US working class consciousness?
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“I’m still sticking with my original bet of Trump (and possibly Musk) not lasting the first year in office.”
Ok. Through what mechanisms do you see them leaving or being forced to leave?
Apparently, the so-called Democratic Party is now pushing in a somewhat more left-populist direction as a counterweight to Trump´s right-populist position. It seems that pretending to be “anti-establishment” pays dividends these days given that the electors are heartily sick of the “establishment”.
Expect,then, to encounter a reinvigorated argument about why workers need to vote for the “lesser evil” as represented by such thoroughly obnoxious opportunists as Ocasio-Cortez, Harris (again) and the warmonger, Bernie Sanders.
Why people can’t just draw the simple conclusion that these people, like Starmer’s repugnant Anti-Labour Party, shouldn’t be touched with a bargepole, I just don’t know…
The so-called lesser evil invariably prepares the ground for the greater evil to later take power
Robin, perhaps it would have been better to use a source other than the Daily Mail? You know the mods at Wikipedia have disallowed it due to its regular unreliability.
With regards to ‘lesser evil’ voting. Yes, I agree if this is something that is pursued all the time, it will lead to a gradual drift away from what you want. But in politics context is everything. Suggesting that a course of action should be followed all the time, regardless of context, is just moralism. I think this is as close as you can get to a context where there clearly was a greater evil. And now democracy (which is essential for the achievement of socialism) in the US *is* under threat.
If you’re looking for an aphorism, how about; “the perfect is the enemy of the good”.
DJP,
Well, I’m not particularly interested in the opinions of the Daily Fail. I only posted a link to the article from this rag because it reproduced the results of a survey conducted by CNN that indicated that Ocasio-Cortez is the first choice among Democrats as to who best reflects the values of that disreputable entity. Presumably, that also means she would be the first choice as a Presidential candidate….
As for your point about there clearly being a greater evil in the US context my point is simply that, if so, it is equally clear that supporting the lesser evil assuredly paves the way to greater evil. We have seen this with the election of Starmer´s Anti-Labour Party which leftists in their droves supported precisely on the grounds that it was the lesser evil. Can anyone now honestly believe this appalling organisation is somehow an improvement on the Tories? I cant see the difference tbh.
As for the US, to be honest, here too is difficult to tell at times to tell which is the greater evil. Had Harris won the elections and not Trump, would we even talking about the possible cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, for example? I sincerely doubt it.
Yes, I agree that what Trump is doing with respect to even basic democratic rights is horrendous but that doesn’t mean you have to align yourself with the so-called Democratic Party, does it? Call it “moralism” but I would rather cut my wrists than do that if I was a worker in the US. Not that it will make much difference as we are so few in numbers but it is perfectly possible and vastly better from any possible angle that we criticise what Trump is doing from a completely independent and socialist standpoint. We may be ineffective at the moment but we would still be ineffective anyway aligning ourselves with some capitalist entity and very possibly nonexistent shortly thereafter
Nope, I say to hell with the lot of em! They deserve our uncompromising hostility
I do not think that the US workers are going to tolerate all the cuts that the new administration is carrying over on Welfare benefits, Food Stamps Benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, Layoffs to Federal Workers, restrictions on newspapers, and other social benefits that are affecting the lives of Trump followers and unfollowers, latinos, afro-americans, natives, middle eastern and asian workers, there are some minister who are trying to file an impeachment process but it is not going to be approved, and they are not going to be able to remove him which will not resolve the major problems, it is just an inter class dispute, and some magistrates of the high court ( who have him presidential immunity ) have rejected his executive orders despite the fact that they were appointed by him. He is governing by decree like a typical dictator, but his kingdom is not too last too long
It was well known within his followers that he was going to do whatever he is doing now, and they approved it, but they were not aware of the scale and the form that are being done, and now they are being personally affected by those political, economic and legal decisions, but those actions are not new either, they have taken place for a long time by previous republicans and democrats presidents, almost since the foundation of the US, even more Bill Clinton laid off many federal workers in order to save surplus value to the ruling class and Ronald Reagan also laid off many workers and cut social benefits, destroyed workers union , ( as Noam Chomsky said there was not difference between John F Kennedy and Ronald Reagan ) and Barack Obama deported more workers than Donald Trump and Joe Biden, he was called: Deporter in Chief, he can give lectures to Donald Trump on deportation proceeding. Jimmy Carter was the pre Ronald Reagan
The majority of the followers of Donald Trump are white people ( or European descendants ) and they are the majority of the poor peoples in the USA , and most of them are elderly people who are retired and depend on social security benefits, SSI, food stamps and Medi-Medi, housing aids and other state benefits, and they can not lose those benefits, otherwise they will not be able to survive and the discontent is spreading among them, and they are already rising up against Trump similar to Argentina where the elderly peoples are protesting on the streets and they have confronted the police, and they have been beaten by the government repressive forces, but the government is making poop on its pants, similar situation is going to take place in the USA, and trump myth is going to go away. Most are disappointed that they elected a so called anarch capitalist, probably, they do not even know the real meaning of the concept or the economic current
The US workers have been brainwashed by the concept of big government which is a concept spread by the ruling class in order to cut benefits and reduce corporate taxation because those state benefits impose a heavy burden on their surplus value, but most workers do not know that the capitalist state is financed with surplus value, they believe that they are part of the state, but pensions are deferred salaries and a continuation of the class struggle, and they place a heavy burden on the capitalist class, and the post war boom is gone forever
There is a discontent among them but they do not know how to channel their political, social and economic discontent due to the lack of proper political knowledge, and the influence of nationalism, worshipping of leadership, and the bourgeoisie ideology, and they are blaming the problems on state agencies, presidents, and personalities, and the populists leaders are using that discontent in order to obtain their votes, and the same thing is occurring around the world, and the best example is Argentina, that after years of leftwing domination and governments , peoples voted against them and now they are rebelling against the “anarchist” capitalists and monetarists
Most of those benefits in the USA were implemented during the time of the New Deal that was pushed by a coalition of workers unions, socialists, communists and social democrats during the time of the Great Depression, and heavy taxation on the corporation was approved by the US congress, , and some were implemented after the Great Depression by Democratic and Republicans presidents, and many of them were approved by the US Congress ( The House and the Senate and they were codified ) and only the congress can make changes to those benefits, and the president can make changes under certain provisions specified by the acts .
Most of those executive order emitted ( probably drafted by his ministers, lawyers, and collaborators ) and signed by Trump are unconstitutional because they have not been approved by the congress, the congress have let them to be passed because they do not have the courage to oppose him, they are just defending their salaries and their posts including some democratic senators and representatives, they do know that they are illegals, and many of them are lawyers and they know about constitutional law, contract law .and criminal laws, but capitalist profits is more important than the lives and misery of millions of human beings
There are more courts lawsuits against those executive orders than executive order signed by the president, , he has signed around 70 EC, and there are around 125 lawsuits in different courts levels ( lower courts, appeals court and Supreme Court ) but those lawsuits are not so important because they can be rejected by some judges that also support him, and they have been violated by trump and his minions, but the most important aspect is that workers are making oppositions including some of his followers, and his popularity is declining, even though that he was elected by a small margin ( 1.5% against Harris ) and he does not have a mandate ( in a third world countries he would not have been elected with that amount of votes ) and there was a great absenteeism from both sides.
Some of those lawsuits are class action suits filed by different social entities, workers unions, and news media, and some magistrate appointed by Trump have rejected his appeals and some of this executive orders, and they are also under threat
The Townhalls meetings are showing that peoples are opposing those measures, and the Chairman of the House of Representative has asked to the representatives to avoid those meetings which indicates that they are scared of a popular revolt against those measures, and against them, and most of them are elderly whites and some young peoples who have have lost their jobs due to state re-estructuration, tax cut and blaming the problem on workers, in reality it is an assault against the working class, and peoples are getting acquainted of what is taking place, but they do not know that the state is financed with surplus value, and still they think that workers are the real taxpayers which is only an economic fallacy , the capitalist state is the executive apparatus to manager the affairs of the capitalist class, and that is what the leaders are doing, but there are some sector of the capitalist that is also being affected because they are losing part of their profits due to the tariff and the tariff are also illegal but they are using the pretext of the drug traffic but it is not a national emergency, drug trafficking is a very old phenomenon in the USA and drug consumption is very high within the population.
The opposition to Trump does not mean that they have class consciousness, the concept of class struggle in the USA is deeply hidden, and most peoples do not know the meaning of that concept and many think that capitalists and workers are little brothers, and that capitalist can not be corrupted because they have money which means that the corrupt class is the working class, the biggest corruption takes place at the point of corruption where a small amount of human being steal the sweat of millions of human beings, do they know that ? I doubt it In other to understand that you need a crash course on Marx political economy to understand that they are just supporting a parasite class
Workers are protesting all over the countries including measures that are eliminating scientific research, medical research and artistic expressions, eliminating libraries and museum, land and river conservation , even more, some artistic presentations at the Kennedy arts center have been cancelled as a sign of protest, and they have protested about the taking over of arts by right wingers and reactionaries personalities
The situation is heating up in a national scale and Trump is not going to be able to carry his plans without oppositions, and he is marching back on some of his measures, he thought that it was going to be a walk in the park, but it is becoming a bumpy road because workers are protesting against him, and his popularity is declining in many states of the union, and peoples do not care if they are going to be arrested. Probably he will not last too long as president of the USA, even more, there is a crack within the same pawns and puppets that he has nominated
Probably, within two years the Democrats are going to take control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and that will not make any difference, the real push is coming from the working class, and the working class is already tired of both political institutions, they have also collaborated with him, in some countries the US Congress is known as the club of the rich peoples, some of them are also part of the ruling class and they have invested in wall street and industrial productions
He is not going to be able to obtain the approval for a third term, he is a lame duck, and his popularity after four years is going to fall drastically, and as a good snake oil salesman he will try to use all resources at his disposition in order to hold himself in power and to blame his own problems in somebody else including his own ministers.
The MAGA movement falls mainly in the cult of one leader, and they do not have a similar replacement, and probably all his criminal cases are going to be reactivated after he leaves the white house, but that will not make any difference either, the main problem is not Trump, the main problem is capitalism, and the declining world hegemony of the USA capitalism, and the de industrialization of the USA and its competition with other world economic power, they can not balance the trade deficit when it is a heavy importer of commodities, and the deficit is not going to be balance either when the state must borrow in order to compensate the lack of surplus value contribution from the capitalist class, the time of the New Deal are gone forever.
They elected a business man , and a good snake oil salesman , who knows how to deal with their mentality, and he is the CEO of a corporation known as a nation, and his rich supporters are the investors, that is the main foundation of capitalism, it clearly indicates that the state is just the executive apparatus to manage the affairs of the capitalist class, the ruling class can kick him out and capitalism will continue doing the same thing to the working class, the working class is the only one who has the real solution, but they are not ready yet to give birth to a new society, workers around the whole world ned a mental exorcism, they need something known as class consciouness
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