Booker and Klobuchar: More Neoliberals Enter the Democratic Presidential Primary

UPDATE: Glen Ford, executive editor of Black Agenda Report, had an accurate assessment last week regarding the present state of the Democratic Party, in which he concludes:

Only three Democratic members of the House, California Rep. Ro Khanna, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, have condemned the U.S. actions against Venezuela, and much of the phony left has found common cause with Trump in the crime.

It is possible that AOC will grow an internationalist consciousness, without which one is no socialist. But it’s way too late for 77 year-old Bernie Sanders. His historical mission is to run for president once again, on a platform opposed to endless austerity, and hopefully generate such momentum that Democratic leaders will be forced by their corporate masters to sabotage Sander’s campaign in the full light of day, provoking a significant exodus of lefties from the Party.

The corporate duopoly cannot buck the Lords of Capital, whose only vision for the planet is endless austerity and war, with themselves forever on top. The real resistance can only be nurtured outside the Party. Bernie Sanders' job, although certainly not his intention, is to explode the Democrats by running on a platform that supermajorities of people support – and to be publicly crucified for it.

Bernie will run, and Bernie will be blocked by the party once again.

For the party to bar the exits to the "exodus of lefties," of which Ford speaks, the oligarchs who fund the DNC are likely whispering to Kamala Harris to go as far to the left as she see fits, knowing full well it's merely pillow talk.

But Harris won't win the primary; plus, she would just be fodder for Trump in a general election. That leaves a co-opted Elizabeth Warren as the Democratic Party's best bet to maintain a semblance of cohesiveness and win the White House.

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The Democratic presidential primary is cleanly divided into two rhetorical camps. In one camp, the neoliberals, preach unity and healing and "reaching across the aisle to get things done"; in the other, you have social democrats preaching confrontation with entrenched corporate interests that have corrupted the political process to the disadvantage of regular working people.

This dichotomy is explored in Alexander Burns' "Democrats’ 2020 Choice: Do They Want a Fighter or a Healer?," a look at the contrasting messages of Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, both declared presidential candidates in the Democratic primary, both in Iowa over the weekend. I get the sense that Burns' true intention is to make up for the damning Booker campaign kickoff piece that The Times published Friday, February 1 (see "Cory Booker Announces Presidential Bid, Joining Most Diverse Field Ever," by Nick Corasaniti and Shane Goldmacher) by providing a stealth fluff piece for the New Jersey senator and notorious Wall Street lickspittle.

Neoliberal candidates like Booker are preaching unity because that's what the wealthy donors want to hear. The plutocrats definitely don't want to see Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax, which targets people worth at least $50 million, catch on. Unfortunately for the oligarchs, in the age of Indivisible and the Women's March, the unity message rings false -- it's Obama's message and Obama was an empty suit shortly after his reelection; so we're talking about something that is six-year's out-of-date -- and the Warren and AOC message of the rich paying their fair share rings true.

Another neoliberal (they're called "centrists" in the mainstream media) tossed her hat into the presidential ring yesterday. Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar (see "Amy Klobuchar Enters 2020 Presidential Race," by Mitch Smith and Lisa Lerer) is another corporate lawyer who hopes to capture lightning in a bottle in the age of #MeToo; in Klobuchar's case, it was her ballyhooed exchange regarding alcohol consumption with supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his senate confirmation hearing.

The Times includes this acidic passage in its coverage of the Klobuchar kickoff:

Despite Ms. Klobuchar’s friendly public persona, she’s said to be a difficult boss. A survey of senators by the website LegiStorm from 2001 to 2016 found that her office had the highest turnover in the Senate. “I have high expectations,” she told The New York Times last year. A recent HuffPost article portrayed her as a demanding manager who lost some potential 2020 campaign staff members because of her reputation.

Republicans latched onto that criticism on Sunday, dismissing her candidacy as one of limited appeal.

“She has virtually no grass-roots backing and even her own staff is complaining that she’s ‘intolerably cruel,’” Michael Ahrens, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement.

Let's face it. The honchos that run the Democratic National Committee must be shitting in their britches. An outsider is going to capture the party organization. At this point Kamala Harris is the best bet for the oligarchs to maintain control. But her record in California politics is a liability. So that means Biden will probably run, as will the feckless Beto O'Rourke.