Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, a sign of the president’s strength in uniting his party to have the backing of one of its most liberal members
My point wasn’t to say that they’re one and the same. I just think that any American politician who isn’t actively trying to abolish the Department of Homeland Security and permanently repeal the PATRIOT Act has no business condemning authoritarianism. I think that defending Biden or a Democrat for this reinforces the idea that it is somehow different or indicative of something else when we do it vs when China does it.
It reflects a worldview that the US is neutral/good at its core, one that I don’t share given what I know about US history. It’s barely qualified as a liberal democracy for most of its history/
When book bans happen in the US, western media doesn’t frame it as an inevitable outcome in a country with a long history of right-wing nationalism, unlike when book bans happen in China, where it’s framed as a product of communism/socialism.
Likewise, the US prison population is framed as a mistake, an error, something that “shouldn’t happen” in a “free country”, when it’s literally a legacy of Jim Crow laws (which themselves get framed in US history/media as a regrettable period, and not something that is inherently a product of the United States’ ruling social and political class).
Lastly, the US state of Florida is already practically a single-party regime under Desantis. He’s actively trying to purge the Universities down there, which is something straight out of 1930s Germany.
