The Impotent Empire

 

 JEFFREY ST. CLAIR 

The problem with American politics isn’t that it’s polarized (we need more polarization over inequality, over war, over climate), but that it’s polarized around two of the most inept and ridiculous figures in American history. The only two people Americans can apparently think of to run their dying Empire have both lost their frigging marbles, if they ever had any, which is a sure sign that your Empire is in fact dying.

Biden is hounded everywhere he goes now, even at a gathering of the UAW. Trump hounds people wherever he goes, even if he’s not quite sure who those people are, as when he confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi on the eve of the New Hampshire primary. And confusing Haley with Pelosi may have been the least strange thing he said: “You know, when she comes here she gets like nine people, and the press never reports the crowds…“You know, by the way, they never report the crowd on January 6. You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley. By the way, you know they, you do know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, deleted and destroyed all of it., because of lots of things, like Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley was in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that.” What the hell was that all about? 

It doesn’t matter. Backers of both geriatrics don’t seem to care much that their candidates don’t seem to have a fix on where they are or what they’re talking about. About anything, frankly. When anti-war protestors at Biden rallies (if that’s what you want to call them, seems a stretch to me), chant: “Stop killing babies” or “End the genocide”, his claque, like automatons of the doomed, shout reflexively: “Four more years!” Four more years of slaughter?