“The Infernal Triangle”: Authoritarian Republicans, Incompetent Media, Feckless Democrats

By KAY MATTHEWS

In 1968 Columbia University students, including my friend Mark Rudd, took over Hamilton Hall to protest the college’s membership in the Institute for Defense Analyses that supported the Vietnam War. The students were also protesting the proposed building of a gymnasium in Harlem, opposed by the community and black students at the university. In 1969 I marched in the Washington D.C. “Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam” along with 500,000 other protestors. Both of these political actions took place during the presidency of Republican Richard Nixon and his gang of neo-cons.

Fifty-five years later, students are camped out on the Columbia University campus demanding that it divest from military support of Israel, currently engaged in a genocidal assault of Gaza and the West Bank. Students on other campuses are making similar demands and marching through the streets of every city in the U.S. in solidarity for Palestine. All these political actions are taking place during the presidency of Democrat Joe Biden and his gang of neo-cons.

Rick Perlstein, author of three bestselling books on Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan, and a columnist for the American Prospect recently wrote: “These weekly chronicles of mine are intended to explain the “Infernal Triangle” that structures America’s democratic decline. The three sides: authoritarian Republicans, incompetent media, feckless Democrats.” This pretty much describes why not much has changed from 1968 to 2024.

There’s been plenty of attention given to what happened during authoritarian Trump’s administration. Let’s take a look at what’s happening during this feckless Democratic administration covered by an incompetent media:

• The Biden administration has funded Israel’s genocide in Gaza to the tune of billions of dollars. Joe Biden calls himself a Zionist and has refused to call for a permanent ceasefire.

• The Biden administration vetoed the UN Security Council’s resolution to recognize a Palestinian State as a member with full voting rights in the General Assembly even as Biden continues to say he supports a two-state solution. “It remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward statehood for the Palestinian people is through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority with the support of the United States and other partners,” said Robert Wood, the U.S. deputy ambassador. The U.S. has continually  derailed “direct negotiations” between Israel and the PA on anything substantive and has continually supported Israel’s denial of a two-state solution through its acquisition of lands in the West Bank, the erection of the walls dividing the West Bank and Israel, and now the genocide in Gaza to kill or eject the 1.3 million Gazans and open the way for Israeli settlement.

• The Biden administration has funded the proxy war in Ukraine that’s killing thousands of soldiers and civilians after the U.S. supported a coup in 2014 to oust the president who advocated for neutrality, not NATO membership, which initiated the Russian invasion.

• Yesterday the House of Representatives voted to send $95.3 billion of military aid to Israel and Ukraine. The bill also includes an amendment to require the sale of Chinese owned TikTok and ban it from the US if China fails to do so. Without Democratic votes the funding bills wouldn’t have passed: The vote was 311 to 112 in favor of the aid to Ukraine, with a majority of Republicans — 112 — voting against it. The House approved assistance to Israel 366 to 58. Only 37 Dems voted against it. All three New Mexico representatives voted for it.

• The Biden administration agreed to a previous “compromise” with Republicans to shut down the southern border to get military funding bill for Ukraine in January.  The deal fell apart.

• The Senate and House are voting on a bill to allow warrantless surveillance of American citizens in collaboration with the tech industry. The House passed the reauthorization and expansion of Section 702 of FISA and there’s another bill in the Senate that would allow the attorney general or director of national intelligence to force electronic communication service providers to “immediately provide… all information, facilities, or assistance” the government deems necessary.”

• Free speech is under assault as college students and faculty who speak out in support of Palestine are doxed, fired, suspended, and arrested. The students camped at Columbia University were arrested by the New York City Police Department under the direction of the university president, who in disgraceful testimony before the House of Representatives declared that the chant “From the River to the Sea” is antisemitic. That same House just issued a resolution condemning those words as antisemitic. 

• The University of Southern California canceled the planned graduation speech by valedictorian Asna Tabassum—a Muslim woman who had spoken out for Palestine.

• The New York Times imposes restrictions on its journalists on the use of words in the Israeli/Palestine conflict such as: genocide, massacre, occupied territory, refugee camps, and even Palestine.

• The pro-Israeli lobby group, AIPAC, is spending billions of dollars to try to unseat Progressive Caucus Democrats by supporting pro-Zionist primary challenges. Only a minority of Dems in the House signed onto Resolution 786 calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, introduced by Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib months ago. The Democratic National Committee has never advocated for or protected the Caucus.

As professor As’ad AbuKhalil, Lebanse-American Professor of Political Science at California State University Stanislaus  said on the Useful Idiots podcast the other day, the lies, hypocrisies, and assaults on freedom that have a long history in this country that promotes itself as the world’s greatest democracy are now on full display for the world to see.