US democracy in Crisis: Answer is Communist Revolution
USA, January 6—Fascist Trump supporters fought cops, besieged the nation’s capital and stormed the Capitol Building today. Congress had to adjourn. The cops’ unwillingness to counterattack sharply (as they did against Black Lives Matter protesters) shows the racist rulers’ intention to keep this fascist base in reserve.
Meanwhile, Republican members of Congress continue to contest the confirmation of president-elect Joe Biden. The Big Lie that Trump “really won” is a thin cover for a classic fascist idea: that the “will of the people” is embodied in a “great leader.”
The US Capitol is now secure, and the confirmation will continue. But it is no cause for celebration that the US military, from former Secretaries of Defense to the National Guard, opposed Trump’s attempted fascist coup. Nor that the Republican party is fracturing over it. Governments of both parties have implemented fascist policies and practices, bit by bit, for decades. These include increased executive power, surveillance, militarization and intensifying racist attacks.
A qualitative change to full-blown fascism will happen when the capitalist class decides it needs it. That time is approaching, with the economy in uncontrollable crisis and international competition sharpening into mushrooming wars. Whether fascism comes wearing Trump’s MAGA hats or Biden’s “America Is Back” banners is truly secondary.
Democrats Rafael Warnock and Jon Ossoff have won the run-off Georgia senatorial elections. The Democrats will be able to move forward freely with their plans to ramp up military strength.
But contradictions are also sharpening inside the Democratic Party, which will be hostage to its most “moderate” (openly pro-capitalist) members. To the extent that the huge Georgia voter turnout reflects mass faith in the electoral process, for the working class it’s “heads they win, tails we lose.” Capitalist elections can never bring about the change that the working class needs.
The hopes of grass-roots Democratic Party voters and activists, especially youth, will be dashed. We must seize all coming opportunities to convince them that only communist revolution can defeat fascism.