TRUMPISM-The orange beast runs free and dreams of revenge. Two seemingly independent news stories have a dark and close connection with each other, and you will not see wise discussions in "Meet the Media" or "Washington Weekly."
The first story is that Donald Trump, the fascist ogre, continues to escape justice and threaten the country even after being impeached twice during the white supremacist presidency, including:
Mass pandemic murder of hundreds of thousands of Americans
Deprivation of basic environmental and social protection
Stealing migrant children from their parents
Deploy border paramilitary forces to suppress social justice and anti-racist protests in American cities.
Repeatedly embrace fascist white power mobs and openly support right-wing political violence
Repeated use of eliminationist and demonized speech against political opponents and racialized others
A multi-pronged campaign aimed at subverting and canceling the presidential election
Inciting and planning a large-scale personal attack on the nation’s capital to prevent Joe Biden’s 2020 congressional certification
More terrifying considerations (see Chapter 3 of my next book to try to list and classify Trump’s crimes as president).
The New Confederate Beast continues to hold Orwellian hatred rally and impose its will on the Republican Party. It is preparing to return to the most powerful office in the world. At first, he was reluctant to run again because he was afraid of being labeled a loser twice. Now he will almost certainly return to the ring in 2024. Due to the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, Democrat Joe Biden is eager to announce his candidacy. Declining popularity and Republican efforts to suppress and (or worse) cancel Democratic votes in controversial states will further guarantee its success. A poll released by Emerson College last week showed that Trump defeated Biden by 45% to 43% in a hypothetical game. Biden's approval rating has dropped to a sad 38%. As a senior political sociologist told me, “The rule that the economic downturn damages support does not apply to Trump and his cult. Biden, yes. He has never received much support from his base. Besides, this is a country full of hateful, fashionable, and compassionate idiots."
Organizers of the congressional riots planned the January 6 fascist coup attempt in dozens of meetings with Trump's White House staff and Trump sent members of Congress. The meeting included the Oval Office's "bundle pardon" promise. so what? who cares? The "in power" Democrats have few signs that they will punish Trump for his crimes. The House of Representatives committee on January 6 was a paper tiger by all indications. Leading Trump coup planner and global fascist strategist Steven "The Saints Camp" Bannon blatantly defied his subpoena power, boldly "Weimar Joe" Biden's meek Attorney General Merrick "no guts" Garland may one day Will consider accusing him of criminal contempt. Although a federal judge sentenced heroic environmental activists who tried to protect water resources and save humans from the extinction of fossil fuel ecology to eight years in prison on felony charges of “terrorism,” the “fascist traitor” (Jemi Raskin’s accuracy of the Congressional rioters) Description) rushed into the national representative office to overthrow the U.S. election and install the vicious and brutal Trump off the car as a dictator. Look for the ridiculous clown Rudy "Four Seasons" Giuliani as a substitute to provide cover for Trump's latest "exemption".
If it can regain power, the Trump administration will come back and resolve to viciously punish those who it believes has wronged (opposed) it. Hear the following observations by former Trump campaign manager Brad Pascal, who reported to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa after talking to his former boss in July last year: "[It] has a The army. Trump’s army. [It] wants it back...I don’t think [it] thinks it’s making a comeback. [It] sees it as revenge." By 2025, it’s shocking. With its right-wing federal court system, dozens of neo-fascist red state governments, and an armed network composed of white power terrorists, with complete control of Congress, Malignant One will have considerable power to execute its will for revenge and narcissism.
If Trump is cancelled by the Republican Party and the Republican Party chooses a more family-friendly face of fascism—people like Greg Yankin, then it may not even matter. For many years, the main right-wing party in this country has been moving towards white nationalism and eliminationism, basically fascism. This transformation of Trumpism has vitality beyond Trump himself. The Trump era opened the door to the normalization and mainstreaming of harmful neo-fascist sentiments and behaviors that were previously considered to be outside of acceptable presidential norms. Trumpism-Fascism may become a more deadly virus, for people like Youngkin who are less toxic and virulent, because it moves forward with a more family-friendly face.
Eliminate B4 in the service of the bourgeoisie: below and beyond Manchinema
The second story is the destruction of the right-wing (so-called "moderate") Democrats on the bourgeois "Rebuild Better" Bill (B4). As the Social Democrat Ben Beckett wrote in Jacobin (appropriately) in Vienna, Austria:
To everyone’s chagrin, negotiations among Democrats on the “Rebuild Better Act” (Joe Biden’s iconic social spending bill) have been delayed. Although we don’t know what the final bill will contain, the media has repeatedly reported that progressive proposals have been cut one after another. This is a seemingly futile effort to appease conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin in West Virginia. And Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona...It doesn't have to be like this. The bill was originally a $6 trillion social expenditure proposal by Bernie Sanders, which he called "the most important piece of legislation for working families since the 1930s." A few days later, the Democrats announced that they would spend no more than $3.5 trillion, but progressives and the working class still like a lot: community colleges that are free of tuition; expand medical insurance to cover dental, hearing and vision care; reduce medical insurance eligibility to 60 years old; paid family leave for new parents; and childcare allowance.
Now, almost all of these have been excluded, and spending has fallen to $1.75 trillion. It is almost certain that any new Biden plan will be minimal, temporary, economically surveyed, inexplicable, and even more difficult to obtain—and will still lag far behind all other highly developed countries. Because they had to appease the two conservative senators, the Democrats missed a critical opportunity to develop a highly visible and popular plan to build deep-rooted voter loyalty. More importantly, millions of people have lost the relief that Biden desperately needed during his campaign.
Okay, yes, but please wait a moment. "Make everyone feel chagrin?" Not to chagrin capital, it does not want to expand the social safety net or any other victory, no matter how small, with progressive tax-supported humanitarian public policies. Don't let the republican chagrin, they hate "socialism" (they label any plan that might help the poor) and hope that the Democrats will fail in their efforts to expand "voter loyalty." Don't let the eco-extremist fossil fuel industry feel annoyed, they are upset about the original green clause of the bill. The large pharmaceutical company is not upset. It does not want to see its mafia-like pricing and profitability fall back to any degree.
These people and interested people really like to watch the long and sadistic "sausage making" shit show, which is the disgusting spectacle of two Manchinema Monsters viciously eating B4 alive.
Not that B4 was once radical. It has been reformist and inadequate from the beginning, and it is far from reaching the requirements of deep reorganization. Despite this, capital even opposes the slightest hint of social democracy (which may inspire further action on the road to human dignity and unity). Republicans have long been playing the neo-McCarthyism (and fascism) card, bringing the centrist corporate Democrats People labeled "radical leftists."
"Because they must appease the two conservative senators"? The two reptile senators-Kyrsten "What Not to Wear" Sinema ($-Big Pharma and AZ) and Joe "Party Boat" Manchin ($-Big Carbon and WV)-are just puppets of the "deep state" of the United States: Bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie has the allegiance, worldview, and policy votes of most senators, including many Democrats. They are very happy to look in line with most progressive popular sentiments, knowing that movies, Manchin, and Republicans are ready to destroy the bill. . Comrades, the superstructure of class ruling follows and expresses the material ruling foundation of capitalism. Then there is the misallocation of anti-democratic minority rules in the U.S. Senate, where the representation of America’s most reactionary whites and rural areas is so absurd that the liberal California will have more than 130 representatives in the Senate if it had the same As a racist Wyoming's population to senator ratio. Is anyone willing to seriously resolve the brutal violation of the basic democratic principle of one man, one vote in the Senate, the House of Representatives, the absurd Electoral College, and the judiciary, let alone a campaign finance system flooded with dollars (Jemi Raskin and His former Harvard Law student John Bonifaz cleverly called it "wealth first")—and (by the way) the bourgeois dictatorship that governs the basic material foundations of the country, where the state and politics play a role in its service effect?
"The relief that Biden needed urgently during the campaign." The key word here is "campaign." Under the capitalist system, the “campaign activities” of Democratic politicians are completely different from what they actually do during their tenure. At the risk of being too obvious, they say one thing and do another. The manipulation of populism by elitism and the overwhelming of humane and progressive speech by anti-social capitalism are the long-term and true nature of American politics. It always bears a hidden reserve label, marking the ownership of the rich and the strong.
When Joe Biden tells the truth to power
When the audience needs it and can be trusted, politicians like Biden can tell the truth. In 2019, in a fundraising event in Manhattan, Biden stood in front of some of the Kings of Creation in the campaign donation cup. When he became president, he promised the masters that “no one’s living standards will change, and nothing will fundamentally change. Change". This is the so-called saying (obeying) the truth to power! The progressive and populist language of politicians is prepared for the powerless—for the vast majority of citizens managed by enterprises, they are relegated to de facto resident status in a bourgeois false democracy. Among them were the kind West Virginians who paddled small liberal kayaks to the noble yachts of coal tycoon Manchin, begging their arrogant masters to do the right thing for the earth and the common good in vain. "Senator Manchin," the kayaker chanted, "your voters are here. Please don't let West Virginia sink" (in the flood caused by capital climate change). Great, except that King Joe Manchin’s true supporter is the fossil fuel industry and its financial investors, and he himself is a ruling class group. They rule. "Deep-rooted voter loyalty" is great, but let us be clear about the most important loyalty to Democratic politicians: their loyalty to supporters and funders. We need to sink their yachts instead of begging our civilian kayaks and canoes to "please sir, more, ... more decent." Capitalism It’s not decent below (see below for more on this topic).
Standard leading media narrative to keep a decent attempt
The class rule of the bourgeoisie is full of mainstream media reports of B4 suffering. The head of corporate media conversations insisted on accusing the so-called "too left" and "excessively awakened" progressive Democrats for wanting too much, and the real obstacle is the reaction of Republicans and right-wing Democrats, the capital-funded resistance - and the official The right-wing distribution of the Senate itself cannot be mentioned. With exceptions like Medhi Hasan, the media absurdly insisted throughout the show that the reactionary and corrupt Democrats Manchin and Sinema were "moderates." It has been chattering about the so-called exorbitant "price tag" of the "large-scale" bill, removing the fact that it paid for it by appropriately increasing taxes on the wealthy with absurdly low tax rates. Also beyond the scope of acceptable reports and comments is the comparison of proposed social expenditures with the huge sums of money regularly invested in the country’s destructive Pentagon system, which is a measure of high-tech “defense” (war) companies capable of combating. Huge public subsidies. The world has been turned over several times. Now, the media and authorities are hyping up the foreseeable failure of the Democratic Party’s bleak and money-consuming governor candidate Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, as "evidence" that most Americans do not want to "wake up". Come” and “Marxist” programs, such as paid family leave and free community colleges.
Do good for capital
If Biden is serious about the gradual change that Sanders has been telling voters wants for the 46th president, then sleepy Joe will "wake up" and use his domineering forum, his political and policy levers Come to punish the cinema and Manchin, spend his first year in office, break through mysterious and reactionary rules (the absurdity and optional cancellation rights that obstruct bills and parliamentary rulings), and promote meaningful voter rights and labor reform legislation , The expansion of the absurd distribution of the Senate and Supreme Court, and so on. But Dollar Joe is a long-time plaything on Wall Street, disguised as "Lunch Bucket Joe from the Tough Scranton". He is not remotely committed to fighting for this change. Now, as his "Rebuild Better" bill is broken by the rule of the business class and related ridiculous and reactionary rules of governance established by slave owners dating back to the 18th century, Biden yells "Do things for the American people."
"Do things well"-this is one of the favorite phrases of the neoliberal and imperialist neoliberal president "Wall Street Barry" Obama, we should thank him, the clumsy Biden may be in the center of American and world history Appeared briefly on stage. This is a "pragmatic" mantra repeatedly emphasized by corporate Democrats to justify their long-term adaptation to the corporate and financial ruling class. "Completing the task" ignores what may actually be accomplished. Hitler, "Doctor Dad" Duvalier and Pinochet completed the task. The slave owners of the pre-war era and the apartheid regime in South Africa completed their tasks. Harry Truman completed the missions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Big Petroleum does things well. I can continue.
Give the good police what he wants, otherwise the bad police will have his way to you
As if to get something-anything-reactionary and boring! – It is not bad enough, and country owners can count on their media to blame the "too left" Progressive Democrats for the difficulties of B4. Well, if anyone follows this story with a trace of dignity and wisdom, knowing that the original bill has the support of the majority of the people, and the main obstacle to passage in the Senate is opposition from the overrepresented Republicans and at least two reptile Senate Democrats. ,so what should I do now? The key is to use the specter of a comprehensive and retaliatory comeback of fascism to humiliate and intimidate Progressive Democrat Sanders and the AOC Congressional Group to vote for the cruel visceral version of the bill. It doesn't matter. The demoralization of the people caused by the imprisonment of capital by the neoliberal Democratic Party will precisely lead to a comeback.
This is the basic message: "If you don't give Biden, the company's good Democratic policeman, something — anything — keep running and let him tell voters that he's done things, then the bad Republican policeman will come back and kick you in the ass. This is the Fox Party, the Democratic Party, by reminding its "too sober" and "too radical" factions, the Wolf Party, and the Republican Party, showing their teeth on the outside, maintaining internal discipline and serving their owners. This is part of the dance of interdependence between the two-dog capitalist party system.
It seems to have worked, drawing strength from the family-friendly fascist Youngkin’s so-called "frustration" over the creepy Clinton McAuliffe campaign, which drove Virginia elementary school students to be instilled in the so-called Marxist "criticism" The absurd and paranoid idea of "race theory". On Friday night, six of the progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives (the original team plus Corey Bush and Jamal Bowman) all succumbed. The dirty neoliberal Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi took advantage of corporatization. The Congressional Black Caucus has allowed the vast majority of frightened progressives to give up asking the Senate to sign Biden’s big bourgeoisie and bipartisan infrastructure bills.
This is the essence of the hidden intimacy between story #1 (Trump and Trumpism scene) and story #2 (the rape of B4 led by Manchinama). The Democratic Party’s unwillingness to punish Trump and his mob is not only weak. The depressing US dollar Democrats' involvement in the country's gradual fascification is much more than that. Their objection is very untrue. They hope that the insane narcissist and "instinctive fascist" Trump and his men can freely threaten the country and the world. Trump and Trumpism (probably not Trump himself) are of real use to the Citigroup Democrats and their owners. The (very real) right-wing danger for them is not only a dangerous running and raising money danger, but also a whip to scare progressive Democrats who are trying to make policies based on most public opinion to support conservative legislation to become Mainstream Democrats peddled to voters to "get things right" without overly confronting their elite capitalist bankers. So, what if the Sanders-AOC faction of the Democratic Party is more likely to stop the Republicans than the Biden Harris-Morgan Stanley faction of the party because the progressives are more willing to represent millions of ordinary Americans? ? Morale is low and demobilized because of the U.S. dollar's endless service of concentrated wealth and power.
Capital and the top Democrats don’t really care, do they?
Does keeping the fascist wolf alive pose a real danger to the rest of democracy and even to life itself? Yes, of course, but honestly: respecting the majority opinion and preventing fascism is not our owner's top priority [1]. The country's unelected ruling class dictatorship lacks internal cohesion and moral center, and may not even be able to prevent white power republicanism from regaining full state power. The corporate and financial elites in most countries may be more willing to allow the country to retain the deceptive cloak of bourgeois democracy, social tolerance, and the rule of law. Nevertheless, the vicious neo-fascism has considerable capitalist support (the last surviving Koch brothers and the despicable Rupert Murdoch are key examples). It is not clear whether most of the illegal Sith capitalist elites can put the fascist cats back in their bags after they are released (Trump can use a huge donation from far-right capital and a small group of small US donors for his 2024 Provide sufficient funds for election campaigns). After all, immoral capital doesn't care that much. Since it came to power in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, capital was willing to adapt to any social, political, and/or policy order (for example, slavery in the southern United States before the war, the fascist regimes in Italy and Germany in the 20th century), and long-term investment by American companies Numerous third world fascist regimes have left their sacred profit privileges and investment hegemony intact. Until January 6, 2021, through the terrible reign of the fascist Don, 99% of the way (as Doug Henwood pointed out last spring), the upper reaches of the American bourgeoisie did not oppose Tron in any obvious and straightforward way. general.
The masters of this country—the masters of finance, technology, and production—may largely prefer Clinton, Obama, and Biden to Trump, DeSantis, Abbott, or even the White House's Jan King, but As long as profits continue to flow, if they have to do so, they will be happy to work with a full-blown white nationalist neo-fascist monster. They definitely prefer villains like Trump or DeSantis to humane Social Democrats like Sanders and Nazi reptiles like Matt Gates to Ilhan Omar in the House of Representatives Such a dignified progressive person.
Cooperation with fascism? certainly. Remember the jacket slogan of fash frau Melania Trump, which contains his chilling charm (not a typo) statement: "I really don't care, what about you?" This almost sums up the attitude of capital. During his tenure as Secretary of State for Orange Thing, Exxon Mobil's former CEO Rex Tillerson was shocked by Trump's rude and indifferent behavior. But Tillerson and his company are completely satisfied with the study of burying his own company, which shows that the large-scale mining and burning of fossil fuels will have a fatal impact on the earth's climate. He and his ruling class comrades are so decent and caring that they hide their own cutting-edge research, showing that they are profiting in the process of turning the entire planet into a giant greenhouse gas chamber.
The willingness of the United States and the global bourgeoisie to cancel the livable ecology can be clearly seen in their determination to plunge the earth into irreversible ecological extinction by burning every fossil fuel it can obtain. If it is willing to wipe out life itself in the name of profit, then it is of course very happy to slide forward with neo-fascism.
I remember that before commercials selling eco-extinction services and products, CNN’s “liberal” skull chattered endlessly at the immoral nihility of Melania’s soulless jacket.
Capital doesn't care, does it?
"Why Trump Will be Re-Elected"
Speaking of the elites not caring, it is hard to disagree with many of the following annoying judgments of the progressive WJ Astore in Los Angeles:
"Are you ready for Trump who will be in power for another four years? I don't know that the United States chose Joe Manchin and Senate members as the two most powerful people in our country. Senator Manchin has always been a convenient obstacle and scapegoat for the Corporate Democrats. It is said that He prevented more severe action on climate change. He helped cancel funding for efforts to make community colleges free, expand medical insurance, and lower prescription drug prices. The Senate Parliamentarian, meanwhile, who is in fact unelected and has no real power , ruled that hiking the minimum wage is something that simply can't be countenanced under budgetary reconciliation rules...The Democratic Party, like the Republican, answers to the owners and donors. It is doing what it was told to do to compromise Abandoning all promises of progress in the name of cooperating with the two parties (it never had any principles). And this is exactly why Donald Trump will be reelected in 2024. Not that the corporate-owned Democrats care, mind you. After Trump took office, Things are actually easier for them. They can raise more funds through a false "boycott" of Trump, they can avoid tax cuts for the rich and more and more company-friendly deals, of course the Democratic Party Also support all these things, but blame them on Trump. In this regard, the Supreme Court is also true.
But it is not clear that if Trump (or some other republican) returns to the most dangerous job in the world, things will be “actually easier” for all frustrated Democrats. The pursuit of "revenge" by Trump and the Trump Party may have serious consequences for Democrats and others. Republicans are not just playing with political violence and "civil war" rhetoric. Some House Republicans wanted to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, but hesitated because of concerns about their safety and the lives of their loved ones. Election officials, school board members, retail store managers, and even school nurses are currently reporting death threats from the American red, gun-fanatic Trump People’s armed mob. It's difficult in the post-January 6 context not to suspect that basic physical fear of right-wing violence and future retaliation is a significant part of why elected and other public officials are unwilling to seriously punish Trump and his demented minions.
Please forgive me for saying this, but it's all for Weimar. Almost no one knows the history here, which is a fatal shame. This is not wrong.
At the same time, when it comes to violence, we all expect Congress to pass another Pentagon’s huge funding bill without dispute. Needy welfare recipients such as Slup-Grumman and Thor provide generous cost plus subsidies. The Pentagon system maintains a huge military empire that accounts for 40% of world war expenditures and is on a dying planet With the largest single agency carbon footprint, the US Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps provide services and protection for this world capitalist murder case. The following are some of the entries in the latest contract report of the US "Department of Defense":
Lockheed Martin, located in Fort Worth, Texas, won an indefinite delivery/indefinite contract for the F-22 Project Office Advanced Raptor Enhancement and Maintenance (ARES) valued at US$10,863,000,000... Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control Center, Orlando, Florida, has been awarded a $97,336,915 corporate fixed price contract modification (P00007) to the previously awarded contract FA8682-21-C-0001...Lockheed Martin Sibecon, Marion, Massachusetts The company was awarded a fixed price modification of US$105,668,584... for the support of the MK54 MOD 7 heavyweight torpedo program... The General Dynamics Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut received an undefined contract action modification of no more than US$66,637,726, For the previously awarded contract N00024-20-C-2120, lead field support and development research and design work related to Virginia-class submarines.
All of this and more military-industrial socialism methods funded by taxpayers are of course completely uncontroversial in the permanent political class-unlike federally funded electric cars, extending dental and vision coverage to medical insurance recipients, Paid family leave, childcare subsidies and other forms of social promotion expenditures. This is the "mental death" that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of at the Riverside Church a year before the execution.
(Paul Street is a writer for CounterPunch.org. His new book is Hollow Resistance: Obama, Trump, and Appeasement Politics.)