by Ramin Mazaheri and crossposted with PressTV
It’s impossible for the US presidential election to have gone worse for the empire: America now has two presidents.
That can’t be denied, yet their mainstream media is spinning like mad the idea that there is no problem: The election is over and that Democrat Joe Biden is the president-elect. This is likely a biased view, but it’s certainly terrible journalism. Journalists have the right to do whatever they want – project election winners, ignore half the electorate, talk about “partition” – but we have no legal power to decide who actually won.
Not only has a certainly narrow vote not been certified, but the votes aren’t even all counted yet. And it’s not as if this vote wasn’t already disputed for months in the public eye. And it’s not as if there were’t several hundred lawsuits filed before the vote even took place. And it’s not as if there won’t be many lawsuits dated after the November 3rd vote.
But to their clearly anti-Trump mainstream media: “Nothing to see here, move along.”
Seriously? American journalism in action is really something to see.…
The media keeps pointing out that all the lawsuits have failed so far, but it just takes is one and it goes to the top – the Supreme Court deciding this election continues to look not just possible but probable. The idea that American judges are mostly liberal rebels and not by-the-book conservatives is preposterous – they are judges, after all. Record absentee balloting and an incumbent who focuses on his rights and benefits first, last and always both remind us how very not by-the-book this election is.
The ultimate fault for the current “Avignon Papacy” situation – the Roman Catholic church had two popes for most of the 14th century – lays not with the media but with the candidates, and especially Joe Biden. For months he bemoaned the unpredictability of Trump, and yet Biden declared victory Saturday based merely on an AP projection. It was an incredibly self-interested, dangerous, destablising and confidence-shaking move to make – it was a very Trumpian.
If the very slim numbers (Biden is up by an average of just 30,000 votes in three different states) were flipped and Trump declared early the mainstream media would be up in arms, and rightly so. Biden continues to – as the first debate reminded us – willingly jump down to the Trumpian unpresidential gutter, and yet because Trump licks the gutter’s floor Biden is somehow given a free pass.
Red state/blue state now officially outdated: it’s Trumpism vs. ‘universal values’ holdouts
The former was based on two things: a nation divided by new wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as a nation with huge inequalities between rural and urban/suburban citizens (in access to technology, cultural influence and standard of living). It was rural Americans who fought in these wars of imperialism (and not mere revenge for 9/11), which drastically shaped the communities they lived in, thus making the divide especially inflamed.
However, in 2020 Texas almost flipped Democrat?! Arizona – the proud home of reactionary radical John “Bomb bomb bomb Iran” McCain – is currently flipping Democrat?! Several Great Lakes states have already flipped back and forth in the Trump era. Trumpism has – for better or for worse – obviously changed American politics in a major way because unthinkable realignments are happening, and this forces us to eject old paradigms if we want to understand what is going on here.
The new partition is “brazen imperialism” versus “soft imperialism”.
But here’s our dilemma: Which party represents which? That we pause is entirely the change to grasp in 2020.
Democrats have become the party which backs the Deep State, “humanitarian interventions”, “universal values” which are a code phrase for their preferred values, free trade (which benefits the rich the most), censorship and which evinces a dangerous evangelism and hysterical self-righteousness (as their failed three-year Russophobia campaign showed). Violent evangelism is forbidden in Islam, but not in the Protestant or Catholic West.
What can we call French President Emmanuel Macron’s unprecedented declaration that Islamophobia is now state policy but a hysterical evangelism in favor of Western secularism? It’s hardly as if secularism has produced more moral or just governance than in religious-inspired nations, yet Macron’s faith cannot be shaken no matter how many innocent people his anti-Muslim tirades get killed.
And who is more globalist, “universal values” and pro-European Union than “neoliberal strongman” Macron, no matter how many French Yellow Vests lose an eye just for insisting that neoliberalism means the colonisation of the average of Westerner by an international 1%, and also that the post-1991 EU is a “neoliberal empire”?
I broaden out the US experience because in the other Western imperialist nations we clearly see similar cultural movements – engaging in imperialism inherently produces exceptional and distorted cultures. Ex-Labor chief Jeremy Corbyn was just suspended by his own party for absurd anti-Semitism allegations because that is what hysterical imperialists do to those who don’t embrace 1%-led globalisation. It used to be that such denigrations were limited to conservatives, but Corbyn proves how flexible our analysis needs to be precisely because traditional Western paradigms have become outdated.
Trump has signalled the start of a new era: the Cold War ended in 1991, US unipolar dominance (and thus Western dominance) ran from 1992-2016, and Trumpism coincides with the Great Recession-era propelled return to a multipolar era.
The undeniable electoral rejection of a “Democratic Blue Wave” in favor of “Trumpian Republicans” – where Trump increased his vote totals with every ethnic group and gender except White males – shows that the concept of White male supremacism being the foundation of Trumpism is as false as the labels of anti-Semitism pinned on Corbyn and the Yellow Vests. Trumpism is something bigger: it certainly must now include the idea of a Western domestic rebellion against their politicians who have presided over (or caused) the establishment of our new multipolar era.
The digital era does not seem to lend itself to the values still required to thrive in rural areas, so far, but last week’s vote totals prove that we cannot say that Trumpism is simply a “red state” phenomenon anymore.
This is not new: heads are divided in the US metaphorically, and maybe soon literally
Trump is planning to hold “recount rallies”, to publish the obituaries of dead people alleged to have voted in the election, to sue various state election boards, and to generally keep refusing to play by the rules of the globalist/“universal values” dominated US establishment (which is the basis of Trump’s popularity). You might be shocked by all that, or oppose all that, but you cannot say that Trump supporters should be frozen out of how this election concludes unless you openly prefer unilateral declarations to democracy with checks and balances.
A concession speech by one candidate is not legally required, but it is obviously a cultural necessity. How long can US media pretend that the election is over even though there has been no concession speech?
That’s an incredibly dangerous question to ask, and undoubtedly terrible journalism, and more proof that this election could not have gone worse for Americans if it had tried.
What would have happened Saturday in Chicago if pro-Trump supporters had gone to Trump Tower, where all day and night there were hundreds of people celebrating Biden’s “victory”? I can tell you, as I was there: a whole lot of innocent young people would have gotten their heads split open.
That’s the danger Biden just caused, and which is being increased by poor journalism and which has only just begun.
Biden set off this era of two presidents rather than counselling patience and faith in the process amid crisis. Biden has also set the stage for dramatic domestic disillusionment with their electoral process and political structure. Trump voters are incensed, and Biden just trolled them even though the US mainstream media was already doing exactly that for him.
In 2009 the moderate candidate declared early in Iran’s presidential election and after periods of peaceful rallies and counter-rallies it got violent. America should have learned from Iran’s experience (shared by countless other examples in modern history) but apparently Biden is not smart enough despite 47 years experience as a public servant. Nobody ever assumes great public service and intelligence from Trump, and certainly not the virtue of forbearance, but Biden promised better yet failed to deliver on what he said was his Day 1.
Biden was supposed to be better than Trump, but this was the worst start possible.
He can smile for the cameras, and create a corona task force which can’t start until January 21, and ignore the calls to finish counting the vote and to certify it, but the simple reality is that 70 million Trump voters are not going away in 2020 any more than they went away after they won in 2016. They need to be understood – they were unexpected, at the very least, and seem to herald a new era, at the most.
Trump’s re-election would probably not be good for the same countries as in 2016 – Iran, Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela and any other of the few nations with a socialist-inspired revolution/movement – and so we see why leaders and diplomats from these nations especially want him gone: Trump cannot be reasoned with regarding these revolutionary (unique) nations. Who knows what a Trump second term would bring? But Biden continues to show plenty of worrying evidence that he plans to get away with the same unilateral nonsense Trump set the precedent for, rather than re-establishing basic decorum, concern for others and diplomacy. I examined this notion last month in an editorial titled, “US debate debacle shows Democrats will adopt Trumpian self-interest globally”, and Biden’s reckless premature declaration shows the idea has a worrying amount of merit.
Unilateral nonsense is not good for the American 99% or the 99% of any other nation. With two presidents, American nonsense has only doubled.
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Results are in: Americans lose, duopoly wins, Trumpism not merely a cult (1/2) – November 5, 2020
Results are in: Americans lose, duopoly wins, Trumpism wasn’t a cult of personality (2/2) – November 6, 2020
4 years of anti-Trumpism shaping MSM vote coverage, but expect long fight – November 7, 2020
Ramin Mazaheri is currently covering the US elections. He is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of ‘Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism’ as well as ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’, which is also available in simplified and traditional Chinese.
Thank you, Mr Mazaheri. I’m sure your quip about Avignon was just that – you didn’t consider a much deeper truth that a Jesuit-educated conservative has been replaced as head of the greatest empire in history by a zealous Papist (to use Saker’s excellent label) who is not only surrounding himself with Roman Catholics but has already threatened Russia – as his number 1 target.
Many thanks for an interesting perspective, as always!
However, the possibility of the Empire even admitting Iran as a functioning democracy, let alone learning from its experience, lies in the domain of political science fiction.
We entered a very dangerous, and depressing, age of ignorance. I live in a Scandinavian country (a province at the edge of the Empire, really) and I face great difficulties finding a partner for a political discussion on the same level like here at The Vineyard of the Saker.
On the contrary, I expect Biden to win ultimately (unfairly of course), and to have new wars soon.
If we’re going to have two Presidents, let’s split the country. Biden can take both coasts and the upper Midwest and Trump can have the rest. Benefits: Neither country will be strong or stable enough to run an Empire and the Deep State will have to bifurcate which will weaken both halves. Each country can pass whatever legislation it wants. The United Red States can go full-tilt libertarian, end all social programs, ban abortion, gays and make church attendance required. The United Blue States can go socialist, tax the rich, cut the military budget, and build a transsexual bathroom in every school. It’s perfect!
“The United Blue States can go socialist, tax the rich, cut the military budget, and build a transsexual bathroom in every school”.
Sorry, Charles, The Dems may be all about building transsexual washrooms and ‘reforming’ the English language, but they are not about taxing the rich or cutting the military budget. Why on earth can’t people see basic facts? The Dems are backed to the hilt by Wall Street, the media oligarchs, and the tycoons of IT and digital tech. They are not about to cut their own feet. Most American wars abroad have been started and supported by Dems, not the Republicans. Please verify the facts otherwise you will keep believing in “war is peace”.
Charles, the Bankster Empire has made split countries its allies before. Remember when parts of the “British” Empire like the US, Australia, Canada, etc. split away from England? Aren’t they allies supporting and fighting the same wars now?
The banksters even have “Israel” and Saudi Arabia as allies in the Empire. So, why would US Red and US Blue be much different?
Poppadop,
A very astute comment, mate.
I find it a bit strange that more people here do not realize that the global empire of today is not headed by the US, or the West, but rather by banksters, as you rightly say.
As such, no nation-state has exceptional status in this empire, except the Zionist pseudo-state, for some reason.
All citizens of this bankster empire are issued bank cards that work throughout the empire, which includes China and Russia, but not Iran.
The banksters know everyone’s real name, age, job, income, and any other pertinent personal information, on an unprecedented global scale. And they also hold the power of life and death over all those people.
What can anyone do, if their bank suddenly claims that there is no money in their account?
What can Russia, for example, do if the global banking network cuts them off like Iran has been cut off, so that Russians cannot make or receive any kind of international banking transaction? What will Russians do, if like Iran, credit cards and mortgages are suddenly off the table?
No Ramin, it only has 1 President plus an insurrection on its hands as voting has no been certified yet.
Noteworthy in this is Trump today sacked Defense Secretary Esper after discovering he was working with the Biden transition team.
It is a bad situation but a miscalculation by those opposing Trump thinking they can win in the medium and long term
Lets assume Biden did take over – apart from the fact he would be replaced by Harris or Hillary very quickly his / their policies would be so divisive (even their own supporters will turn on them) the army might have to intervene and no second term would ensue (Democrats finished). And the GOP would be reeling in implosion mode and would not recover in its old form resulting in a new Trump Party replacing it.
Going the Biden path means both parties are finished in their present form.
So their plan won’t work – Trump must be supported and the election stealers dealt with or the whole system will go down.
America has launched a new discovery in this election cycle. “Two Presidents for the price of one”; “Vote one, get the other President as bonus”; “A win-win election in which two Presidents win”.
Now if that ain’t Yankee ingenuity, what is?
That was hilarious:)
Remind me thos fast-talking auctioneer on Storage Hunter shows my wife watched before!
I have really enjoyed these last few articles by Mr. Mazaheri but I have a few questions about his ideas of the press and its role in politics. Does he view the press as the 4th branch of government or as the 4th estate (something that is independent of the government)?
In a so called democracy I would suggest the former. Why? Because democracy is goverment by propaganda and indoctrination when it is functioning properly. Democracy is the freedom to conform if nothing else. The press and education are two of the primary tools is this process. The press is a political institution in that is the conveyer and interpreter of the political process. Its power resides in its ability to influence public opinion. Its neutrality is always a myth. It is always censored by suppression, selective dissemination or tingeing of information. When political control in waning the role of the press increases as do the outright lies.
If you want to be free learn to think critically. Being free requires the existence of viable alternatives. Thinking you are free requires nothing. Waving a flag means very little if you don’t understand what the symbol stands for. A system resulting from efficient propaganda and censorship is neither based on nor conductive to freedom. Perhaps one day my fellow countrymen in the U.S. will understand this and realize imperialism and freedom can not exist simultaneously.
Your points might be valid if it were not for the fact that Trump lies constantly and is not fit to hold any kind of public office. I can’t understand how you can point your finger at Biden being to blame for the aftermath of 4 years of a Trump’s presidency and an administration rife with chaos, corruption, and the abandonment from disgust with their commander in chief from many of his top lieutenants. Read what those who have left his administration have publicly said and then get your facts straight.
@Anonymous
Trump has been attacked relentlessly and you are continuing the theme.
Censorship, propaganda, the deep state working against him, special investigation, impeachment.
Now cheating because non of the other methods have worked effectively.