Kathleen Murphy writes:

“If the KKK were to start hiring white women and people of color to do their work, NONE of us would be fooled. So, why are we fooled when the mass-murdering corporate power structure does it with our government? Martin Luther King dreamed we'd dismantle "the world's greatest purveyor of violence," not that someday a black man would be at the helm of it, no?”

Doug Herrschaft writes:

“The diversity con. People want a chance to participate, but never ask themselves if what they want to participate in is worthy of them and their efforts. Would they have fought so hard to join the Luftwaffe?”

In “When Politicians Use Marginalized People As Shields” Teodrose Fikre warns about the Democratic Party’s use of identity politics in the 2020 presidential election. Speaking of candidates of color like Kamala Harris he goes on to say: “We should be even harder on those who should know better and choose to amplify injustices.”

Makheru Speaks writes:

“That is the absolute truth and it should be the global political mantra for Afrikan people. Neocolonialism has been the bane of Afrikan people for the past 50 years. It reached its zenith in the United States under Barack Obama -- the most brilliant stroke of disguised hypocrisy in American political history. Others are lining up to be first at the feeding troth of neoliberal white supremacy and to emulate Obama’s servitude to the American oligarchic psychopathocracy.
We desperately need to break the monopoly which the corrupt two-party system has on our minds and see these self-aggrandizing neocolonial politicians for what they are.”

Marc Salomon writes:

“Power has learned to tip its bayonets with women and people of color.”

Certainly, power has adapted to maintain its hegemony over the masses. However, it is through the work we do here that can clarify the ideological struggle for movements challenging power.

Jahan Choudhryis Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.

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