Warmonger For President

On Thursday, the Vice President gave her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Most notably, no Palestinian was welcomed on the stage for a speech. Protests were happening inside and outside the convention by uncommitted activists. 

War Machine

During the 2016 and 2020 election cycle, liberals parroted the idea that former President Trump would lead us into World War III. However, during her acceptance speech, Vice President Kamala Harris said that as President, she would ensure the United States will "always have the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world."  A testament to the policies she should push forward if she becomes President.  In this same speech, Harris stated that "I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself," then went further to say she would ensure "Israel has the ability to defend itself," just after she talked about getting a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza. Israel is a settler-colonial state, just like the United States, and does not have any right to defend itself. A ceasefire is necessary, but we should not get lost in liberal concessions that end there and do not address the root of this conflict; Israel is a settler-colonial state, and must cease to exist because its continued existence reinforces Zionism. Providing the apartheid state with arms and resources is also ensuring more dead Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank. It should not be taken lightly how Israel is starting a regional war and openly trying to draw the United States in, which may start WWIII. 

In addition to her echoing support for this nearly century-long displacement and genocidal campaign against the people of Palestine, VP Harris also parroted painting the current global order by referencing the US "leadership." However, the four countries she mentioned in her speech (China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran) pose a large risk to this order. A major warfare tactic the US yields against others is economic sanctions to deprive the citizens of a country with resources to build hostility and eventually weaponize that anger to overthrow a government. As a result of the sanctions, countries have gotten creative and have built relationships they likely would not have grown had it not been for the sanctions. One quote by Harris that has made its rounds is, "Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?" Well, the budding relationships between Iran, Russia, China, and Venezuela, for example, cannot be looked at in a vacuum; it, too, exists in the context of all that came before it. These countries would not have built an alliance if they were not starved and needed a means of providing for their citizens. 

Domestic Front

Much of the talking points about the threat of a second Trump presidency presumes on the idea that the people will do nothing, "If Trump wins, he will take away our rights," he can only do that if you allow him to. This idea that our ability to protest under a Harris administration will be easier is almost comical if it wasn't a testament to not understanding our terrain. To think that a woman who calls herself the "top cop" would not enact violence to squash any movement dissenting from its policies is naive at best but negligent at worst. We have seen around the country how blue states and cities are using their militarized police force to suppress student encampments or use their National Guard as surveillance agents in public transportation. The expansion of the military and police is a bipartisan initiative. Both the Republicans and Democrats are going to increase funding to the current surveillance state, which puts the very marginalized communities being weaponized in danger. It is clear from her acceptance speech that we should expect to see an increase in police funding and expansion of our carceral system, which will be at the expense of the alleged "rights" and "freedoms" liberals say are the reason they are voting for her. How can you say you want to protect LGBTQIA+ people or reproductive rights and then vote for someone who will make it easier for police to round people up? The Supreme Court has already ruled that state governments can criminalize being homeless. LGBTQIA+ adults and youth are more likely to be homeless. In the two years since the overturning of Roe, thousands of women have been left injured as a result of medical negligence, leaving many who will be disabled. Want to know who is also more likely to be homeless? People with disabilities. We cannot think Democrats dangling "codifying" rights will protect marginalized people if the carceral system is still being expanded.

Apathy & Identity Reductionist

We are being led into a burning house via a Black woman becoming our commander-in-chief. Where a Black woman is vying to be the face of the empire and who has doubled down on her support of the system, the expansion of imperialism, and American nationalism. Liberals have been very strategic in framing the election as a vote to protect marginalized people, but it's through the weaponization of identities that maintains the empire. How does maintaining the empire serve the marginalized?

Reducing an active genocide to "one issue" or arguing that, as Black Americans, we have to think of ourselves first, is disgusting. In doing so, Black liberals are rationalizing their own demise in this empire under the guise of focusing on their rights. The widespread apathy and gleeful allegiance of Black liberals has been most terrifying to watch. In the past few weeks, anti-blackness has been invoked as a means to stifle conversation and escape accountability for how Black people in the imperial core can still reinforce the empire even if under the boot of racial oppression, and it must be called out. From the BreakThrough News video of DNC delegate and Chicago resident Marvell Morris Green, who is seen verbally mocking protestors reciting the names of dead Palestinian children. Or the repulsive behavior of people at a North Carolina Democratic Party event who danced and mocked protestors. The Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party took to Twitter, now known as X, to say, "The person shown in the video was not a member of party staff and was asked to stop…" However, from the scene in the video, the people around the woman seemed to think it was funny. 

Black people in the United States must recognize that although we are an internalized colony, we can, and sometimes are, the colonizer or oppressor in the global south. Being a colonizer, in particular, is not solely dependent on your social identity but on your relationship with the colonial power. The weaponization of identities is a very dangerous game. Your racial, gender, ability, or sexual identity is not inherently radical. Through the years since the Civil Rights movement, we have seen the way liberals have used folks' identities, not only as a token but as a face to maintain the empire as if someone being Black, gay, or trans absolves them from being able to reinforce the empire, it does not. The White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is a gay Black woman. The commander for the United States neocolonial African Command Center (AFRICOM), Gen. Michael E. Langley, a Black man. The United States ambassador to the United Nations who has been vetoing ceasefire resolutions is Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a Black woman. 

This idea that voting for the "top cop," even if she is a Black woman, will protect Black people and our rights is a bit delusional, no? How would a literal cop protect Black people? We have seen this play out in New York City, where former NYPD officer and Black man Eric Adams was elected as mayor. The safety of Black people has not improved, he has increased the police and surveillance state. The domestic influences the foreign, and the foreign influences the domestic. It is this reason why American police departments train with the Israeli Occupational Forces (IOF), and it is this reason why militarized weapons that get into the hands of our police forces are tested on people in the global south before they are used against American protestors, and in tactics in Black American communities. We will not be safer under a Harris administration, and this idea is that she would "buy us time." Buy us time for what? 

One of the most important realizations anyone must come to during their radicalization process is that the United States is a settler-colonial project.

• It was never designed to be for all.

• It will never be for all, no matter how much reform.

If one can understand that simple truth, our political system, decisions, and overall apparatus will make much more sense. From the reason why reproductive rights were struck down to the attack on LGBTQIA+ autonomy, to our race and class inequality, the reason why we do not have universal healthcare, and more importantly, the reason why we are on stolen land. Reforms do not address the root, only the symptoms. If you want a future for all, the empire must fall. 

You are not going to move Harris left; she is moving you further right.