War Machine 1, Progressives 0
The Progressive Caucus' Ukraine letter debacle is their biggest embarrassment yet
Almost one year ago to the day, the Congressional Progressive Caucus broke their promise to hold up a bipartisan infrastructure bill until the more ambitious Build Back Better package secured the votes in the Senate necessary to pass alongside it. By capitulating to the party’s centrist establishment in exactly the manner they assured us they wouldn’t, they humiliated themselves and their base in unforgivable fashion.
Still, though, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Mark Pocan, “the Squad,” and other prominent CPC members continue to chirp - and of course Tweet - about their supposed commitment to progressive policy goals like Medicare For All, a Green New Deal, a $15 minimum wage, et al.
Their advocacy for these domestic reforms is surely as feeble as their recent letter to the Biden White House asking the President to reconsider his hawkish strategy of flooding Ukraine with American weapons even as the war seems increasingly likely to go global. But with AOC having recently been confronted by anti-war protestors at a recent town hall and the Republican Party threatening to outflank them on this issue and seize the peacenik mantle for themselves, 30 members of the CPC thought it prudent to at least project their theoretical support for deescalation as an alternative to nuclear armageddon.
But however toothless, their proposal that the United States seek a peaceful end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict attracted the ire of both party leadership and mainstream media. Nancy Pelosi insisted that money and weapons would flow from the United States to Ukraine “until victory is won.” Joe Scarborough accused the letter’s signatories of aiding and abetting both the Kremlin and the GOP. Even Bernie Sanders voiced his disagreement when asked about it.
And so, less than 24 hours after releasing their letter, the CPC withdrew it. Jayapal blamed its publication on “staff” before “vetting” was complete, and emphasized her party’s unanimous support for weapon shipments to Ukraine in a clear attempt to differentiate Democrats’ approach from certain Republicans who’ve opposed continuous war funding.
The spinelessness and shamelessness on display from Jayapal and her caucus isn’t particularly interesting or surprising at this point. Jayapal’s tenure as Caucus Chair has been defined by precisely this kind of cowardice. What this latest embarrassment does demonstrate, however, is how when it comes to militarism and war, even the most superficial dissent is verboten.
Liberals, progressives, even “socialists,” are allowed to virtue signal their indignation at for-profit health insurance companies, rapacious oil tycoons, and Wall Street crooks. Bernie gets to rant about the greed of the one percent while pacing the streets of his Burlington neighborhood in his drab winter jacket. AOC gets to appear with Chris Smalls at an Amazon Labor Union Rally (only after being shamed for initially ignoring him, but that’s beside the point for now). Even Rashida Tlaib’s critiques of Israeli apartheid, while not appreciated, are tolerated by the political and media establishments. But the mere suggestion - polite and benign as it was - that diplomacy be pursued in Ukraine, was so swiftly and forcefully rebuked that it had to be retracted after just one day.
The military industrial complex is the sacred cow of the ruling class, and so the war machine’s virtue cannot be questioned - not by Bernie, Jayapal, AOC, or anybody else. And given how strictly such conformity is enforced, it’s beyond ludicrous to expect the same weaklings who caved to Joe Manchin on pre-K and hearing aids would ever mount a serious challenge to US imperialism and unipolarity.
This crop of “progressives” lacks the fortitude to fight even the most relatively inconsequential battles. The “powers that be” - a cryptic and admittedly clichéd stand-in phrase for capital - would , if pressed, provide fake teeth to the elderly at no out-of-pocket cost. But House progressives don’t have what it takes to extract even this most modest concession from neoliberal hegemony. It was therefore completely unserious for us not to see this latest debasement coming a mile away, as soon as news of this letter broke.
But that they couldn’t even last a full 24 hours before degrading themselves and whatever “progressive movement” they represent says that as the Russia-Ukraine war rages on, we won’t see even the most anemic effort by any “left wing” leaders to put an end to the violence before World War 3 formally begins. Opposition to such suicidal escalation, even in the form of empty rhetoric from worthless coward politicians in the CPC, will not be allowed. For those keeping score, it’s War Machine 1, Progressives - as usual - zero.