America Masked
“I believe in markets” - Senator Elizabeth Warren, a “capitalist to the bone.”
Trump has been a chump. Nobody argues with that claim. But the root causes of his problems were unavoidable. Rather than owning up to the inherent nature of capitalism, which puts profits before people as its operating principle, the media requires a scapegoat. Trump will do even for many Republicans. And for the progressives to support Biden, they required a greater evil to justify the lesser evil. So Trump became an aspiring fascist dictator who is readying a coup when he is defeated in November’s election. Rarely asked is the question is which part of the State machine will support such a move. Not the military. Not the security agencies. Perhaps a few in the federal apparatus such as ICE. Perhaps some local police departments. There will be a likely change of guard from one party of capital to the other in January, though with a kinder face. The enduring capitalist system will continue. If Biden wins in 2020 and Harris in 2024 and 2028, 2032 would be the first chance for a progressive Democrat to even try to run. The capitalist class, rewarding the Democrats with donations of $48 million in the 48 hours after the announcement of Kamala Harris as the vice-presidential candidate. her biggest asset is she is understood to be a loyal servant of the capitalist class.
Under Bill Clinton, the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed, preparing the way for the 2008 financial crash. NAFTA outsourced jobs abroad while destroying small-scale Mexican farmers. He dismembered and bombed Yugoslavia and starved and bombed Iraq, contributing to the destabilization of the world. “Welfare as we know it” ended with attacks on all the social services and mass incarceration, focussed primarily upon the minorities instituted.
With Barack Obama the US went to war in at least seven countries. In his presidency and the Great Recession, he bailed out the banks yet prosecuted nobody for any wrongdoing. Obamacare was a gift to the insurance industry while killing single-payer. Despite the climate crises he doubled fossil fuel production for which he proudly took credit. He successfully made the Democrats the favored party of the bankers and corporations.
As Occupy Wall Street soon realized it is often more difficult to mount an organized resistance to regressive policies when promoted by Democrats than Republicans. The massive resistance to foreign wars disappeared with the inauguration of Obama.
Similarly, we have seen Democrats sabotaging Medicare for All, with Biden already pledging to veto it if it came before him and removing any teeth in the Green New Deal. Fracking and fossil fuel subsidies will continue. Biden has already assured Wall Street that their privileged position will be protected on his watch. The war mongers have been re-assured with the promise that the military budget won’t be cut. Democrats have leap-frogged the Republicans to the right on foreign policy issues in important respects regarding Afghanistan, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Venezuela, etc. And now oppose withdrawing US troops from abroad.
Those who complain about Trump’s ineptitude and bungling should know that the Biden intends a more deadly efficient rule of capital. We should be careful about what we wish for.
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