This week is my first post in a while because I have been working to finish my TEFL course. Since I am way ahead of schedule, I was able to a write a post for this week, as well as two posts next week and a post that will sum up the year, as well as make predictions about the upcoming presidential election in 2024.
This week, I will discuss a point raised in the recent Biden-Xi meeting in California. In this meeting, Xi Jinping again noted that Taiwan is a core concern of China, and Biden and his cronies sputtered the tired line that the status quo in the Taiwan Strait must be maintained. The illiberal liberal class is fired up over Taiwan and assures us that we must send them more weapons and if China invades, we should send troops there. However, much to the chagrin of the warmongers in Washington and elsewhere in the West, Taiwan is already a part of China, and the official position of their governments is that it is. Taiwan is not worth stepping into a war for, especially since such a war will total the US and its allies, who will inevitably be dragged in.
Secondly, I will discuss the recent decision by the Florida Democrats to cancel the state primary. For all the talk of Trump being a dictator in waiting, and the Democratic party elite is everything they claim to hate and resist. If you are cheering for Biden, you are not cheering for the opposite of Trump, you are supporting him in a different form. The Democratic party, like the rest of the US oligarchy, will happily subvert the democratic process to ensure their handpicked candidate, Biden, is the head of the party. Those in the corporate media who scream about Trump’s authoritarianism are projecting. That is one the reasons they hate Trump so much. He is what they hate in themselves.
From Week Ending November 19th– Strategic Inanity
On November 15th, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in San Franscico for a four-hour discussion that included talk on issues like climate change, economic relations, and Taiwan. On Taiwan, the US government, just like the rest of the West, told Xi “that the United States opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side, that we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, and that the world has an interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”[i] This is false. The US has no interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. The insistence that there is an agreed upon status quo is pure fantasy.
Following this meeting, a slew of articles affirming the notion that Taiwan must be defended and that China must cease its desire to reunify with Taiwan were published. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry “The U.S. side should take real actions to honor its commitment of not supporting “Taiwan independence”, stop arming Taiwan, and support China’s peaceful reunification. China will realize reunification, and this is unstoppable.”[ii] China will not stop attempting to reunify with Taiwan. Contrary to those in Washington, like Richard Hass and David Sacks at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), switching from a policy of strategic ambiguity to strategic clarity is not the ideal solution, at least, if the goal of the US is truly, as Biden said, to maintain peace and stability in the region.
Whether the goons in Washington like it or not, Taiwan is a part of China. The government in Taiwan may not like it either, as do many citizens of Taiwan, but there is a reason that President Tsai Ing-wen, despite her moving closer to the US, has not declared independence. Ing-wen said in an interview with the BBC in 2020 that “We don’t have a need to declare ourselves an independent state,”[iii] Actually, to be an independent state, you do need to make such a declaration. The prime example of this is the US Declaration of Independence, which was the US territories formally declaring their independence from Great Britain. Ing-wen goes on to say that “We are an independent country already and we call ourselves the Republic of China (Taiwan).”[iv] What a ridiculous and petulant position. It is not being slavishly hooked on Chinese propaganda to see the contradiction in US, Western, and Taiwanese policy on its status.
While the White House continues to prattle on about the status quo and how there shall be no unilateral changes to it from either side, the State Department is busily funneling arms into Taiwan. In the NDAA passed by Congress earlier this year, millions of dollars have been allocated to arms sales to Taiwan, as well as commitments to conduct joint military exercises. The Select Committee in the US Congress focusing on China, staffed by Rep. Mike Rogers and other warmongers, praised the inclusion of arms for Taiwan in the NDAA. Instead of fighting for America, these officials are all fired up about defending a country on the other side of the globe. In their minds, they are fighting “our war”, as Max Boot would say.
There are few who deviate from the Western narrative on Taiwan and China. In an op-ed by Senator Rand Paul in which he argues that strategic clarity is a bad idea, though he is in favor of strategic ambiguity as in his mind, it is a more effective deterrence strategy for the US.[v] Thus, he is not contesting the US establishment’s desire to defend Taiwan with military force, he is arguing over how this desire should be enacted. Apart from him and some Marxist sites and publications, there is little debate on US-Taiwan policy and its myriad contradictions. A few have noted these contradictions, but not because they think One China policy should be followed, but because they think that the US should declare a policy of strategic clarity. For example, Noah Rothman, a senior writer for The National Review, wrote in an article published in commentary magazine entitled “Strategic Incomprehensibility”, that what the White House should have done on the occasions that Biden blurted out that yes, the US would send troops to defend Taiwan, is affirm his statements and their commitment to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion.[vi] What Paul and Rothman miss is that the US does not intend to abide by the promise of strategic ambiguity anyways. China must know this, as Xi Jinping’s goal of reunifying with Taiwan is emphasized as a core concern for China. The US appears dismissive and unserious when it claims to acknowledge China’s claim over Taiwan out of one side of its mouth, and out the other confirms that it will send arms and conduct military training and drills to Taiwan. As Hugh White argued in his Quarterly essay published in 2022, the US is sleepwalking itself into a war that it cannot possibly win.[vii]
The reality is that US officials do not see Taiwan as a country, nor do they care for its democracy or citizenry. Their sole concern is the control of semiconductors, and that is why the US would rather destroy the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) than let it fall under the control of China. This was proposed in a paper published in the US Army War College Quarterly by Jared M. McKinney and Peter Harris.[viii] In this paper, McKinney and Harris argue that Taiwan should adopt a ‘broken nest’ strategy to deter China. This strategy starts with the scorched earth destruction of Taiwanese semi-conductor infrastructure, making it unattractive to China. Such ideas are certainly not limited to McKinney and Harris. Part of the war games being carried out deep in the bowels of the US permanent regime must be some sort of scorched earth deterrent, even if it’s a last resort exit strategy.
Taiwanese democracy and its people are not the primary concern of US officials. The insistence that Taiwan must be defended, while at the same time affirming One China policy in front of Xi Jinping or the Chinese Foreign Ministry, is foolish and the US is dangerously close to stumbling into a war it can’t possibly win. China may not win either, but is it worth it? US policy towards Taiwan is not strategic incomprehensibility, as Rothman argued, it is strategic inanity. No matter who wins the US presidential election next year, strategic inanity is likely to continue and with it, the risk of all-out war between two great powers, one fading and crumbling and the other strained and desperate to maintain legitimacy.
The Anointed One
The Republican party in Florida has decided to only put Trump forward as a nominee for the Republican party primary ballot for the 2024 presidential election. This has sparked the outrage of the illiberal liberal class from outlets like Politico and The New York Times to public figures like Liz Cheney and Hillary Clinton. Trump is accused of being a dictator. The GOP is being lambasted as an enabler of Trump’s looming dictatorship. One such headline from The Hill reads: “Long-shot candidates blast Florida Republicans for absence on primary ballot”, and it goes over the criticisms from Trump’s challengers.[ix] This move by the Florida Republican party is seen as another step in Trump’s despotic takeover of America.
It seems the doomsayers were right all along, Trump’s America is an authoritarian nightmare come true, or, it would be, if it were the Florida Republican party, not the Florida Democratic party who had cancelled their primaries. As reported by Politico, Dean Phillips, who is challenging Biden for the Democratic party nomination, is not likely to be on the state ballot for the Democratic primaries.[x] He is threatening to sue the state party unless he is on the primary ballot, and he said that his removal from the ballot is the sort of behavior one expects in countries like Iran, and that “The intentional disenfranchisement of voters runs counter to everything for which our Democratic Party and country stand. Our mission as Democrats is to defeat authoritarians, not become them.”[xi] Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic party, responded to Phillips by saying: “We are dismayed by Dean Phillps’ conspiratorial and inappropriate comments comparing the state of Florida to the Iranian regime as part of his knee-jerk reaction to long-established procedures,”[xii] The long-established procedures that Fried is referring to are anti-democratic, as the goal is to bar and blackball any who are challenge the anointed leader of the party. For 2024 that is Biden.
That this is authoritarian is not the only issue. Biden is evidently not the best candidate to run against Trump next year. Earlier this year, Senator Blaise Ingoglia of Florida proposed a bill that would effectively end the Democratic party in the state.[xiii] The bill was titled the “Ultimate Cancel Act”, and though the bill does not explicitly mention the Democratic party, it’s purpose is to “immediately cancel the filings of a political party, to include its registration and approved status as a political party, if the party’s platform has previously advocated for, or been in support of, slavery or involuntary servitude.”[xiv] If passed, this would end the Democratic party, who in early American history advocated and fought to uphold slavery and consistently favored Jim Crow laws. In response to this proposed bill, Fried said “Shame on the radical Republican party for initiating some type of a piece of legislation of this magnitude,” and “This is what a dictator does. This is what a fascist does.”[xv] So, in response to an overtly authoritarian move by the GOP, Fried did not hesitate to decry them for being fascistic, however, when her own party, under her leadership, moves to bar Biden’s challengers like Phillips and Marianne Williamson from appearing on the 2024 primary ballot, it is them following the party process and is not at all comparative to Trump and the Republican party. When their opposition does the same, it is fascism, and when they do it, it is intended to stop fascism.
How long will Democratic voters, in Florida and elsewhere, put up with a party elite that is everything they claim to hate the GOP for. The Democratic party elite is a part of the one-party duopoly that runs the US and the global economy. They are the gatekeepers of the US oligarchy. Fried declared when she was elected to lead the Florida Democrats that she would fight to end the reign of Governor Ron DeSantis, and she was even arrested during a protest of his six-week abortion ban. Fried, like other Democrats, is more concerned with the aesthetic of radicalism and democracy.[xvi] When she and her cronies in the Democratic party elite block Biden’s challengers from primary ballots, she dismisses the protests of Phillips and his campaign as “unbecoming”.
This move by the Florida Democrats, as well as Biden demanding that the first primary be held in South Carolina, not New Hampshire, though the New Hampshire Secretary of State, Dave Scanlan, scheduled the state primary for next January in defiance of the White House, perfectly captures America’s shift from liberal democracy to inverted totalitarianism, where politics is not politics, it is politics without politics, or junk politics, as Benjamin DeMott argues.[xvii]
Democratic party voters and delegates will have a handpicked candidate, Biden, to elect. Biden’s chief argument for his re-election is that he is saving democracy from the abysmal Trump. If you vote against Biden you are voting against democracy, and if you vote for a third party you are voting against democracy. What the Florida Democrats have done is prove that they are the fascists they claim to be resisting. Anything they say about Trump’s authoritarianism rings hollow. Until voters wake up and realize that the Democratic party engages in the same despotism and subversion of the democratic process that the Republican party does, nothing will change at all, and the US will slip further into totalitarianism.
[i] The White House. “Readout of President Joe Biden’s Meeting with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China.” The White House, 16 Nov. 2023, http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/11/15/readout-of-president-joe-bidens-meeting-with-president-xi-jinping-of-the-peoples-republic-of-china-2/. Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.
[ii] Chinese Foreign Ministry. “President Xi Jinping Meets with U.S. President Joe Biden in Bali.” Www.mfa.gov.cn, 2023, http://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202211/t20221114_10974686.html. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
[iii] Sudworth, John. “China Needs to Show Taiwan Respect, Says President.” BBC News, 14 Jan. 2020, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51104246.
[iv] Sudworth. “China Needs to Show Taiwan Respect, Says President.”
[v] Paul, Rand. “Strategic Clarity on Taiwan Would Be Disastrous.” The American Conservative, 3 Oct. 2022, http://www.theamericanconservative.com/strategic-clarity-on-taiwan-would-be-disastrous/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
[vi] Rothman, Noah. “Strategic Incomprehensibility.” Commentary Magazine, 22 Oct. 2021, http://www.commentary.org/noah-rothman/strategic-incomprehensibility/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
[vii] White, Hugh. Sleepwalk to War: Australia’s Unthinking Alliance with America. Collingwood, Victoria, Black Inc., An Imprint Of Schwartz Books Pty Ltd, June 2022.
[viii] Mckinney, Jared, and Peter Harris. “Broken Nest: Deterring China from Invading Taiwan Broken Nest: Deterring China from Invading Taiwan.” The US Army War College Quarterly, vol. 51, 2021, pp. 11–17, press.armywarcollege.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3089&context=parameters.
[ix] Timotija, Filip. “Long-Shot Candidates Blast Florida Democrats for Absence on Primary Ballot.” The Hill, 2 Dec. 2023, thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4338390-democratic-long-shots-blast-florida-democrats-for-their-absence-on-primary-ballot/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023. (In my reference, I am making an extended joke that it is Trump and the Republican party being critiqued here; however, the actual article is referring to the Democratic party and Dean Phillips)
[x] Otterbein, Holly, and Gary Fineout. “Florida Democrats Plan to Cancel Presidential Primary, Enraging Dean Phillips’ Campaign.” POLITICO, 30 nov. 2023, http://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/30/florida-democrats-dean-phillips-election-00129403. Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.
[xi] Otterbein and Fineout. “Florida Democrats Plan to Cancel Presidential Primary, Enraging Dean Phillips’ Campaign.”
[xii] Otterbein and Fineout. “Florida Democrats Plan to Cancel Presidential Primary, Enraging Dean Phillips’ Campaign.”
[xiii] Walker, Chris. “Critics Decry “Fascist” GOP Bill That Would Dismantle Democratic Party in Florida.” Truthout, 1 Mar. 2023, truthout.org/articles/critics-decry-fascist-gop-bill-that-would-dismantle-florida-democratic-party/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
[xiv] Walker. “Critics Decry “Fascist” GOP Bill That Would Dismantle Democratic Party in Florida.”
[xv] Walker. “Critics Decry “Fascist” GOP Bill That Would Dismantle Democratic Party in Florida.”
[xvi] Scouten, Ted. “Florida Democratic Chair Nikki Fried, Sen. Lauren Book Arrested during Abortion Bill Protest.” CBS News, 4 Apr. 2023, http://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/florida-democratic-chair-nikki-fried-sen-lauren-book-arrested-during-abortion-bill-protest/. Accessed 20 July 2023.
[xvii] Kashinsky, Lisa. “New Hampshire Sets Jan. 23 Primary, Putting Dems out of Compliance.” POLITICO, 15 Nov. 2023, http://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/15/nh-primary-date-00127367. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
References
Chinese Foreign Ministry. “President Xi Jinping Meets with U.S. President Joe Biden in Bali.” Www.mfa.gov.cn, 2023, http://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202211/t20221114_10974686.html. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
Kashinsky, Lisa. “New Hampshire Sets Jan. 23 Primary, Putting Dems out of Compliance.” POLITICO, 15 Nov. 2023, http://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/15/nh-primary-date-00127367. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
Mckinney, Jared, and Peter Harris. “Broken Nest: Deterring China from Invading Taiwan Broken Nest: Deterring China from Invading Taiwan.” The US Army War College Quarterly, vol. 51, 2021, pp. 11–17, press.armywarcollege.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3089&context=parameters.
Otterbein, Holly, and Gary Fineout. “Florida Democrats Plan to Cancel Presidential Primary, Enraging Dean Phillips’ Campaign.” POLITICO, 30 nov. 2023, http://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/30/florida-democrats-dean-phillips-election-00129403. Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.
Paul, Rand. “Strategic Clarity on Taiwan Would Be Disastrous.” The American Conservative, 3 Oct. 2022, http://www.theamericanconservative.com/strategic-clarity-on-taiwan-would-be-disastrous/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
Rothman, Noah. “Strategic Incomprehensibility.” Commentary Magazine, 22 Oct. 2021, http://www.commentary.org/noah-rothman/strategic-incomprehensibility/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
Scouten, Ted. “Florida Democratic Chair Nikki Fried, Sen. Lauren Book Arrested during Abortion Bill Protest.” CBS News, 4 Apr. 2023, http://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/florida-democratic-chair-nikki-fried-sen-lauren-book-arrested-during-abortion-bill-protest/. Accessed 20 July 2023.
Sudworth, John. “China Needs to Show Taiwan Respect, Says President.” BBC News, 14 Jan. 2020, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51104246.
The White House. “Readout of President Joe Biden’s Meeting with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China.” The White House, 16 Nov. 2023, http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/11/15/readout-of-president-joe-bidens-meeting-with-president-xi-jinping-of-the-peoples-republic-of-china-2/. Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.
Timotija, Filip. “Long-Shot Candidates Blast Florida Democrats for Absence on Primary Ballot.” The Hill, 2 Dec. 2023, thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4338390-democratic-long-shots-blast-florida-democrats-for-their-absence-on-primary-ballot/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
Walker, Chris. “Critics Decry “Fascist” GOP Bill That Would Dismantle Democratic Party in Florida.” Truthout, 1 Mar. 2023, truthout.org/articles/critics-decry-fascist-gop-bill-that-would-dismantle-florida-democratic-party/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.
White, Hugh. Sleepwalk to War: Australia’s Unthinking Alliance with America. Collingwood, Victoria, Black Inc., An Imprint Of Schwartz Books Pty Ltd, June 2022.
Not Without Incident: Questioning Big Brother's Platitudes 
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