{"id":785300,"date":"2022-09-01T22:30:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T22:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=133010"},"modified":"2022-09-01T22:30:06","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T22:30:06","slug":"the-politics-of-anti-trumpism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/09\/01\/the-politics-of-anti-trumpism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Politics of Anti-Trumpism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Butters warns: \u201cA specter is haunting America, the specter of middle-class leftists turning to the right.\u201d Writing on the official website<\/a> of the Communist Party USA, he attacks certain social media personalities for not being sufficiently fearful of the \u201cTrumpist Republican power grab\u201d and by implication for their failure to embrace the succor of the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

My intention is not to defend the people that Butters regards as \u201cdisembodied spirits\u201d or to criticize the CPUSA. Rather, Butters is used to illustrate a broader phenomenon in the left-of-center blogosphere. Specifically, his narrow focus on the binary choice (\u201clesser evilism\u201d) of Republican versus Democrat obscures the larger functioning of the two-party system<\/em> beyond the merits of the individual parties.<\/p>\n

Further, while I agree that a reactionary nationalist tendency with fascistic undertones is haunting not only the \u201cland of the free\u201d but is also threatening contemporary Brazil<\/a>, some former Soviet republics, India<\/a>, South Africa<\/a>, and elsewhere, I differ on both the causes and potential remedies.<\/p>\n

The failure of neoliberalism<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Butters is scandalized that a \u201cfringe\u201d of the Bernie Sanders movement failed to vote for Biden; some even choosing Trump. While Bernie\u2019s \u201cOur Revolution\u201d ended up herding the hopeful into the Democratic Party by giving that party a false patina of progressivism, the initial movement led by Sanders was broader than just liberal Democrats.<\/p>\n

The Sanders movement reflected a mass disenchantment with the neoliberal model<\/a>. Indeed, Trump\u2019s parallel insurgency cynically seized on that same failure of neoliberalism to meet people\u2019s basic needs via a dishonest faux-populist campaign that portrayed Trump as some kind of man of the people. That failure of neoliberalism<\/a> partly explains why \u201cmake America great again\u201d resonated with some 70 million US voters.<\/p>\n

While the super-rich take recreational flights into outer space, neoliberalism \u2013 the contemporary form of capitalism \u2013 is not meeting working people\u2019s needs. And the two parties of capital collude to shovel tax-payers\u2019 dollars into endless<\/a> foreign wars\u2026enough, it should be noted, to alleviate hunger and homelessness at home.<\/p>\n

Granted, the Trump phenomena is symptomatic of a mounting right-wing faux populism, but it wouldn\u2019t be popular without the disease of a declining standard of living for the working class.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe struggle against racism, sexism, and gender equality\u201d is equated by Butters with \u201cthe broader fight for democracy.\u201d Omitted in his article are class-based economic issues.<\/p>\n

While flailing at the symptoms, the Democrats feed the disease. They enthusiastically join their supposed sworn enemies on the other side of the aisle engorging the military and security apparatus of the state with more funds than the White House even requests. In practice, both parties agree that anything like Medicare for All is to be deferred.<\/p>\n

It is indicative that, despite Butters\u2019 criticism of the \u201cmiddle-class leftists,\u201d only twice does the term \u201cworking class\u201d appear in his article. That is as often as the litany of \u201cmulticulturalism, gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, environmentalism, anti-colonialism, anti-racism\u201d is cited.<\/p>\n

Although I believe that these cultural, identity, and life-style issues are important, they cannot be substituted for providing an adequate material basis for daily life for the working class.<\/p>\n

The Democrats\u2019 abandonment of the material interests of their traditional constituency makes them complicitous in the rise of a popular rightist blowback. Resentment by the dispossessed of the use of identify politics as a cover for the neoliberal agenda fuels \u2013 but in no way justifies \u2013 a white supremist, anti-immigrant, and sexist reaction, delivering them into the open arms of Trump.<\/p>\n

With little else to offer, Trump is the Democrat\u2019s greatest asset<\/strong><\/p>\n

WikiLeaks<\/em> revealed that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC were leading promoters of the dark-horse Trump candidacy in the crowded 17-contender Republican 2016 presidential primary race. The Democrats got what they wished for\u2026and more, as it turned out.<\/p>\n

The Democrats no longer pretend to have a social welfare agenda. Forget about Joe Biden being the new incarnation of FDR. The former party of the New Deal and now of neoliberalism only offers its faithful the cold comfort that Trump is not their standard bearer.<\/p>\n

After the debacle of January 6, 2021, the disgraced 45th<\/sup> president of the US retreated to a golf course in Florida. He was vilified by the preponderance of corporate media \u2013 itself overwhelmingly neoliberal and imperialist \u2013 and abandoned by major figures in his own party.<\/p>\n

Rather than allowing Trump to fade into the shadows, the Democrats have continued to fan the flames of fear of fascism for their partisan advantage with their liberal constituency. By the same token, though, their publicity helps to mobilize the very right populism that they oppose.<\/p>\n

Hence, over a year and a half since the original incident on 1\/6\/21, the House select investigative committee continued to keep the media spotlight on the former chief executive. And with a professional TV producer for the primetime extravaganza.<\/p>\n

Defending \u201cour democracy\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

What has happened since that infamous day? The angry Republican mob took some selfies in the Capitol and went home. They never returned.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the Democrats had hundreds of the perpetrators pursued, causing some to be imprisoned. Under Democratic leadership, the US Army \u2013 not the civilian police \u2013 occupied the streets of the national capital. And new legislation was passed extending police powers to limit protests.<\/p>\n

In the name of preserving \u201cour democracy\u201d and fighting fascism, measures that are in fact fascistic were enacted. What ensued under Democratic aegis is not what democracy looks like.<\/p>\n

Butters, in another article<\/a>, calls for a \u201cmass anti-fascist front\u201d against the Republican Party\u2019s assault on voting rights in New York State. He fails to mention the Democrat\u2019s own record of restricting voter choice through their initiative to greatly increase the votes needed for third parties to stay on the ballot in that state. The measure, in effect, denies ballot status<\/a> to the Green Party.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The main danger<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Democrats\u2019 championing of de-platforming<\/a> dissenting voices from social media is for Butters counterposed by the cancel culture of the right. Butters argues that the \u201cmain danger\u201d is “the increasingly fascistic power grab by Trump and the Republican Party\u201d in contrast to what he characterizes as the concern with the \u201cdeep state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butters dismisses the love affair<\/a> of Democrats with the FBI and CIA. However, the \u201cdeep state\u201d is the coercive apparatus of fascism.<\/p>\n

With its uncomely embrace of foreign policy neo-conservatives (e.g., Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Under Secretary Victoria Nuland, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines), the Democrats have eclipsed the Republicans as the leading party of war. Now even accused war criminal<\/a> Henry Kissinger stands to the left<\/a> of the Democrats.<\/p>\n

While 57 Republicans demurred, the Democrats \u2013 including the Squad \u2013 unanimously voted to appropriate tens of billions of dollars for the Ukraine War<\/a>. Such hyper-aggressive nationalist partisans make untrustworthy bulwarks against fascism.<\/p>\n

Prospects for fascism<\/strong><\/p>\n

A right populist insurgency could provide the shock troops for a future fascism. But it would be the ruling class or major elements of it that would opt to no longer maintain their class rule by liberal bourgeois democratic means.<\/p>\n

If ruling elements imposed fascist rule, they would have to forego the convenient fa\u00e7ade of legitimacy afforded by the current electoral regime, one where corporations are considered persons and buying politicians is an exercise of free speech. As long as popular discontent can be contained within the Republican-Democrat duopoly, the ruling powers are mollified to have fascistic measures already on the books, such as the Patriot<\/a> and Espionage<\/a> acts, used sparingly.<\/p>\n

For now, then, the cabal of the two parties of capital is content with their theatre of bitter contention on cultural issues and fundamental collusion on matters of state. All the while, the system is lurching in an ever more authoritarian direction. Regardless of which party prevails electorally, the same class is in power.<\/p>\n

The post The Politics of Anti-Trumpism<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Butters warns: \u201cA specter is haunting America, the specter of middle-class leftists turning to the right.\u201d Writing on the official website of the Communist Party USA, he attacks certain social media personalities for not being sufficiently fearful of the \u201cTrumpist Republican power grab\u201d and by implication for their failure to embrace the succor of [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post The Politics of Anti-Trumpism<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1235,8285,133,49,668,40987,32,14,276,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788378,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785300\/revisions\/788378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}