IF Kamala Loses...

I predict Kamala Harris will win this Tuesday. It may be close, but if the secret wives' vote comes through, she will. Or if the secret Republican vote comes through, she will. Or if the insulted Latino vote comes through, she will. Or if the late-breaking undecideds come through for her (and numbers show they are at roughly 2-to-1 in her favor), she will. I dare say all four of these will factor in to a Harris victory. She may even sweep all the swing states. (I would be pleasantly surprised at that, but it's entirely possible.)

But as I've repeatedly said on this blog, IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS CLOSE! In a sane world, this should be a slam-dunk. There shouldn't be any competition between a competent woman, and a 1) convicted criminal, 2) sexual assaulter, 3) demonstrable racist, 4) repeated business failure, and 5) proven charlatan who is 6) clearly starting to lose his mind.

So IF Kamala Harris loses (and that's a big IF), it will be for a whole host of reasons. But it will NOT be for the reasons a lot of news pundits will undoubtedly claim.

It will NOT be because she went with Tim Walz instead of Josh Shapiro as her vice presidential nominee.

It will NOT be because she didn't sufficiently distance herself from Biden when Oprah gave her the softball-question-opportunity to do so.

It will NOT be because she is eloquent within the talking points but less so when handed a question she's unprepared for.

It will NOT be due to her record as Attorney General for California, or the false claim that she was named some sort of "Border Czar."

No. HELL, no! Here are the REAL reasons:

It will be because the Right-Wing Media Machine started to go off the rails under George W. Bush after 9/11, and raged unchecked for decades, until it spiraled so wildly out of control that when it came time to report regarding a race between the worst, most racist, most criminal charlatan that we've ever seen in politics, and (again) a highly competent woman, the machine actually went full-throated in favor of the CRIMINAL!

It will be because nobody heeded MY warnings about this Right-Wing Media Machine/Cult. People failed to heed me when I warned them about it in November of 2010.

And again in February of 2011.

And again in April of 2015.

And again in November of 2016.

And again in October of 2020.

And again in November of 2020.

And again in January of 2022.

(And those are just a small sample of the many warnings I gave.)

No, they would rather have listened to the disgraced likes of Tucker Carlson and Art Jones. (?!?!)

It will be because Barack Obama wasted eight years' worth of opportunity to stop this Right-Wing Media Machine. Oh, yes! I'll call Obama out on this one! He could have restored the Fairness Doctrine and prevented all this crap. In fact, he did the exact opposite! On August 22, 2011, in response to Obama's own executive order directing a "government-wide review of regulations already on the books" to eliminate unnecessary regulations, the FCC voted to remove the rule that implemented the fairness doctrine, along with more than 80 other rules and regulations, from the Federal Register. Hell, Obama could have simply left the remaining shards of the Fairness Doctrine alone and blunted what was to come! He didn't. Maybe he was trying to throw the right-wing media off of him with that move. If so, not only didn't it work, it ruined us all, too. Yes, hindsight is always 20/20, but I said then, and still say now, that our beloved Barry committed a colossal fuck-up with that one!

It will be because Joe Biden wasted four more years failing to deal with our nation's #1 problem of disinformation, which by this point was beyond obvious. Why did he do nothing? Why does a crooked moron like Lewis DeJoy still have a job as Postmaster General during a time in which mail-in voting is so very crucial? Why did we fuck around?

It will be because four years of Trump seemed to give legitimacy to all the right-wing craziness being bandied about on social media, to say nothing of biased appointment to various offices (some of which still stand!) and hideously biased press briefings by the likes of Kayleigh McEnany and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

And we again did nothing afterward.

It will be because social media outlets such as Twitter/X were allowed to be bought out and turned into the equivalent of 4chan or 8kun.

It will be because Russian disinformation campaigns have been allowed to run rampant through American media.

It will be because our news outlets have been bought out by billionaire oligarchs who interfere with the journalistic process to make sure that their biases are endorsed over the truth, as outlets such as the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have their endorsements of Kamala Harris blocked by their interfering owners.

It will be because hedge funds have systematically bought up our nation's newspapers and dismantled them, firing most staff and leaving behind bare-bones operations that barely even cover sports.

It will be because most A.M. news stations and even many local television news programs have been bought out by oligarchic interests.

It will be because too many voters on the political left couldn't bring themselves to hold their nose and vote for Hillary in 2016. In an overreaction to Bernie Sanders not being named the candidate, they preferred to cast a protest vote for Jill Stein instead. (And then actually dared to protest Trump's election afterward!) Thus allowing nearly all of the above items to take place. (That one's on us, folks!)

It will be because of the horrifying Citizens' United SCOTUS ruling in 2010, which wrongly equated money with free speech.

It will be because Bill Clinton allowed oligarchs to take over the news media with his horrible Telecommunications Act of 1996.

It will be because the Supreme Court threw the 2000 election to George W. Bush on a 5 to 4 vote, thus making literally all the above possible.

It will be because Ronald Reagan first dismantled the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, creating a watershed effect which we are still reeling from today.

It will be because of all this and more. WE let this happen! WE dropped the ball over, and over, and over again. We let this monster grow and grow until it became an absolute dragon. The death-spiral of our nation's democracy has come down to this: We failed to address the one, biggest threat which has been boiling up for decades upon decades. We failed to require that our news be objective. We failed to address the lies.

And if we win on Tuesday and waste another four years not addressing this #1 concern, then I'll have no choice but to quit the Democratic Party entirely and do something utterly drastic. I'm not sure what, but fuck this shit!

Still, I can afford to be cautiously optimistic. For now.

Eric

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