The Specter of a Fascist Coup by Trump Haunts the U.S. Theres Worse to
Worry About
Spreading faster than COVID-19 among those on the portside, warnings of a
fascist-style coup by Trump are rampant this presidential campaign season.
by Roger D. Harris
August 18th, 2020
By Roger D. Harris
Should Trump fail to carry the Electoral College, Noam Chomsky admonishes,
he could send Blackshirts out in the streets
preparation for a plan to try
to bring the military in to carry out something which would amount to a
military coup.
A New York Times columnist opines: Put nothing past Trump, not even the
destruction of the American electoral process. Robert Weissman, president
of Public Citizen, explains that Trumps election delay threat is a coup in
the making. Economist Jack Rasmus speculates Trump will call for his
radical right, gun-toting friends to come to Washington to surround and
protect the White House.
The left World Socialist Web Site joins the liberal chorus: In an act
unprecedented in American history, Donald Trump has repudiated the
Constitution and is attempting to establish a presidential dictatorship,
supported by the military, police and far-right fascistic militia acting
under his command.
Meanwhile, in the real world, more than 51 million Americans have filed for
unemployment since March. Some 27 million people have lost their health
insurance on top of around 30 million who were uninsured before, in the face
of the massive pandemic. The Federal Reserve has pumped $7 trillion into
corporate bonds, municipal securities, loans and grants to business, while
millions are going hungry. The pandemic death toll in the U.S. is 168,345 as
it rages out of control. California cannot even accurately count the number
of cases being reported.
As Congress Goes on Vacation, Calls for a General Strike Across America Grow
Louder
To the dismay of many Americans, Congress and the Senate adjourned until
September, meaning that any coronavirus relief package is still, at least,
many weeks away. As a result, a growing number of Americans are calling for
a general strike, the topic trending on social media this weekend.
MintPress News | Alan Macleod | Aug 17
The U.S. is experiencing the greatest combined health and economic crisis
since the founding of the republic. But instead of demanding solutions, the
overriding liberal-left concern of this presidential campaign season is the
specter of a Trump coup, quickly forgetting the issues that Bernie Sanders
ran on.
Fascism as a personality disorder
The idea that the visibly overweight and dementia-plagued orange pig, in
the florid words of Paul Street, could by personal will change the form of
governance in the U.S. from bourgeois democracy to fascism is based on a
great man concept of the course of history, where a single individual
determines all.
Theres no doubt that the Trump malignancy runs deep, Chomsky explains,
and that he is drawn to fascist symptoms, describing Trumps proclivity to
fascism as a personality disorder.
Obscured by this concentration on Trumps personality are the social,
economic, and political conditions for a fascist transformation.
In Europe of the 1930s, sections of the ruling class in their respective
countries accepted Hitlers and Mussolinis dictatorships for fear of
working-class Communist and Socialist parties coming to political power.
There is no such political contention in the contemporary U.S. Rather, some
half of the eligible electorate does not bother to vote because they do not
see their interests represented by either wing of the two-party duopoly. The
other half trust that they live in a genuine democracy with real political
choices.
The U.S. ruling class can impose their rule on the popular classes because
the latter are either inactive or believe they are represented. If rule by
and for the elites is accepted, why should the bourgeoisie squander this
gift and opt for a more costly fascist dictatorship?
Even if Donald Trump personally would aspire to be the first U.S. führer, he
does not have sufficient backing from the ruling class, notably finance
capital. Many military generals detest him. The foreign policy establishment
does not trust him. At least half of the active-duty service members are
unhappy with him. And the so-called deep state security agencies FBI, CIA,
NSA are among his harshest critics
Trump might be able to mobilize some skinheads with gun show souvenirs. But
these marginalized discontents would hardly be a match to the coercive
apparatus of the worlds superpower.
Fellow party members, such as the Lincoln Project and Republicans against
Trump (RAT), cant stomach Trump. Romney has bailed, W isnt far behind, and
the polls indicate a landslide defeat in November. Even if Trump were doing
everything right, not the opposite, no incumbent president could survive a
spectacularly tanking economy plus a pandemic. Bottomline, Kamala Harris and
whats-his-face will be the new 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue neighbors.
Democratic Establishment Commits to Status Quo with Harris VP Pick
As America enters a period of reckoning over-policing and racial justice,
the Democratic establishment chose Kamala Harris, a hawkish former
prosecutor with a questionable record, as its VP pick.
MintPress News | Alan Macleod | Aug 12
However
while a one-man coup can be dismissed, an October surprise in the
form of a military adventure cannot. Theres nothing like a dandy little war
(say a coup in Belarus) to boost a sitting presidents approval ratings 15
percent and put him over the top in November. With U.S. warships cruising
for trouble in the South China Sea and the Democrats egging Trump for being
soft on Beijing, even a dustup with nuclear-armed China cannot be ruled out.
Liberalism is dead
The obsession with the person of Trump is a testament to the political
bankruptcy of the increasingly anemic successors of the New Deal and their
epigones on the left who, every four years, admonish us that never before
have the stakes been so high: we have to vote for the lesser evil. Given
their view of the danger of a fascist coup, we should put aside a
progressive agenda and vote for the former senator from Mastercard and learn
to love endless imperial war and increasing austerity for working people in
a repressive security state.
The liberal-left pundits reproach us to vote Democrat simply because the
alternative is not Trump. Recall similar warnings about Bush and Romney, who
are now chums of Democrats in high places. Vote, but not for any issue,
because the so-called liberal agenda is today devoid of issues. Liberalism
is dead. Indicative is its standard-bearer barely showing vital signs. Biden
is being told to stay in his basement and even sit out his nominating
convention.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) killed the one hope a genuine one
that liberalism had. Bernie Sanders knew that the DNC had rigged the 2016
contest against him and would do the same in 2020. But Sanderss strategy
was to ignite a grassroots mass movement to overcome the Democratic Party
from within.
After a poor showing in the South Carolina primary, Sanders dropped out.
Shortly thereafter, the winds of pandemic and BLM protests shook the nation
and might have buoyed the Sanders campaign, with its signature issues of
healthcare and equality for all. Instead of making history, the Great Gray
Hopes grand plans have sadly been reduced by his fateful conviction to work
within the confines of the Democratic Party to urging the wearing of face
masks.
Trajectory of neoliberalism
Short of a fascist coup by Trump, the liberal-left has legitimate concerns.
A rightward specter is haunting the U.S. and beyond with serious
consequences. White supremacy remains seminal in a nation founded on the
expropriation of the Indigenous and the exploitation of African slaves. The
decline of living standards and an ever more precarious workforce are
reaching crisis proportions with the pandemic. The worst is yet to come,
creating a political dynamic of discontent that can swing either left or
right.
Rather than merely replacing the current White House occupant with one with
better table manners, more radical measures are called for.
What remains is a political theatre of two neoliberal parties vehemently
contesting matters of style and colluding on matters of substance. The two
major parties concur: bail out Wall Street, renew the Patriot Act, increase
the military budget, modernize the nuclear arsenal, prepare for war with
China, pursue regime change in Venezuela, etc.
Study: Partisan Media Coverage of Epstein Mask His links to Both Sides
A new study revealed that both MSNBC and Fox News slanted their coverage to
highlight either Clinton or Trump's links to Jeffrey Epstein.
MintPress News | Alan Macleod | Jul 28
The trajectory of neoliberalism has entailed a concentration of economic and
political power coupled with an increasingly authoritarian and
imperialistically aggressive state. This trajectory converges with fascism.
A pervasive security state and the coercive apparatus of fascism are in fact
already in place. According to the DNC, Democrats have made modernizing our
military a top priority along with supporting our national security
personnel. Ditto for the Republicans.
Hitler physically liquidated the trade unions along with the left political
parties. He censored the press and engaged in a massive military build-up.
In the U.S. today, union density has declined to 10.3 percent of the
workforce, no countervailing left political organizations of consequence
exist, the mainstream media echo Washington and the military budget
balloons. Neither the historical example nor the current one is free of the
defects of racism and xenophobia. Perhaps the salient political question for
the 2020 electoral season is not whether there will be a fascist coup, but
how would we know?