W.J. Astore
For Democrats, it's Trump; for Republicans, it's immigrants; for Americans, it's a wasteland
The 2024 presidential election: What a wasteland.
Democrats want to make the election about Donald Trump. And abortion access. Republicans want to make it about immigration. And Joe Biden's fitness for office.
Please, for the love of Mike, make it stop.
The Bernie Sanders of 2016 is much missed. Sanders challenged war-hawk Hillary Clinton on issues that mattered to Americans. Issues like a $15 federal minimum wage. Affordable health care for all. Comprehensive student loan debt relief and more affordable college education. Policy proposals that actually helped working-class Americans. Those issues are now dead in 2024.
Foreign policy is especially bleak. The Biden administration is enabling genocide in Israel; most Republicans fully support this. Biden is planning a military strike of some sort against Iran; most Republicans are urging him to strike harder. The bipartisan consensus in DC is to rubber-stamp whatever Bibi Netanyahu wants, to give the Pentagon everything it wants, and to pursue more wars overseas. The only debate is over which foreign country is more dangerous to America. China? Russia? Iran? Maybe even North Korea? It doesn't matter. The result is the same: more money for war, no money for peace.
I can't recall an election season less connected to the concerns of middle- and working-class Americans. Democrats are fundraising by stressing fears about Trump and abortion access; Republicans are fundraising off fears of America being swamped by immigrants due to the Democrats' "open border" policy.
Meanwhile, this is a sample of headlines from mainstream media coverage of the election, taken from NBC News this morning:
Takeaways from the 2024 cash dash: Legal cases drain Trump as Biden builds reserves
More than $27M in Trump campaign fundraising went to legal costs in the last six months of 2023
Nikki Haley's super PAC spent big to fuel her rise. It started 2024 with little left.
RFK Jr.'s presidential campaign spent more than it raised last quarter and left $5.4M in the bank
Where are the issues that matter to Americans? The "cash dash" is what matters to NBC, not issues like health care, wages, inflation, personal and national debt, the availability of affordable housing, mental health care, and so on.
Meanwhile, I can't recall the last time I saw an article in the mainstream media that seriously argued for major reductions to Pentagon spending and concerted efforts in diplomacy instead of constant warmongering and weapons exports.
Trump-Biden is a wasteland. Don't vote for the tools and fools. Find candidates who actually want to help America without killing massive numbers of foreigners overseas.
Good luck to all of us—we're going to need it.
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