Blog: Thunderdome 2020 & How I Write About Politics (Link)
Thunderdome 2020 & How I Write About Politics
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great sadness and no small amount of fear for my own personal safety that I must inform you all that the 2020 Democratic Party US Presidential Primary season has begun in earnest while most of you were enjoying eggnog and turkey.
Yes, I know, it seems like only yesterday that we were all watching the neoliberal or “Wall Street wing” of the Democratic Party apologize and surrender the reins of power after elevating a fascist and then blowing the most winnable election in US history to a “billionaire” reality TV-show, rodeo clown plutocrat rapist who is utterly incapable of telling the truth – wait, what’s that you say? That apology never happened, nobody was fired and the elite Dem establishment is still blaming Jill Stein, Sanders supporters and Russia? Good grief.
If accounts in our beloved corporate “free press” are to be believed, the conflict broke out when bloodthirsty BernieBro partisans engaged in a nefarious coordinated plot to destroy poor, sweet liberal savior Robert “Beto” O’Rourke’s 2020 candidacy before it has even begun. Never fear however, despite the awesome power of a few pinko Sanders supporters on the fringe of mainstream media, the Democratic Party establishment is going to be just fine because Bernie isn’t really all that special anymore and in fact, you might even say he’s a total has-been!
This narrative is of course complete and utter horse sh*t. Not only does Bernie Sanders remain one of the most popular politicians in America, but any moron can see that if Sanders was already yesterday’s news the neoliberal establishment wouldn’t be holding invitation-only meetings to strategize how to stop him. If Sanders were finished, sh*t-eating “centrist” remorae like Neera Tanden, Josh Marshall and Clara Jeffery wouldn’t be comparing Sanders supporters to violent fascists, pushing blatantly rigged polls and attacking the democratic socialist Senator from Vermont at every opportunity.
In light of the fact that we’re still in the very tail end of 2018 and the 2020 Democratic Primary is already shaping up to be a gigantic clusterf*ck of cops, creeps, corporate stooges, no-hopers and never-was pretenders to rival even the 2016 GOP clown car primary that ultimately produced Trump – I think it’s safe to say we are all in for a long, brutal and largely fact-free eighteen or so months of political posturing in the United States.
Frankly, as much as I am strongly tempted to boycott all election coverage until such a time as I’m finished throwing up, sobbing and succumbing to awful flashbacks from 2016, the nature of my work is going to force me to write about Democratic Primary machinations eventually. After all, studying media propagandists, corrupt politicians and the economic rule of the wealthy elite forces me to study their interests and believe me, these folks are quite interested in this coming election already.
Unfortunately, if the 2016 election season taught me anything, it’s that writing about American politics online has now become a partisan blood-sport. Between hired trolls, AstroTurf activists, in-pocket pundits and rented political hacks, it is virtually impossible to avoid getting caught up in the lies, half-truths and spin that surround modern U.S. politics. Accusations of partisanship and mercenary motives (or worse) are now standard fare in this business (for good reason) and as such, I feel obliged to discuss my methods and motivations with all of you now, before we descend into this dreadful muck together.
First and foremost please let me assure you that I am not under contract with any political group, or individual; the money I make from writing comes completely from individual PayPal and Patreon donors – none of whom have, have ever requested, or would ever be granted, any sort of creative control over my writing. I’m an independent political analyst, I’m not a member of any political party and there are no circumstances under which I would offer to work for a given party or campaign in any capacity while still writing about politics.
All of which isn’t to say that I don’t have or won’t share, personal opinions about U.S. politics; it would be utterly impossible to spend as much time reading about the American political class as I do, without forming some opinions about who could, or should win primary races and elections. Those opinions are however genuine and represent my own honest assessment of the available information; whether you agree, or disagree with my writing, you can be 100% sure I’m not being paid to sell you a line of bullshit.
Furthermore, I would also like to guarantee all of my readers that, per my longstanding personal policy, I will absolutely never tell you who to vote for or even whether or not you should vote. The simple truth is that literally nobody can make you vote, not vote, or choose a specific candidate against your will and as a writer, observer and critic, it’s really not my place to even try to do so. I’m a firm believer in both the intelligence and agency of my readers; I believe that if you tell folks the truth about politics, offer your own opinions in the proper context and trust in the ability of other people to make the choices that are best for themselves with that information, they’ll do just that on their own.
Finally, let me assure you that wherever possible when discussing the upcoming primary season and 2020 election, I will do my best to focus on policies, past public performance in politics and documented campaign finance issues. Unfortunately, because I spend a lot of time writing about how corporate media attacks democracy, it’s going to be impossible to completely avoid discussing the dreaded “horse race” political coverage designed to distract voters from real issues – we’ve already looked at a good example of this in the “war” between Bernie Sanders and Robert O’Rourke. Whenever possible however, I’m going to try and shy away from tabloid coverage of private scandals and narratives about personalities or “destinies” and instead focus on the kind of factual, political knowledge rich people spend a lot of money to keep off your radar.
Have courage now my friends, there’s blood in the water and this is no time to turn away from the horrors of the abyss inside rich people’s souls; we can get through this together – gird up your loins, the shit-rain comes early this winter.
– Nina Illingworth
