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.
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:
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
