It occurred to me that whole idea of the Democrats as the lesser evil is starting to look a bit frayed around the edges and shabby.

Back when Biden won in 2020 liberals celebrated, we were sermonized on how the adults were back in charge, America had dodged a dark fascist moment, democracy had triumphed, etc.

Sure didn’t turn out that way and it’s pertinent to explore why that is.

A lot of the lesser evil cachet has been due to a one Donald Trump. When Trump became president, Democrats predicted the worst. “Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy,” David Remnick wrote in the New Yorker the day after the election. Trump, Remnick said, was an authoritarian who disdained civil liberties and whose election was “surely the way fascism can begin.”

Democrats used this narrative to demonize tens of millions of voters, to justify their censorship efforts, and to weaponize the justice system against their political enemies. The Democrats, with the full backing of the deep state and corporate media, wielded Russia-gate as a cudgel to attack and hobble Trump during his entire presidency, even as they shrieked hysterically about fascism. Meanwhile, the Democratic party and the Biden administration have become precisely what liberals said Trump would be.

Talk about gaslighting.

Then there’s the ongoing evil of US foreign policy that has been thrust into everyone’s face with the Biden Administration’s facilitation and cover up for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The White House faces a dilemma. It has the power to stop the death and destruction in Gaza in its tracks, at any time of its choosing. But it chooses not to. The US is determined to back its proxy to the hilt, giving Israel license to wreck the tiny coastal enclave, seemingly whatever the cost in Palestinian lives.

But the optics are disastrous and it’s readily apparent that that is the main concern of the White House.

In an article titled “Biden admin officials see proof their strategy is working in hostage deal,” Politico describes how a supposed ceasefire to exchange hostages is being viewed with alarm. According to Politico’s sources there has been some resistance to the pause in fighting within the administration due to fears that it will allow journalists into Gaza to report on the devastation Israel has inflicted upon the enclave. “And there was some concern in the administration about an unintended consequence of the pause: that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel,” Politico reports.

In other words, the White House is worried that a brief pause in the Israeli massacre of civilians in Gaza will allow journalists to report the truth about the Israeli slaughter of civilians in Gaza, because it will puncture the veil of US and Israeli propaganda. They are worried that the public will become more aware of facts and truth.

And aware of the evil.

In The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart. . . .”

What’s become clear in our neoliberal milieu is that the line between liberals and conservatives is imaginary. The unmistakable reality is that in the US conservatives and liberals only quibble on minor issues while they pursue the same agenda of zealously protecting elite interests.

The truth is that there can never be a lesser evil when they both are.

Update: Hoisted from the comments at Naked Capitalism. “Idea for a T-shirt–My country voted Democrat in 2020 and all I got was this lousy genocide.“