Performative Politics

Performative Politics

by C. A. Matthews

I’ve heard the term performative politics quite often in recent times. It makes me wonder why this kind of politics has come into vogue.

 

Let’s take a look at the words and define them separately. According to Wikipedia:

Politics...activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.

Merriam-Webster Online defines performative this way:

1. Relating to or marked by public, often artistic performance

2. Made or done for show (as to bolster one's own image or make a positive impression on others)

Both definitions describe more than a few actions taken recently by neoliberal politicians. Before I describe these incidents, perhaps it’s wise to define what exactly is meant by neoliberal or neoliberalism.

From Britannica.com:

Neoliberalism: an ideology and policy model that emphasizes the value of free market competition. ...It is most commonly associated with laissez-faire economics... Its confidence in free markets as the most-efficient allocation of resources, its emphasis on minimal state intervention in economic and social affairs, and its commitment to the freedom of trade and capital.

Now that we’re on the same page with what is meant by these terms, politics, performative, and neoliberalism, here are three examples of recent performative politics and what I think each of the actors (that is, politicians) is communicating to their obvious and not-so-obvious audiences and why they choose to perform in such as way at this time.

First off, we have the extremely photogenic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or “AOC” as she is known. AOC gave a fiery speech at the recent March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City. Her obvious audience was, of course, the crowd that gathered there or watched her performance online. This crowd included environmental activists and protesters of all the destructive things “Big Oil” has done to our planet with their constant drilling, mining, and burning of fossil fuels. But who was the not-so-obvious audience AOC was reaching out to with her speech? And why did she choose to perform this particular speech at this particular place and time?

To understand, AOC’s motivations we have to do a little research and look back at her history in politics. AOC ran as a “Bernie Sanders Democrat” and was photographed interacting with the youth-led Sunrise Movement environmental organization. She led a very loud protest with these young environmental activists inside Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s offices early on in her career, so it makes sense that she would show up at the march where many of them were protesting that day.

But many things have happened since AOC’s time hanging out with the Sunrise Movement in 2018. AOC has been re-elected to Congress a couple times, and she’s made quite a name for herself, not so much as an environmentalist but as a very good Democrat who does as she’s told. She has voted several times for massive Pentagon/Defense Department budgets in spite of the fact the US military is one of the most polluting organizations in the world.

AOC declared earlier this year that she supports President Biden running for office again, although he has done the complete opposite of what an environmentalist would support. Biden has opened up more federal land to oil drilling than any other president, particularly with the Willow Project:

The Biden Administration released its final decision approving three drilling sites for the Willow Master Development Plan, otherwise known as the Willow Project that threatens local communities, wildlife, and the global climate. This is a massive oil drilling development on Alaska’s North Slope, which is a stretch of public land known as the National Petroleum Reserve that borders the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

This project developed by ConocoPhillips would be the single largest oil extraction point on US public lands, emitting 278 million metric tons of climate pollution over the next 30 years. That’s equivalent to the annual emissions from 74 coal plants — one-third of all remaining U.S. plants. Willow will disproportionately impact the community of Nuiqsut, a predominantly Iñupiaq village of about 500 people already suffering extreme pollution from existing oil projects.--from Biden Administration Breaks Climate Promise and Approves Willow Project

By supporting Biden's actions, it seems AOC doesn't care much about the environment at all.

AOC has never protested the billion of dollars Biden has sent to Ukraine to continue NATO’s proxy war there. She hasn’t really come out against the sale of cluster munitions (cluster bombs) and depleted uranium to Ukraine, either. Cluster bombs maim primarily civilians—children for the most part—and depleted uranium radiation can lead to generations of genetically malformed babies and horrible rates of cancers in persons of all ages.

By supporting these astronomical Defense budgets and the US sale of cluster bombs (munitions that have been outlawed in almost every country in the world) as well as Biden’s Willow Oil Project, AOC's actions tell us that she isn’t particularly concerned with the health and well-being of her fellow human beings or the planet. Her actions in Congress just don’t support her image or “performance” as an environmental activist, now does it?

Who is Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s not-so-obvious audience she was trying to reach with her fiery environmental tirade at the march? I think she was telling the major donors of the Democratic Party—the military-industrial complex, corporations like Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing and the rest—that she is more than willing to act as a front to keep the public from looking too closely at what’s really going on behind the scenes in Washington DC. AOC is good at getting positive press by looking pretty on camera and saying what the public expects at the right time and place. What she says has no real depth or substance, since none of her actions back her words up. 

AOC’s example of performative politics shows that she is willing to act as the perfect front in order to take interest away from the true polluters and causers of death and destruction on our planet. She’ll make all those young environmental activists in NYC forget that nothing has really changed since she first marched with them. Magicians would say she’s the “smoke and mirrors” of the establishment, a perfect distraction. And by the size of her growing bank account since joining Congress, she has been well rewarded for her work.

This next example of performative politics is very easy to spot, and it’s easy to figure out who the obvious and not-so-obvious audiences are. The United Auto Workers are on strike. President Joe Biden—who didn’t permit the railroad workers to go on strike for safer working conditions in 2022—said he wanted to be the first sitting president to visit a picket line. So Biden spent about 12 minutes for a photo op at one of the picket lines in Detroit. Looking at the photos of some of the strikers, you can tell what the obvious audience thinks about Biden’s performance. Just look at the expression on the guy’s face standing to the far left in this picture!

Tim Black tells us exactly what Biden’s motivations were for making that oh-so-brief visit in this video clip on Twitter:

Does Joe Biden Really Care About Union Workers? #JoeBiden #CornelWest2024 #UAW pic.twitter.com/4s55qW127k

— RealTimBlack (@RealTimBlack) September 29, 2023

The not-so-obvious audience of the CEOs of the Big Three Automakers know that Joe Biden’s many years of not supporting the workers and always being there to help bail out the corporations at the expense of the public purse isn’t going away anytime soon. They understand Biden's trip to a UAW picket line was just the photo op that it so obviously was. The billionaires hope that it will trick enough workers into thinking they're being heard by Washington to stave off the revolution for a while. But does Biden and his campaign staff realize just how shallow this attempt came across? That remains to be seen.

Our last example of performative politics took place recently north of the border. Compared to the first two examples, it was a complete and unmitigated disaster. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government invited a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran to be honored with a standing ovation in the House of Commons… A man who turned out to be a veteran of the 14th division of Hitler’s Waffen-SS (1st Galician) in World War II, a group that was known for its genocide of Poles, Jews, and other ethnic minorities in what eventually became Ukraine after the break up of the Soviet Union. The soldiers of the 1st Galician were responsible for burning 1,000 Polish people alive.  Horrific!

Oops! 

After Canadian Jewish groups demanded an explanation, the prime minster tried to rationalize why his government acted so callously:

Trudeau, meanwhile, pointed to the “deeply embarrassing” event as a reason to “push back against Russian propaganda,” as though the Kremlin somehow smuggled an nonagenarian Nazi collaborator into parliament, then hypnotized the Prime Minister and his colleagues, Manchurian Candidate-style, into celebrating him as a hero. --from Canada's Honoring of Nazi Vet Exposes Ottawa's Longstanding Ukraine Policy

Using your critical thinking skills you’ve sharpened with the first two examples, who are in the obvious audience and the not-so-obvious audience Trudeau hoped to reach with this performance? We can assume that the public wasn't suppose to discover the genocidal history of this particular Ukrainian-Canadian veteran and that this “honor” given by Parliament would promote more Canadian corporations arms sales to Ukraine. Obviously, independent thinkers weren’t fooled and shared the information of the man's identity widely. Whether or not this negative publicity will affect Canadian arms sales to Ukraine remains to be seen.

Trudeau's not-so-obvious audience were the arms manufacturers who want the bloodshed to continue in Ukraine. The CEOS of the Canadian military-industrial complex were probably salivating at the thought of more arms sales. Endless proxy war is great for the NATO war machine, even if it’s not so great for the health and safety of human beings on the whole.

Hopefully you’re getting a handle on what is meant by “performative politics” by studying these recent examples. If you’re still confused why I labeled these three politicians “neoliberals” then go back to the definition for neoliberalism above and re-read the last line: [neoliberalism's]“commitment to the freedom of trade and capital.”

Think about that sentence. There’s a lot of capital to be made in the trading of armaments and munitions. All three of these politicians—AOC, Biden, and Trudeau—are on good terms with the military-industrial complex and are eager to see the trade in arms grow. They may say they support the striking workers, the environment, and veterans, but at the end of the day their actions make more money for the CEOs of the Big Three automakers, Big Oil, and the military-industrial complex.

And remember: actions always speak louder than words. Just ask this guy:

Keep sharpening your critical thinking skills and doing your research into the backgrounds and motivations of everyone who is involved in politics or the “activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.” 

Why? Because it seems politicians enjoy distributing the world's resources into their own pockets and keeping the status quo exactly the way it is while the world burns. Their fat personal bank accounts apparently help them sleep well at night, too. Stop believing the "performances" of politicians and hold them accountable before it's too late.

 

Related Articles and Interesting Links:

The Climate March, Joe Biden, and AOC's Dubious Endorsement https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/19/the-climate-march-joe-biden-and-aocs-dubious-endorsement

Biden Administration Breaks Climate Promise and Approves Willow Project https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/biden-administration-breaks-climate-promise-and-approves-willow-project 

Clusterf*cked: The Cruelty is the Point https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/07/clusterfcked-cruelty-is-point.html

Nazi SS Veteran Receives Standing Ovation in Canadian Parliament https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/09/26/nazi-ss-veteran-receives-standing-ovation-in-canadian-parliament/

Canada's Honoring of Nazi Vet Exposes Ottawas Longstanding Ukraine Policy https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/01/canadas-honoring-of-nazi-vet-exposes-ottawas-longstanding-ukraine-policy/

How Joe Biden and The Democratic Party’s Climate Agenda Increases Environmental Racism More Than It Reduces Emissions https://blackagendareport.com/how-joe-biden-and-democratic-partys-climate-agenda-increases-environmental-racism-more-it-reduces

GOOD NEWS: Climate Lawsuits Against Fossil Fuel Industry Starting to Build Major Momentum https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/good-news-climate-lawsuits-against

Biden’s Picket Line Visit Doesn’t Mean He Is On Our Side
https://www.leftvoice.org/bidens-picket-line-visit-doesnt-mean-he-is-on-our-side/

Canadian parliament’s applause for Nazi war criminal exposes NATO war against Russia  https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/28/xalg-s28.html

In Canada, Denialism Grows Over Residential Schools Ahead of Orange Shirt Day  https://truthout.org/articles/in-canada-denialism-grows-over-residential-schools-ahead-of-orange-shirt-day/

Senator Menendez and co-defendants plead not guilty as Democrats seek to contain fallout from bribery scandal
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/09/28/lwpt-s28.html

William Astore: What Would Real ‘National Defense’ Look Like?
https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/27/william-astore-what-would-real-national-defense-look-like/

People Are Dying For Inches In Ukraine, The "World's Largest Arms Fair"  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/people-are-dying-for-inches-in-ukraine

Caitlin Johnstone: Neocons Love the Ukraine War
https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/caitlin-johnstone-neocons-love-the-ukraine-war/

US House Rejects Cluster-Bomb Ban https://consortiumnews.com/2023/09/28/us-lawmakers-reject-cluster-bomb-ban/

Fog Over Nord Stream https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/fog-over-nord-stream/

Files Expose Syrian ‘Revolution’ As Western Regime Change Operation https://popularresistance.org/files-expose-syrian-revolution-as-western-regime-change-operation/

Patrick Lawrence: The Undiscovered Country https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/patrick-lawrence-the-undiscovered-country/

Suing For a Livable Planet https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/28/suing-for-a-livable-planet/

A Major Win Against Factory Farming In Oregon https://popularresistance.org/a-major-win-against-factory-farming-in-oregon/

Uninvited and Unaccountable: How CBP Policed George Floyd Protests https://theintercept.com/2023/09/21/cbp-george-floyd-protests/

UN Report Urges End to Forced US Prison Labor—a 'Contemporary Form of Slavery' https://www.commondreams.org/news/racism-in-the-criminal-justice-system

Philadelphia Youth React When Charges Are Dropped Against Killer Cop https://popularresistance.org/philadelphia-youth-react-when-charges-are-dropped-against-killer-cop/

Why Our Popular Mass Movements Fail https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/why-our-popular-mass-movements-fail

 

We're Looking For America

Join us as we're looking for America this week. We might even find it if we're lucky.

It's a family reunion of sorts here on The Revolution Continues. My fellow Bernie2016TV teammates and frequent contributors Bern Notice and Eddie Alvarado have each submitted an excellent piece for our enlightenment. Enjoy!

First up, Bern Notice gives us some useful information to help you decide where you might fall on the political spectrum.

original meme by Bern Notice

The Political Spectrum
by Bern Notice

There seems to be confusion on what a progressive is these days. Sometimes it’s due to a how a candidate is portrayed, or taking one individual's quote out of context and applying it to a movement.

I think the best way to truly understand what “progressive” means is to define what the other four ideologies are. This way it gives better context for understanding the important differences. Please note, the political ideologies are not always reflective of a party.

Libertarian: Supports extremely limited government and unfettered capitalism. (Socially: indifferent, Fiscally: right, Government policy: right) Best identified with Ayn Rand.

Conservative: Supports limited but robust government with limited (conservative) change from the original constitution and unfettered capitalism. (Socially: right, Fiscally: right, Government policy: right) Best identified with  Ronald Reagan.

Independent: No commitment to ideology. Independents run with what makes the most practical sense by each individual issue. (Socially: variable by issue, Fiscally: variable by issue, Government policy: variable by issue) Best identified with Ray Bradbury.

Liberal: Support strong government with incremental change, and strong capitalism with limited checks. (Socially: left, Fiscally: left, Government policy: center left) Best identified with Bill Clinton.

and finally…

Progressive: Supports very strong government with aggressive change and limited capitalism strong oversight. (Socially: left, Fiscally: left, Government policy: left) Best Identified with Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In short, the break between liberal and progressive is akin to the break between conservatives and libertarians. Progressives are in line with with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Liberals are in line with Bill Clinton, Barrack Obama and Teddy Kennedy. Essentially it comes down to how much your want the government involved in oversight and how rapidly you want the change to occur.

BIO: Check out Bern Notice's informational articles  like this one at  Seeing Through the B.S.  Currently he's blogging on each of the declared Democratic candidates for the presidency for 2020. Here's a list of the candidates he's covered (very thoroughly) so far:

Bernie Sanders: https://bernnoticepolitics.wordpress.com/2019/03/01/2020-presidential-candidate-profiles-part-2-senator-bernie-sanders/

Kamala Harris: https://bernnoticepolitics.wordpress.com/2019/02/28/2020-presidential-candidate-profiles-part-1-senator-kamala-harris/

Andrew Yang: https://bernnoticepolitics.wordpress.com/2019/03/05/2020-presidential-candidate-profiles-part-3-andrew-yang/

Cory Booker: https://bernnoticepolitics.wordpress.com/2019/03/11/2020-presidential-candidate-profiles-part-4-senator-cory-booker/#like-1619


Another Bernie2016TV colleague is looking for more than just a candidate to back--he's looking for America itself. Eddie's poignant essay touches on the anguish we feel when we can't find what we thought once was there.

Looking for America
by Eddie Alvarado  

It is something we all do from time to time. We ponder about where is that America we were told about when we were young. Many have found that America. Unfortunately, a lot more haven’t. For many, America is the place of opportunity. But it is too often the place only the rich can afford. A place where its people want to work together to build each other up, but it is often the rich and powerful who actively work to keep us broken and difficult to put back together. To the apathetic, awaiting their reality, it’s only the name of a Simon and Garfunkel or Switchfoot song.

We stand in the reality of a public health crisis where many of our loved ones die from opiate overdoses. We’re looking for a place that treats our sick with the respect they deserve, not throwing them in a prison to die because of non-violent charges. We see our climate slowly being turned out of balance by men who literally want to watch the world burn. And where are we? We’re pacing. We’re trying to provide for all in an ever more grueling world. We’re trying to come to the land of opportunity, which continues to be fogged from view, by a demagogue of a president. We’re looking for that shining torch of liberty. We’re looking for America.

We used to be able to gather without the threat of being mowed down by the extreme right whose views are so toxic that any opposition to their abhorrent agenda constitutes a death sentence. We used to rise over injustice when a fellow man was kicked to the ground--we used to pick him up and fight for him. Any criticism of a certain group so invested in kicking down a people wishing to be recognized as a state is now considered anti-Semitic. For merely mentioning this bully's crimes, not the party who did nothing wrong, it is labeled that way. We’re looking for a place where we can rise against lobbyists who work to kick people down. We’re looking for America.

We’re looking for a place that told our parents, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” But the cost of freedom is to breathe toxic air or lead infested waters. The cost of breathing free is to stare down the barrel of a handgun if you’re Black. We’re looking for that place which guaranteed us equal protection under the law, not protection if you can afford it. We’re looking for the place that enforces the Clean Air and Water Act. We’re looking for the place that said if we worked to better ourselves, we’d get the Dream greater than anything. We’re looking for America.    

We’re looking for a place where if you get sick you can see a doctor to treat you and not come away filing bankruptcy. We’re looking for a place where if you can get an education you can begin your career and attain your dream job, not dependent on nepotism, where if you fall on hard times there is an option to ensure you can pick back up where you left off to earn for your family because you paid your taxes. We’re looking for that place that doesn’t look blindly and believe crooks who say we can’t do it. We’re looking for those revolutionaries who said, “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” We’re looking for America.

We’re looking for the reasons for the death of our dead overseas, and we learn  that fighting for regime change is wrong. We’re looking for the people who know that sending our family members to die on foreign soil should be discouraged. We’re looking for the place where we not only care for our veterans in speeches, but we care for our veterans by action. We’re looking for the place where we know not to honor traitors or racists who praised slavery and segregation. We’re looking for the heroes who fought it not only on the battlefield, but in Selma, in Chicago, in Alabama and anywhere in this nation. 

We’re looking for America.

We’re looking for a place that doesn’t reject science because of billionaires hellbent on earning an extra dollar. We’re looking for a place that not only has concern for the unborn but has concern for the people living in real time, a place where we’re helping disenfranchised children born without a dollar to their name. We’re looking for that place that remembers  the people that aren’t seen on TV, the ones who lost their jobs when their jobs were shipped off for cheaper labor. We’re looking for America.

We’re looking for a place while we count the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike hoping there isn’t a dangerous pothole ready to take a person’s life. We’re looking for a place that isn't falling apart because of hubris. We’re looking for a place where we invest in not bombs but roads. We’re looking for a place where we get rid of crime with education and not incarceration, where we can let our children enjoy being kids and not afraid to step out of their house. We’re looking for America.

I’m looking for a place which recognizes that “A nation rises above the fear and fight that haunts these streets.” You’re looking for the place that is ready to see change and not be indoctrinated by the elites which work against them. We’re all  looking for that red, white and blue flag which tells us we’re in America. 

Where is that place? Can we only conjure it up in our minds? Where is America? 

We’re looking for America.

BIO: Eddie is a young activist who works hard for progressive candidates and causes he believes in.  He lives and blogs in New Jersey.

***

Let's keep looking for the real America!

 

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***

From Care2 Petitions:

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