In early 2012 Glen Ford writing for the Black Agenda Report said Obama instead of being the lesser of two evils was the more effective of two evils. This was based upon his record. (see reference 1) Glen Ford proved to be a prophet not just for Obama but for the entire Democratic Party. Here are three authors and many references to tell you why.
In this trio of writings, it is good to remember the following.
"One of the worst myths Democratic partisans love to tell themselves - and everyone else - is that the GOP refuses to support President Obama no matter what he does. Like its close cousin - the massively deceitful inside-DC grievance that the two parties refuse to cooperate on anything - it's hard to overstate how false this Democratic myth is. When it comes to foreign policy, war, assassinations, drones, surveillance, secrecy, and civil liberties, President Obama's most stalwart, enthusiastic defenders are often found among the most radical precincts of the Republican Party." Glenn Greenwald
Nobody’s feet are going to be held to the fire is an excellent article which takes a hard deep look at basic economic assumptions, war, and the Democratic Party by Jeff Roby, a Florida activist.
Rose Roby is a long time Florida activist. She wrote:
“Dear Democrats,
Let me put aside the clever one liners and just be real for a moment here.
Whenever there has been common ground to work together, like BLM and Fight for 15, I've done what I could to lend a hand. I never asked for pay, and even though you know I'm poor, you've never lifted a finger to help me out in that respect, or even give me a lead for a job. I never even asked for a thank you. And with some notable exceptions, I seldom got that either, even though saying thank you don't cost you a dime.
But if you're going to bully me with your lesser-evil scare mongering for the next 4 months, you can take all of that free work and shove it up your collective asses. I have an extremely low tolerance for abuse, if you had met me 20 years earlier, things would've been different. But that's how many years it took for me to stop cheerfully taking the shit of smug, middle-class liberals who get off on treating me like I'm stupid even though I could outsmart any one of you in my sleep.
Most of you could give a shit about losing me, I know that. But rest assured, there are many more out there who are feeling the same exact way and you're on your way to alienating each and every one of them in your desperate bid for Presidential glory. So you may not care if you lose me, or some other person, or even another person...but you see, it adds up. At some point, you're left with nothing but yourselves.
Bridges that are burned can't be un-burned. You'll most likely win in November, but you're on your way to a pyrrhic victory.”
Rose also wrote:
“On any given day, I can be either more scared of Clinton or Trump. But on those days that I'm more scared of Trump, some liberal shares an article about how Trump isn't going to bring us to the brink of WWIII because he's too soft on Putin and the Russian Evil Empire baddies that we must DESTROY!!! Oddly enough, they act this like that's a bad thing. And that tips the scales for me to be more scared of Clinton.”
Julia Williams, a long time Green Party supporter and candidate quotes a friend here.
“There's always a demon, every election season, who will supposedly bring about the imminent destruction of life as we know it if we don't vote Democrat to save the world. Every election. Every single one. George Bush, John McCain, now Donald Trump. Rinse and repeat. The liberals say we have to vote Democrat to keep one Hitler at bay, then another, then another. They say real change has to wait, for now we have to keep the Republicans at bay. So one election goes by. Then another. And it's always the same thing. Where does it end? It doesn't. They're blackmailing us into supporting them forever. There is no endgame, just keep voting Democrat until kingdom come. Meanwhile the Democrats are the ones destroying the world, their neoliberal economic policies creating the worst divide between rich and poor since records began, the climate being systematically pillaged by the rapacious corporations to which the Democrats give free reign, war after war after endless fucking war bombing one Middle Eastern country or another while claiming the Republicans are the threat to peace. Enough already! I for one refuse to get behind one class enemy to stop another. If anything it's the Democrats who are the greater evil and the Republicans who are the lesser one. At least Trump, vile though he is, isn't embedded in the neocon establishment as Clinton has been for decades. Don't try to threaten me with Trump when we've already seen what Clinton does with power and how horrific the consequences have been for the people of the world. Clinton the butcher of nations belongs in prison for crimes against humanity, not back in the White House. Fuck Clinton and everyone who votes for her. You have blood on your hands."
Next I wrote the following.
It is amazing to me how the democrats use this sheep herder strategy successfully over and over again: Jesse Jackson, Kerry, Obama, Kucinich, Cuomo, Grayson, Van Jones, Warren, Sanders, Clinton twice, Ocasio-Cortez, etc. I got the sheep herder expression from Bruce Dixon, a Georgia Green Party leader and also of the Black Agenda Report. He described exactly the democratic strategy in this article on May 6, 2015: Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders: Sheepdogging for Hillary and the Democrats in 2016 See also Grayson, Kucinich, Warren, and the Road to Hell
Thanks to very hard work and generous donations by many of us, democrats had a huge majority in 2009-2011. The republicans had not had such a majority since 1923. What did they do with it? Collapsed on war, the environment, the economy, and made the Bush tax cuts for the rich permanent. Contrast that with Bush who despite a minority in both the House and the Senate still did whatever the hell he wanted to do. It is past time to face the fact that this is what the democrats want and they are not constantly out foxed by the republicans. Remember Clinton enabled NAFTA, the 1996 Telecommunications Act, Welfare Reform and the repeal of Glass-Steagall.
Arguments democrats use to defend their records:
- Lesser of Two Evils (LOTE): At least we are not republicans.
- Half a Loaf of Bread: Getting something is better than getting nothing. This hides the fact that what the democrats frequently get is nothing disguised as a real improvement.
- Republicans are Worse: Just look at their rhetoric and ignore our actual results.
- False helplessness before minority republicans: Contrast with Bush Jr. who despite a democratic majority in both houses still did whatever the hell he wanted to.
- Progress not perfection: This is said to hide the lack of progress.
- This is the most important election ever! or This election is just too important!
- Elect democrats and then hold their feet to the fire then forget to hold them accountable on war, civil rights, the environment, etc.
- Supreme Court! If shouted loudly enough repeatedly it can successfully obscure that those appointed by democrats have often disappointed.
Finally, the Clintons have an actual record that is long and shameful. See Beware the Clintons.
As a reminder the Democratic Party voted for the following in its 2016 platform.
- Against an immediate 15.00 minimum wage
- Against expanding solar power
- Against an amendment banning fracking
- Pro TPP
- pro Israeli war crimes against Palestinians
- Against a carbon emission tax
- Against pension protection to keep them from being cut
- Against an amendment blocking energy companies from using eminent domain for fossil fuel extraction
- Against an amendment to make climate change a test for building a future Keystone pipelines
- Against an amendment for a single payer healthcare system
- Against an amendment to make healthcare a right
- Against an amendment eliminating the use of any force in the Syrian conflict
- Against an amendment calling for the end of U.S. exportation of fracking to foreign nations
After losing the Presidency, Senate, and House of Representatives, the Democratic Party pushed to have Chuck Schumer be the Senate Minority Leader. As a reminder Schumer
- Voted for the Patriot Act
- Voted to repeal Glass-Steagall
- Voted to bail out Wall Street
- Voted to invade Iraq
- Voted for the Defense of Marriage Act
- Gets the most “donations” from Wall Street Firms
Someone described insanity as doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. We must stop blindly supporting democrats if we truly want a different result.
References:
Reference 1 is for Glen Ford’s article which inspired the title.
References 2-17 documents with over 10,000 references in 16 areas what both major parties are doing. All areas are continually updated.
Reference 23 has documentation on specific people and organizations to be wary of.
Reference 26 is to the Black Agenda Report website which has the most incisive political writing that I know. Just their comments on the more effective evil and sheepdogging exactly and concisely describe real political strategies and assessments.
Other references discuss and give examples of Democratic Party corruption. This article will be continually updated with new references.
1-Why Barack Obama is the More Effective Evil
10-Our Crumbling Infrastructure
11-Labor
17-Widespread Police Misconduct and an Expanding Prison Population
18-Saint Petersburg Independents
19-Cautionary Tales by Jeff Roby
20-Jeff Roby on Strategy and Tactics
21-An Interesting Conversation on the Way Forward by Rose Roby
22-On Becoming Dependent Upon Incarceration by Rose Roby
23-Don’t Let These People or Organizations Fool You
24-Betraying Progressives, DNC Platform Backs Fracking, TPP, and Israel Occupation
25-Actions Express Priorities: 40 Years of Failed Lesser Evil Voting
27-Abandon all hope for the Democratic Party
28-deleted
29-Emails Released by WikiLeaks Appear to Show DNC Trying to Aid Hillary Clinton
31-deleted
33-Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders: Sheepdogging for Hillary and the Democrats in 2016
34-Actors called for to replace 2016 Democratic Convention Members who walked out in protest
35-Freedom Rider: Wikileaks Exposes Democrats’ Corruption
37-deleted
38-Alan Gilbert - 2016 Primary Exit Polls and Anomalous Electronic Vote Totals (video)
43-deleted
44-Democrats hold lessons on how to talk to real people
45-deleted
47-Double Standards: Where Were the Liberal Protestors During Obama’s Wars?
48-deleted
50-Freedom Rider: Dump the Democrats for Good
52-Leaked Email Proves DNC Rigged Primary Debates
53-Left-Wing Paralysis and the Decay of Lesser Evil Politics
54-Mark Blyth on How Liberalism Undermined Democracy and the Failure of the Democratic Party
55-News Flash, Democrats: You've Become Everything You Hate
56-deleted
57-President Obama’s legacy with Glen Ford
58-Roaming Charges: Prime Time Green
59-Greenwald: Democrats Seem to Consider Snowden's & Manning's Leaks Evil & Leaks Under Trump Heroic
60-The Clock Is Ticking For The Democrats
61-The Democratic Party's Demise Began Long Before Obama
62-The Democratic Party's Death is Imminent
63-The DNC Hands the Democratic Party Over to David Brock and Billionaire Donors
64-deleted
66-Barack Obama: The Least Transparent President in History
67-Trump Muslim Ban Made Possible By Obama Admin & Media Won't Tell You (YouTube)
68-Andrew Bacevich: Why Is No Candidate Offering an Alternative to Militarized U.S. Foreign Policy? (YouTube)
69-Democrats and Their Chilling Apathy Towards War
70-Without Providing Any Evidence of Hacking, Obama to Announce ‘Punishment’ Plan for Russia
73-WikiLeaks reveals DNC holds unions in contempt
74-Will Progressive Democrats Ever Support a Third Party Candidate?
75-deleted
78-Prominent Democratic Fundraisers Realign to Lobby for Trump’s Agenda
79-Now is Not the Time to Come to the Aid of the Party
80-Lessons from the 2010 Democratic Defeat
81-deleted
82-Democrats Have No Moral Compass: A Case Study
83-DNC Election Fraud Lawyers: All Of Our Witnesses Are Being Murdered
84-DEMOCRATS Kill Single Payer Healthcare In California
86-With New D.C. Policy Group, Dems Continue to Rehabilitate and Unify With Bush-Era Neocons
87-Was the Election Rigged Against Bernie Sanders? DNC Lawsuit Demands Repayment for Campaign Donors
88-U.S. Intelligence Veterans Believe the 'Russian Hack' of DNC Computers May Have Been an Inside Job
89-deleted
91-The New McCarthyism Is Destroying the Democratic Party
93-The CIA’s Absence of Conviction
94-The Biggest Plot Hole In Russiagate Is That Nobody Can Even Say What It Is
95-Russiagate Exposed: It’s a Fraud - The Truth that’s Being Hidden from the Public
98-California Health Care Fight May Show Democratic Party Future In Trump Era
99-FBI seized smashed hard drives from Wasserman Schultz IT worker: Report
100-deleted
102-DNC to Court: We Are a Private Corporation With No Obligation to Follow Our Rules
103-DNC Makes Unbelievably Feeble Response To Latest Russiagate Debunking Evidence
104-deleted
106-Democrats Gone Mad: The Year of Living Stupidly by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
107-Democratic Senators Chose Party over People
108-Dem Leaders Reiterate That They’ll Be Changing Absolutely Nothing
109-Dawn of the Dead: Why American Politics Can’t be Reformed
111-Cornel West to Activists, Immigrants: Let's Dump The Democratic Party
114-'Peace' President? How Obama came to bomb seven countries in six years
115-“Incremental Change” Is Code For “No Change Whatsoever”
116-Dem defectors help Senate Banking Committee strike deal to free banks from post-crisis oversight - The rule being gutted is barely seven years old. Family wealth still hasn't recovered from the crisis that prompted it.
117-Dem Support For Trump Surveillance Powers Proves “Resistance” Is Bullshit
118-Democratic Party’s Trouble in Iowa Foreshadows Dysfunction in 2020
119-Distracted Democrats blew their chance to defeat tax reform bill
120-Democrats Paid a Huge Price for Letting Unions Die
121-deleted
124-DNC Chair Tom Perez Gives Up on Unity, Rewards Loyalists
125-DNC to Court: We Are a Private Corporation With No Obligation to Follow Our Rules
126-The Untold Story Of How Clinton's Budget Destroyed The American Economy
127-Harvard Study: Two-Party Duopoly to Blame for Government Dysfunction
129-I’m A Brown Woman Who’s Breaking Up With The Democratic Party - I realize now that the love has been one-sided.
130-Julian Assange Explains Why The Democrats Are Doomed (YouTube)
131-deleted
132-Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders: Sheepdogging for Hillary and the Democrats in 2016
133-Network newscasts don't mention Brazile Clinton-DNC revelations
134-Testing Progressives, Centrist Dems Team Up with GOP to Deregulate Banks
135-The CIA Democrats: Part One
136-The CIA takeover of the Democratic Party
137-deleted
138-When Black Voters Exited Left: What African Americans lost by aligning with the Democratic Party
141-deleted
142-Pelosi: “I Don’t See Anything Inappropriate” In Rigging Primaries
143-'Beyond Shameful': Democrats Warner, Heitkamp, and Nelson Announce Support for Torturer Gina Haspel - There are now five Democratic senators "who have made clear they don't give a shit about accountability for torture"
144-Betraying Progressives, DNC Platform Backs Fracking, TPP, and Israel Occupation - Appointees by Clinton and Wasserman Schulz resoundingly reject numerous proposals put forth by Sanders surrogates
145-House Democrats Line Up to Vote en Masse for Totally Unnecessary 'Blue Lives Matter' Bill
146-Ocasio-Cortez, DSA seek to give “left” cover to right-wing Democratic Party
147-Rhode Island Dems in uproar as party seeks to oust three progressive women - At the same time, the party is standing by a lawmaker who has been charged with sexual assault and perjury. It also backed a former lawmaker who has been arrested several times.
148-Here Are Some of the Democrats Who Paved the Way for the Family Separation Crisis
150-The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions
151-You Would Think It Would Be Impossible to Lose Ground to Trump and the GOP—But You'd Be Wrong - For several weeks Democrats have been slipping in polls, and now they are virtually dead even with Republicans. Even Trump is getting more popular.
152-Dirty Hands
153-'This Is Pathetic': Progressives Furious as Schumer Rubber Stamps 15 More Right-Wing Judges for Trump Critics angrily denounced Senate Democrats for helping the Republican majority "shape our country in Donald Trump's brutal image for decades to come"
154-A Bunch of Reasons Trump Will Probably Prevail in 2020
155-No, Voting Democrat is Not “Harm Reduction”
156-Super-Efficient Democrats Throw the 2020 Election Two Years Early
157-5 Democrats Bail Out Paul Ryan And Protect Saudi Arabia
158-Democratic Leaders Failed Their First Big Test on Climate - Kicking the can down the road appears to be a bipartisan sport in Washington
159-HR 1 Cuts Green Party Funding, Sics Cops on Left Dissenters
160-The Democrats Are Climate Deniers
161-The Left Must Finally Break With the Democrats
162-Three Months After The Midterms: Nick Brana Describes Dems’ Corporate Wave
163-The Trump Administration’s Africa Policy (and how the democrats are complicit)
164-"Absolutely Disastrous": Progressives Furious as Fellow Democrats Push Funding Cut for Health Clinics That Serve 30 Million Americans - "If Democrats were serious about protecting every American's right to healthcare, this plan wouldn't even be on the table."
165-Democrat Dianne Feinstein Explain to Children Why She Won't Back Green New Deal - "This is a fight for our generation's survival. Her reaction is why young people desperately want new leadership in Congress."
166-Tulsi Gabbard's Exclusion from Debate Stage is Further Proof that United States is Democracy Free
168-deleted
169-Clinton Insiders Reveal ‘Blame Russia’ Plan Hatched ‘Within 24 Hours’ of Election Loss
170-The Democratic Party Just Ticked Off Its Youngest Organizers
171-Court Concedes DNC Had the Right to Rig Primaries Against Sanders
172-Democrat Operative Admits: We’ve Been Rigging Elections “for 50 Years”
173-Democrats abstain from voting on their own “Green New Deal”
174-Democrats are playing dirty to shut out progressive new voices.
175-DNC swiftly kills the idea of a climate change debate
176-DNC tells Inslee it won't host climate debate
177-deleted
178-DNC Will Take Fossil Fuel Money After All
179-Establishment Democrats Are Undermining Medicare for All
180-Evidence Mounts: DNC Emails Got to WikiLeaks via a LEAK, Not a HACK
181-deleted
182-House Democrats Voted for a Natural Gas Future, and Nobody Noticed
183-HR1 Cuts Green Campaign Funding, Sics Homeland Security and Political Police on the Left
184-Julian Assange like a hi-tech terrorist, says Joe Biden
185-deleted
186-Moderate Democrats’ Delusions of ‘Prudence’ Will Kill Us All
187-MSNBC Host Trashes MSNBC For Russiagate Hoax (YouTube)
188-Nancy Pelosi's Leadership Now Constitutes a Constant Dereliction of Duty
189-Nine Reasons Why You Should Support Joe Biden For President
190-deleted
191-Obama Pilloried for Playing the 'How You Gonna Pay for It?' Card on Progressive Agenda "No president since FDR has been handed as many opportunities to transform the U.S. into something that doesn't threaten the stability of life on this planet. He has refused every one."
192-Open letter to Sen. Feinstein regarding No Fossil Fuel Money pledge
193-Patrick Lawrence warned us about the Russiagate hoax in 2016, but no one listened.
195-deleted
196-The DNC Won't Take Climate Change Seriously
197-The Big Tech Investigations That Should Have Started in 2012 Two missed opportunities from the Federal Trade Commission, on Google and Facebook, led us to the monopoly crisis we face today.
198-The Democratic Party Is Waging a War Against Its Very Own Base In chasing a narrow swath of white swing voters, the leadership is demobilizing a broader coalition of voters who have delivered blue victories time and time again.
199-The Democratic Party Obsession with Capitalism and Militarism Will Grow Worse by 2020
200-The Hard Lessons of Dianne Feinstein’s Encounter with the Young Green New Deal Activists
201-The Movement And The 2020 Elections
202-The Obama Wars
203-deleted
204-The San Francisco Murals and the “Suicide of the Left”
206-'Unprecedented, Wasteful, and Obscene': House Approves $1.48 Trillion Pentagon Budget
207-Trump’s Democratic Opposition Endorses His Coup Attempt in Venezuela
208-US federal court exposes Democratic Party conspiracy against Assange and WikiLeaks
209-Wikileaks Proves Primary Was Rigged: DNC Undermined Democracy 20,000 freshly leaked emails reveal resentful disdain toward Sanders, as party favored Clinton long before any votes were cast
210-When Black Voters Exited Left - What African Americans lost by aligning with the Democratic Party
211-deleted
212-With help of Democrats, regulators move to gut ‘last line of defense’ against Wall Street gambling "We are barely a decade from the greatest fiasco of financial over-leveraging in history, and we are already unlearning its most obvious lessons."
213-'This Is Unbelievable': Citing Need for GOP Input, Pelosi Yanks Remote Voting Rule at Last Minute "Forgive me for asking, but who won control of the US House in the 2018 election?"
214-152 House Democrats Join GOP to Reauthorize 'Abusive Government Surveillance Powers' "Nothing says bipartisanship like extending provisions of the PATRIOT Act."
215-As Sanctions Kill Iranians Stricken With COVID-19, Democratic Leaders Are Silent
216-Author Chris Hedges: Both political parties have betrayed working class (YouTube)
217-CLEAN Future Act Is ‘Shameful’ and ‘Greenwashing,’ say Climate Justice Groups
218-Corporate Lobbyists Control the Rules at the DNC Two-thirds of DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee members are corporate lobbyists or corporate consultants, including ten at-large DNC members appointed by DNC Chair Tom Perez.
219-Democrats Team Up With Trump to Maintain Disastrous Healthcare System
220-DNC Chair Candidate Tom Perez Admits Democratic Primaries Were Rigged
221-Editorial: Something smells in the Democratic Party
222-deleted
224-Greg Palast says Sanders Cheated out of Hundreds of Thousands of Votes
225-deleted
226-Is the DNC cheating? Again? The DNC’s candidate always gains in the counting. And that is highly suspicious.
227-deleted
228-Super Tuesday Biden Victories Questioned by Election Watchers
229-The Criminality of the Democratic Party. DNC Maneuvers to Derail Bernie Sanders
231-Trump’s North America Trade Deal Is Poised to Worsen Climate Change—But Dems Don’t Seem To Mind
232-Voter fraud is a huge problem in the Democratic Party - The modern Democratic Party actively encourages and facilitates voter fraud at every opportunity.
233-Why the Hell Did Democrats Just Extend the Patriot Act? House leadership included the measure in a government funding bill—and even members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus went along with it.
234-"Amazing" Hypocrisy: Democrats Make Wreck of Covid-19 Relief Negotiations - Democrats stonewalled all year on a new pandemic relief package. Now they're proposing a new plan that undercuts even Republican proposals, and screws everyone but - get this - defense contractors
235-After GOP Repeatedly Blocked Vote on $2,000 Checks, 41 Democrats Joined McConnell to Advance $740 Billion Pentagon Bill - "The sheer scale of Wednesday's Democratic surrender was truly a sight to behold. And it probably ended the chance for more immediate aid to millions of Americans facing eviction, starvation, and bankruptcy."
236-Chris Hedges: The Ruling Elite’s War on Truth - American political leaders display a widening disconnect from reality intended to mask their complicity in the seizure of power by global corporations and billionaires.
237-Senate Democrats Could Have Defied Mitch McConnell on $2,000 Checks. They Chose Not to.
238-Hmmm... Sounds familiar...
239-Ralph Nader: Democrats Ushered in an Era of Corporate Fascism
240-Stupid Dems Are Here Again...
242-Chris Hedges | What Americans MUST DO (YouTube)
243-The Lesson Democrats Never Learn
244-Beware the Biden Administration
245-Why does Biden want to make the Chevron lawyer whose firm prosecuted Donziger a judge?
246-American Commissars by Chris Hedges
247-Green Party says Democrats used tricks to block them from ballot
248-Jesus, Endless War, and the Rise of American Fascism - The Democratic Party is hoping to thwart an election rout by running against the expected Supreme Court decision on abortion. This is depressingly all that is left of its political capital. (Chris Hedges Report)
249-The Democratic Base Keeps Getting Richer and Whiter
250-The Chris Hedges Report: Why did Democrats give this pro-Trump GOP primary candidate $425,000? (YouTube)
251-Democrats Screw Over Rail Workers HARD (YouTube)
252-Dems Could Have Helped Rail Workers By Doing Nothing
253-Know Thine Enemy by Chris Hedges - The expedited legislation passed by Congress to avert a strike by railroad unions dealt one more blow in the decades long war waged by the two ruling parties against the working class.
254-The Democrats are Now the War Party (Chris Hedges Report) The Democratic Party has become the party of permanent war, fueling massive military spending which is hollowing out the country from the inside and flirting with with nuclear war.
256-Biden's Debt Ceiling Betrayal is a Democratic Party Tradition
257-Obamacare Changed the Democratic Party (YouTube)
258-
259-
260-