By Reyshimar Arguelles
While the rest of the world grapples with a deadly pandemic, things are taking a turn for the absurd in the American Empire where a lead up to the 2020 Presidential Elections is uncovering the sickening state of partisan politics—as though it hasn’t been diagnosed before.
Yesterday, the Democratic Party was in the process of picking the best candidate to beat President Donald Trump and finally put an end to his nightmarish regime. The Iowa Caucus is one of many preliminary events in which registered Democrats vote for the party’s candidate.
Some pundits would describe the Caucus as a way to measure the heat signature of a candidate’s electability in other state caucuses and venues for the primary elections. So, unlike our sordid political system where any yahoo can simply fill up a form and run for president, the United States has a refined process of picking someone who is competent enough to lead the Empire and wise enough to steer the world away from a post-apocalyptic future.
We can only dream of having a political system that makes perfect sense. If we have had our way, then we wouldn’t end up with politicians who ramble about conspiracy theories and do the most depraved things for personal benefit.
But alas, things are not what they seem. If anything, we should rest in the fact that we are not alone in dealing with how corrupt political elites try to wriggle their way into power.
A testament of the despicable crumminess of current democratic societies is the recent Iowa Caucus itself.
Yesterday, the Caucus ran into technical problems with a mobile app that is supposed to fast-track the reporting of unofficial results. This was attributed to a coding issue which prompted the Iowa Democratic Party to delay the results and keep everyone in a nervous stupor. But it is clear that there was enough foresight to say that digitizing the Caucus would open it up to security risks. Not only that, the app itself is flawed and unreliable as organizers were having trouble understanding how it works.
Anyone who is not into app development knows exactly the pitfalls of deploying a piece of software that performed horribly in tests. If the Democratic organizers had an iota of intelligence, they would not have taken such a risk—unless they have an agenda to serve.
Prior to the Caucus, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been outperforming his rivals for the Democratic nomination. Even in a recent New Hampshire opinion survey that was released as everyone waited for the Caucus to release the results, Sanders took the lead with 32 percent, besting other established Dems such as Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden who both trailed in at 13 percent.
It is not surprising for other Democratic rivals to dismantle Sanders’ campaign. And it is not about a question of electability. What Sanders’ rivals can’t stand is that he has a genuine platform that goes beyond just challenging the monolith that is Donald Trump.
A staunch democratic socialist, Sanders’ has been described as a “New Dealer” whose message of working class empowerment, cultural inclusivity, and building the welfare state resonated with much of the progressive left who wanted a genuine candidate to represent the grassroots and go after Wall Street corporations that have bank rolled the campaigns of mainstream Democratic politicians
Sanders is the best candidate the Democratic Party could field. He might as well be its only chance to beat Trump, which is why it is utterly insane for them to go down a hellish path by tapping a ragtag team of former Hillary Clinton campaign organizers to build an app that’s bound to fail and make a sham of the political process. It’s difficult to make speculation, but it is becoming harder not to.
As of press time, South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg has held a narrow lead over Sanders. We can only hope for a positive twist of fate just as the United States waits for a chance at redemption in November.
