STERILE MORAL POSTURING

The Grammy Music Awards revealed all that is wrong with liberal politics.

IF YOU WANTED TO GET A GLIMPSE into how American liberals still don't get  Donald Trump you could have done no better than watch the Grammy Music Awards.

Although the Grammy's have often been sprinkled with various political outbursts, this was by far the most politically charged Grammy's on record. It was as if the liberal American music industry, after a year of Trump, had channeled all its political anger and frustration into one show. Sometimes it felt like the music was just the soundtrack to the anti-Trump political 'manifesto'  that was laid out over the course of the three hour show.

Speeches, sketches and performances were frequently politically charged. 

Unfortunately Bono and U2 turned up to perform on a boat in front of the Statue of Liberty. Bono, recently exposed by the Panama Papers of hiding much of his considerable wealth in tax havens, made a mercifully brief statement on behalf all parts of the world  insulted by Trump - the kind of statement he never made when his old mates George Bush and Tony Blair were in power.

Much better was Camilla Cabello who gave a heartfelt defence of all American immigrants, referring to her own Mexican and Cuban heritage.

Kesha sang “Praying,” a song of anger and self-empowerment. It has been reported it was directed at producer Dr. Luke, who Kesha has accused of sexual molestation. Kesha was introduced by a statement from Janelle Monáe, who told the audience that the time for sexual harassment and sexual coercion was over.

So far, so OK. Sort of. But it was all rather spoilt by the sketch in which artists tried to read excerpts from Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff's tell-all expose about life in the White House of Donald Trump. Unfortunately it ended with an appearance by Hillary Clinton. It was her appearance that attracted much of the later news coverage.

While artist after artist spoke out against oppression, against sexual violence and for social justice, the message was sorely compromised by Hillary Clinton showing up on the show.

While she still pretends to be a politician of the people, her career is marked by a devotion and loyalty to the Washington establishment. She was corporate America's choice for president.

So while the Grammy's spoke out against sexual violence and harassment, the message was undermined by the appearance of a woman who was once such a close friend of Harvey Weinstein that he donated $14 million to her presidential campaign. This was the same woman, who as a director of Walmart, opposed its female workers being paid the same hourly rate as their male colleagues doing similar work.

And she was also the woman who, as Secretary of State, waged imperialist war that killed and maimed thousands of innocent Arab and Muslim people.

This is the same woman who still doesn't recognise, and probably never will, that it was she and the Democratic National Committee which she controlled, that handed the presidency to Trump. In her book What Happened? she blames Bernie Sanders for damaging her presidential campaign because he contested the primaries "to the bitter end'.

The appearance of Hillary Clinton, and the implied support for the corporate wing of the Democratic Party that this represented, exposed the bankruptcy of liberal politics.

The kind of liberalism on display at the Grammy's speaks out against oppression but actively opposes the radical change that is required to end such oppression . It is a politics that would leave the political and economic system untouched, even though that very political and economic system leaves millions of Americans impoverished. It is this utterly discredited liberalism that denied working class America the president that they really wanted - Bernie Sanders.

All we saw on display at the Grammy Music Awards was sterile moral posturing.