THE THIRD AMERICAN REVOLUTION has been postponed, but it has not been cancelled. With the American news media (Fox News included!) calling the Presidential Election for Joe Biden, that part of America which still believes in American democracy is allowing itself “a brief period of rejoicing”.
The followers of Donald Trump, sullen and watchful, have yet to accept the judgement of those powerful social forces for whom the news media speaks. With every day that passes without a clear call-to-arms against the fast-consolidating Biden ascendancy, however, the Red Hats’ stomach for a full-scale uprising will diminish. In the words of Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly”. For Trump, and Trumpism, delay means death.
That a crushing coup d’état was not unleashed the moment the trend toward a Biden victory became clear bears testimony to Trump’s signature lack of organisational talent. While indisputably the master of improvisational political theatre, the President has never demonstrated the slightest ability to stick to a script – let alone write one! The slow and careful accumulation of the human and material resources necessary to seize the American state has proved, thankfully, well beyond Trump’s capacity. Hence his personal tragedy’s rapid descent into farce – as illustrated to perfection in the Veep-like absurdity of the “Four Seasons” press conference!
Were Trump and his rapidly shrinking band of courtiers to issue orders to the United States Military, demanding the forcible impoundment of the ballots in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia, it is now highly unlikely that they would be followed. Nor can Trump rely upon the Supreme Court to pull his electoral irons out of the fire. The nine justices may not see eye-to-eye on many things, but it’s a safe bet that any request to nullify the largest tally of presidential votes in American history would be met with a polite – and unanimous – refusal.
Possession, they say, is nine-tenths of the law; and right now Biden has what Trump most wants: public acceptance of the “facts on the ground”. Confirmation that he will be the next President of the United States.
Where does this leave the Third American Revolution? The answer, sadly, is stalled. What should have happened in the 1970s; what could have happened in 2009 as Capitalism threatened to expire in the death-grip of the Global Financial Crisis; looks certain to be put off again. Why? Because, once again, just as the American system seemed on the very brink of political catastrophe, it rescued itself.
Think about the last time a malignant, mentally-ill President was holed-up in the White House, asking himself if he dared to strike down American democracy. Richard Nixon, in 1974, was considered so unstable that his Secretary of Defence, James R. Schlesinger, distributed a secret memo to the commanders of the military bases around Washington DC, advising them not to respond to any Presidential order to deploy troops onto the streets of the capital unless it was counter-signed by himself. It turned out to be unnecessary. The US system, the US Constitution, ended up working in precisely the way it was supposed to work. The crisis was averted. The overwhelming majority of Americans stood back and stood down.
But, not all Americans. The effective deposition of a sitting President, by putting the rights contained in the First Amendment to the US constitution to effective use, was the last straw for the most reactionary elements of the American ruling-class. Democracy was out of control. The rapid post-war expansion of the “Middle Class” had raised expectations beyond the capitalist system’s capacity to satisfy them. Organised labour was out of control. Blacks, women, minorities of all descriptions, were demanding their place in the sun. The Third American Revolution: the revolution in which the republican institutions arising out of the First American Revolution (1776-1783) and the efforts of the Second American Revolution, usually referred to as the Civil War (1861-1865), to infuse those institutions with genuine liberty, equality and democracy will finally be vindicated and transformed in a radical re-imagining of American freedom – it simply had to be stopped.
In their essence, this is what the four decades since Watergate have been about: delaying the Third American Revolution. Using this insight as a key, it is relatively easy to unlock the recent history of the Republican Party. It’s increasingly strident efforts to drive back the gains of African-Americans in the 1960s; its cynical alliance with the open misogyny and homophobia of fundamentalist Christianity; its packing of the US judiciary with reactionary judges; its deliberate debasement of US political culture and discourse: all of it has been about putting off the evil day when the full revolutionary potential of American democracy manifests itself.
And the Democratic Party? It’s history, over the past four decades, has been all about convincing both itself, and the American people, that it is not the political vehicle for bringing the Third American Revolution into being – even though anyone who pays the slightest attention to the sort of Americans who are voting for the Democratic Party knows that it must be.
Which is why, in a funny/sad sort of way it’s a pity that Biden won. Once again, Americans will convince themselves that the system, the Constitution, has worked exactly as it should. Yes, that same Constitution did allow a man like Donald Trump to wield full executive power for four years. But, it also gave the American people the opportunity to correct their mistake – which they have just done. So, crisis averted. Time for everyone to stand back and stand down. Sleepy Joe and Kamala have got this. (Are you listening Bernie? Do you hear what we’re saying, AOC?)
Except that the most reactionary elements of the American ruling-class can no more afford to stand back and stand down in 2020 than they could in 1974. Forty years on, they have so much more to lose. In 1972, when Richard Nixon won his second term in a landslide of historic proportions, the top 1 percent of Americans controlled roughly 10 percent of their country’s wealth. After 40 years of more-or-less constant counter-revolutionary success that share has grown to nearly 30 percent!
Their shield and their sword, the Republican Party, is not about to help Biden “heal America’s soul”. On the contrary, it’s going to do everything it can to exacerbate the differences within the Democratic Party and, by doing so, break-up the fragile social unity created by Trump’s anarchic improv theatre.
Deep down, the forces of reaction will be glad to see him go. The Republican president they will need to keep the Third American Revolution at bay for another 40 years must be made of much sterner stuff.
There was never any chance that Trump would organise a coup d’etat. While Trump was inevitably going to be a bad loser, that is a fair cry from organising a coup. And in event who would follow him. The vast and overwhelming majority of Trump’s 70 million voters expect democracy to take its course. They are not going to pick up arms insupportable of a coup. But of course you know all of this.
As for a third revolution, that occurred with FDR. This far there is no willingness in the US to go beyond what he did, or even try and get back to his specific policy prescriptions. Much the same could be said of NZ. Jacinda might have a photo of Michael Savage in her office, but she is not about to turn the clock back to the late 1930’s. Rather she intends to moderate the current political settlement. It is what she promised the voters, just as did Biden.
It seems many in NZ have forgotten, or are ignorant, that the Democrats are more right wing than our Judith Collins / the Nats ,,, and more warmongery than wayne mapp & John Key.
The real and consistent fraud in the usa elections is the voters are duped ,,, their wishes and hopes exploited and ignored ,,, and both parties rule for corporations and Billionaires, for the military industrial complex, for Israel ,,, they rule for the people otherwise known as their donors….
…and their revolving door future employers , Directorships and $250,000 payments for giving speeches are their bribes / rewards.
Rule of and for the Benjamin’s.
1 hour 14 mins in …..untill 1hr 25 mins https://youtu.be/MP_DQHUb3wo , gives a pretty good summing up of the Dems by Journalist Rania Khalek.
Rania Kalek was hit with THE REAL cancel culture on facebook ,,, and it sure as shit aint left wing ,,
“Facebook’s Partner: The Atlantic Council (5 Frightening Facts)”
https://youtu.be/KvaesI5nuEI
How Facebook censored us https://youtu.be/4pBKm2mKgsE
“Rania Khalek on the plot to steal a Sanders victory” https://youtu.be/MNAobiUlh2U
—————————–
Obama, Clinton and and Bidens wars ,,, democrats spreading usa freedom, democracy & human rights.
“SLAVERY IN LIBYA: THANKS NATO!” https://youtu.be/ziAK91AEEl8
YEMEN REPORT LEAVES OUT U.S. https://youtu.be/ltScbdbYSmg ,,, “a child dies every 10 minutes”
EAST GHOUTA IS NOT WHAT MEDIA SAYS IT IS https://youtu.be/hTfFeMTUiFI
The last short video ( 4 minutes odd ), mentions the white helmets ,,, who NZ donated money to ,,, through Peter Dunne,,, playing our part for the yanks and their eternal wars.
Chris I think you’re well off the mark regarding “gains of African-Americans in the 1960s”.
In fact this was a Republican initiative with Democrats steadfastly against it. Biden himself is on record as being against bussing and said he wouldn’t send his children to an integrated school because it would be a “jungle”. Earlier in his career Biden read the eulogy at the funeral of a KKK leader.
The first black congressman was a Republican as was the first Senator and the first Supreme Court Judge.
Great analysis!
Both parties are the parties of finance capital in thrall to Wall Street. They are essentially no different in the way they defend capital against the Third Revolution – that of the working class.
That Third Revolution was always a long way off so long as the tag teams in government could stop the independent mobilization of the working class.
This rise of the maverick populism of Trump taking over the Republican party was an indication that both Democrats under Obama and the GOP was sleeping on the job, failing to halt the decline and fall of US imperialism. The politicians of the Washington swamp were making the ‘middle class’, self-employed and workers, pay for its decline.
Trump rallied his populist base against the swamp to take over the GOP and MAGA for the middle class. But it was a fantasy.
The US is in inexorable decline because its chaotic market driven capitalism faces a ascendant single party state planned China. Trump couldn’t upscale his personal business plan to replicate the central planning of Chinese state monopoly capital.
The way he dealt with Covid 19 proved the impossibility of transforming the anarchic power of a Wall Street high on casino capitalism into that of the CCP command state dedicated to production of value.
Trump lost the battle with China. His middle class base and part of the white working class stayed with his fantasy bubble but he lost the confidence of Wall Street and the GOP establishment.
This left the door open for the return of a Obama/Biden ‘democracy’ to rescue Wall Street and rebuild bridges with the Atlantic Alliance.
So the defeat of Trump was not the defeat of the GOP which retains control of Congress. And Wall Street will make Biden reneg on his promises to save the planet and the working class, and act protect and defend the rule of US capital from any insurgency from below.
The expectations of the workers and minorities in the rust belt and south west who came out in record numbers to elect Biden and dance in the streets will have to be dashed by Biden before there is any return to serious organising in the streets.
The Third American Revolution will have its birth only when the struggle in the streets against the fascist right is met with the systematic brutal force of the Republicrat regime, and there is no longer any hope of salvation other than workers taking power in their own hands to save their class, humanity and nature.
Yes. Intelligent and informed analysis Mr Brown. I fear you are correct.
What a diabolical shame we need to have nothing left to lose before we revolt. But that seems to be the nature of it.
Indeed. A striking example of our inability/unwillingness to plan and act presciently and prepare for the future is our “response” to the existential threat of climate change and ecological collapse.
This is a classic “closing the barn door after the horse has bolted”. The impulse for taking measures necessary to ameliorate planetary heating & upgrade/future proof infrastructure to ‘soften the blow’ is weak at best.
It’s already too late to change the course of this particular Titanic. Imagine how bad things will have to get before people start demanding action – like yelling for someone to ring the fire brigade when the house is already 3/4 burnt to the ground.
But you are right Darryl – this seems to be human nature 🙁
I wonder Dave just how much will be left to actually save when workers finally take “power in their own hands to save their class, humanity and nature.”
It sounds grim, but the Earth of the future may not be worth inheriting.
Don’t wonder about whether life is worth living Jase, go out with a bang not a whimper. Make a revolution and see what is worth saving, even if it is other species that may survive when we don’t.
‘The US is in inexorable decline because its chaotic market driven capitalism faces a ascendant single party state planned China.’
That is true but is only part of the story.
Other reasons the US is in decline are:
1. It has delayed the day of reckoning on finances by ‘printing’ trillions of dollars at low interest, thereby undermining all sectors dependent on interest, e.g. pension funds and retirees.
2. It has squandered a humungous amount or resource (particularly oil) on unproductive or counter-productive exploits.
3.It has the biggest military sector in the world by far -greater than all the others combined- but only a modest population to support that military sector. Additionally, Additionally, much of the hardware is ancient and defective, and the modern equipment is grossly overpriced, and in many cases inferior to that of its rivals.
4. It has a population that is generally overweight from eating crappy food produced by corporations, and a large portion of the populace is morbidly obese., with severe health problems as a result. And, since treatment is for-profit [of corporations], treatment is generally poor or non-existent.
5. The education sector has been a joke for decades, and Americans are, on average, the poorest educated of any ‘developed’ nation on Earth.
American rode the bonanza of cheap, plentiful oil….and that game is now over:
Energy Is the Economy; Shrinkage in Energy Supply Leads to Conflict
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2020/11/09/energy-is-the-economy-shrinkage-in-energy-supply-leads-to-conflict/
That applies to NZ, too, of course.
Yeah AFKTT but these other things you mention are all consequences of the failure of the market to produce value because capitalism has reached the limits of its capacity to grow by sucking the life out of nature.
Hence production stagnates and money turns to unproductive outlets, financialisation, speculation, consumption, war blah blah.
China on the other hand plans production, clamps down on asset speculation, and screws down workers so they produce profits.
Of Trump continues on his current path it will be he alone responsible for civil war.
These tribal party loyalties run deep, so deep I’m sure that the average voter has little idea as to what the parties policies are . The US was born out of greed and violence and doesn’t appear to have changed a great deal, business rains surprem, little thought is given to the multitude of citizens deprived of housing, medical services, employment and simply being treated a an citizen with rights. Not surprising that the constitution was written by and for the white and wealthy., it is about time that tatty piece of paper rhetoric was archived for the lie it is.The US proclaims it’s self as the great defender of democracy and yet their political system is far from being democratic .
Unfortunately the same political environment is alive and well in NZ, two major political parties sparring it out, it’s irrelevant as to who wins, it’s just more of the same the farmer and the wealthy are the back bone of the country and we should be grateful.
Apologise for my rant, I voted for transformation and the way Labour is talking, it just an’t going to happen .
This is how I read it. The first eight years after 2008 were spent trying to ensure that populism didn’t gain a foothold in the face of austerity (think Cunliffe here) and the past four years have been spent quashing it where it emerged. Unlike the populists on the left, Trump, with his years of experience chasing TV ratings, and spotting neglected audiences, Trump managed to get past the gatekeepers. He was also helped by his immunity to moralistic chiding. Meanwhile, people who have gravitated to the author and implementer of the 1994 crimes law are comfortable in believing that they have warded off a racist/fascist attack on their values. Harris just recently had California prisoners putting out the wild fires – work much too dangerous for “proper people” who would also expect “proper pay” for their efforts. Not to mention Biden’s support for the Iraq war, and active participation in the destruction of Libya, etc.
A blizzard of PR, sales pitches and pejoratives partly conceals the fact that the democrats are no longer able to represent the working class – the interests of the working class and their middle class constituents are too opposed – what would help one would harm the other. Trump tapped into this. I am not a Trump supporter, but I am not heartened either by what looks to me like a bunch of bourgeois celebrating the defeat of the deplorables, much as they would have celebrated the defeat of native Americans, or the putting down of a slave revolt, in the 19th century. A different set of putative virtues for their own self-description, a different set of pejoratives for their opponents, but all too similar. Biden did not win by a landslide, so they should remember that a rough half of the population are not celebrating with them.
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