DNC’s message: War! War! More War!

In record time, the Democratic Party establishment dumped Joe Biden, crowned Kamala Harris, and put on an unprecedented show-stopping convention spectacle Aug. 19-22.  

Over a billion dollars was likely spent (more than $76 million was paid to the Chicago Police Department for “overtime” and equipment). With that amount of cash, a lot can happen, and quickly. 

Vice President Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech summed up the core of the DNC’s program. Once you strip away the platitudes and emotional appeals for a better “future,”  you’ll find the heart of the message: war and more war.

Harris promised the Pentagon generals, bankers, and arms manufacturers which include the artificial intelligence and high-tech companies that are floundering, that war will continue whether it’s the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine, the not-so-cold war on China, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  

She stated, “As commander in chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”

On the question of Palestine, these are Harris’s direct remarks: 

“I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on Oct. 7, including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival.”

Those standing behind the curtain who crafted the DNC spectacle had hyped-up participants erupting into chants of “USA! USA!” during Harris’ presentation, mirroring a Trump MAGA rally.

Vice President Harris also proclaimed, “I promise to be a president for all Americans.”  But one very major voice was missing from the “all” — the Palestinian people.  

The uncommitted delegates had fought for the DNC to grant just one Palestinian speaker. This included an all-night sit-in before the last day. They even promised the  DNC that the message could be prescreened. But their pleas were crushed in a city that boasts the largest Palestinian diaspora in the United States.

There was also no family of Sonia Massey to call for Black lives or to remind the world that racist police terror is continuing. The real voice of workers, the oppressed, of women, the LGBTQ+ community, of Black, Brown, Arab, Mexican, Indigenous, and Asian people was outside the conference protesting.

What’s behind the messaging

What accounts for the sudden surge for the Democrats, particularly in terms of financial backing, coupled with the rave reviews in the major mainstream media?

José Ramón Cabañas Rodríguez, Director of the International Policy Research Center in Havana, Cuba, infers the answer in his The Kamala-Trump-Walz-Vance equation: 

“But perhaps one of the keys to what was going on under the surface was given by the megabank JPMorgan in a communication addressed to its clients:

“‘Markets don’t like uncertainty, and some of the strength in risk assets over the summer was likely due to the increased likelihood of a Republican victory. We would not be surprised to see more turbulence as the presidential race evolves.’ 

“What was a mere probability at the time was chillingly confirmed by the record drop in the major stock markets on Aug. 5.

“For the U.S. financial world, the opposite of uncertainty is predictability. In the new circumstances, this condition seems more likely among the Democrat Party, which could not only offer a sense of continuity as of 2028 to the team that could be elected this November but also exhibits a list of probable ‘leaders’ for the future that are not present in the Republican party.”

Harris comes from Silicon Valley and represents, to a large degree, high tech capitalists whose interests are connected to the war machine and military industrialists. Of course, these developments are not based on one section of the capitalist class alone but rather on what benefits the whole kit and kaboodle of predatory thieves, from bankers to landlords. 

The U.S. capitalist economy (more than just increasingly) predominantly relies on military spending and risky speculations on the stock market. It is not real growth based on production for use. The result is continuing inflation marked by unemployment and stagnation.

The velvet glove and iron fist

At this moment, the Democratic Party looks like it could emerge as the winner in the November presidential election. While it sounds crude, follow the money — not that Trump doesn’t have his billionaire contributors like Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune, and others mainly from the real estate sector. Harris’s campaign boasts that it has raised $540 million since its launch.

But of course, nothing is ever guaranteed, especially in the chaotic, dog-eat-dog, unplanned world of capitalist politics. The very Electoral College that all of the millionaires of both parties have enshrined may play into the hands of the Trump campaign.

Most workers, especially in the larger cities, hate Trump, and for very good reasons. He is a racist, misogynist, anti-worker, anti-immigrant buffoon. And he is a fascist. It is a good instinct to be horrified by Trump.  

But embracing the Democratic Party as a real alternative whose neoliberal policies at home and abroad have provided the soil for this development is not a solution. In fact, they have fed the growth of outright fascist movements.  

You could possibly say that the Democratic Party machine represents the velvet glove and the Republicans the iron first. But it’s not that simple. It’s more accurate to say that whether it’s the Biden administration or a future Harris administration — we are subjected to both the velvet glove and iron fist at the same time.

The so-called “democratic” bourgeois electoral system and its resultant elected officials are just one part of the superstructure of the capitalist system — there is the state apparatus of repression, which has grown larger and more virulent and is a product and outgrowth of the militarization of the U.S. economy. 

They are the iron fist and include racist killer police, the FBI with its raids and spying, sheriff departments riddled with neo-fascists, the court and prison system, and much more. They, along with the Pentagon, are the guarantors of the rule of billionaires both at home and abroad.

Retired Ambassador Chas Freeman, who was Nixon’s translator during his 1972 China trip, said recently, “The United States is in the midst of a mounting constitutional crisis that will come to a head with the Nov. 5 elections and the transition to the Jan. 20 inauguration of the next president. … The civilian government in Washington may disintegrate at the end of this year, but the U.S. Armed Forces will not.” 

While the Democratic Party elite tout freedom and constitutional rights — massive and violent attacks on student encampments opposing genocide in Gaza — belie the very right to protest. The dismissal and firings of teachers and workers who take a stand for even a ceasefire are done to shut down opposition.  

The chilling case of the UHURU 3, members of the African People’s Socialist Party who were the victims of militarized SWAT teams and indicted on conspiracy charges for speaking out against the war machine, is aimed at smashing free speech. The attacks on non-profits like The Peoples Forum in New York City threaten the ability to build organizing centers.

It must be impossible for the Palestinian mothers and fathers, mourning murdered children suffering from outright genocide, and for the occupied and colonized people of the entire region to hear talk of “a lesser of two evils.” Time to break with both capitalist parties and end all “evil.”