WeeklyWorker

01.08.2024
Threat is from Democrats too

Donald the Führer?

Liberal hysteria about Trump abolishing presidential elections - even being a new Hitler - sees the BBC acting as mere propagandists for the US Democrats, writes Eddie Ford

During this US presidential election campaign, any pretence at objective reporting by the mainstream media has gone out the window. Whilst no-one expects anything else from the likes of The Guardian newspaper, of course - which told us that the Labour Party is riddled with anti-Semites - the BBC is at least in theory committed to objective reporting as part of its charter.

After all, how many times have they played us the phone call between Kamala Harris and the Obamas -whereby, in the words of The New York Times, “cameras rolled” and “hokeyness ensued”.1 But that is nothing, compared to the media storm about Donald Trump’s recent comments at West Palm Beach to a crowd of Christians from the Turning Point Action group. Their founder, Charlie Kirk, compared Joe Biden’s vaccination efforts to an “apartheid-style open-air hostage situation.” Pretty weird, but there you go. Trump himself said to the audience: “Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it any more. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians.”2

Many US Democrats called Trump’s remarks “terrifying” and “authoritarian”, and naturally the Kamala Harris 2024 Campaign issued a statement saying that democracy was “under assault” by Donald Trump, who has “promised” to use “violence if he loses” and “the end of our elections if he wins” - “the termination of the constitution”.

The story is being aggressively spun by the BBC (there is no other word for it) in conjunction with Trump’s previous remark that “I will be a dictator for a day” if re-elected. But is this really meant to be serious reporting?

Did Trump really say that he was going to abolish presidential elections if given a second term in the White House? Firstly, his comments have been taken out of context - no doubt deliberately by some - and downright misreported by others.

Trump actually spoke for over an hour at the gathering and about halfway through he discussed voter turnout among Christians, claiming that they do not vote “proportionately” to their numbers. Nearing the end of his speech, he denounced the Democrats, who “don’t want to approve voter ID”, and implored Christians to turn out in droves to prevent Democrats from “cheating” - because “we want a landslide that’s too big to rig” in order “to save America”. Then Trump made the now famous comment about Christians not having to vote again in four more years, because it will be “fixed”. All reactionary crap, of course, but hardly a sinister fascist agenda deserving of such hysteria. Like all bourgeois politicians, he was merely trying to maximise his vote by almost any means possible.

Secondly, a few days later the former president clarified his remarks to a certain extent in an interview with Fox News: “That statement is very simple”, he said, “Christians are not known as a big voting group” but “I’m explaining that to them” that if they vote this time, “I’ll straighten out the country” - then “I won’t need your vote any more” and “you can go back to not voting”. When the news host pointed out that many Democrats had interpreted his comments to mean there would never be another election again, Trump claimed that he had not heard that - rather stretching credibility - and continued to elaborate about how lots of Christians tend to not vote because “maybe they’re disappointed in things that are happening”.

Thirdly, perhaps more importantly - whether it was at the forefront of Donald Trump’s mind or not - the 22nd amendment of the US constitution, enacted in 1951, prevents anyone from having more than two terms, hence Trump will not be able to serve as president beyond early 2029. Also, there is the not unimportant fact that Donald Trump is a mere mortal - even if some of his more devoted followers think otherwise - and will be rather old come 2028. So on those grounds alone, this is the last chance you will get to vote for Trump and then that is it - well and truly “fixed”.

Over the years, several presidents have voiced their antipathy toward the 22nd amendment. Harry Truman described it as “stupid”, Ronald Reagan said the amendment “infringed” on people’s democratic rights, Bill Clinton suggested that it should be altered because of longer life expectancies.

As for Trump’s “dictator for a day” throwaway, the paranoid liberal media rarely put that in context either. In fact, they completely mangle the quote, which arose during another interview with Fox News last December.3 He was asked twice whether he would ever abuse power by seeking retribution against anyone or is “going to be a dictator”. Trump said no, “other than day one”, when “we’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling” - “after that, I’m not a dictator”. That is, he would use his presidential powers to close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling.

Yes, again, it is horrible reactionary crap - promising to persecute people trying to flee poverty and further destroying the natural environment in the single-minded pursuit of profit. Dumb all over. But this is not much different from the polices pursed by the Biden administration, which last year approved a huge Alaska drilling project - even if it did later row back on some aspects of the expansion. In June, Joe Biden signed an executive order closing the border with Mexico, once the average number of daily encounters hits 2,500 (and illegal Mexican migrants would be subject to immediate removal from the US).4 Screaming about the dangers of a Donald Trump dictatorship seems rather perverse, given what is actually happening on the ground right now.

Trying to portray Trump as a potential Führer ignores the glaring democratic deficits in the US constitution as it exists today, and the general anti-democratic nature of American state apparatus itself - which is very real. But democracy in America is not like mom and apple pie, it has to be actively fought for like everywhere else. Nor does it detract from the fact that Trump tried to carry out a self-coup on January 6 2021 to prevent a joint session of Congress counting the electoral college votes to formalise the victory of president-elect Joe Biden - even if some on the left could not recognise what was happening right in front of their eyes.

Neither does it deny that there are real fascists and real fascist grouplets in the US, of course - the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and perhaps some of those around the unhinged QAnon movement - that meet the classic Leon Trotsky take on fascism, in which “capitalism sets in motion the masses of the crazed petty bourgeoisie and the bands of declassed and demoralised lumpenproletariat - all the countless human beings whom finance capital itself has brought to desperation and frenzy”.

Yes, they were all encouraged and flattered by Donald Trump in his bid to stay in office. But, as the CPGB has always insisted, there is a world of difference between using such fascist grouplets as pawns and lifting any of them into the saddle of power. As they do not have their backs to the wall, why on earth would the capitalist class dump the certainties that come with the ‘rule of law’ and US-style ‘democracy’ for the chaos of fascism? Much better to keep the pretence of a government run by and for the people than openly deprive them of all basic democratic rights.

It goes without saying that socialists do not believe a word of it when Trump says he is going to “fix” all of America’s problems - any more that he ‘fixed’ them in his first four years. But it is clear that he has an authoritarian agenda, he wants to roll back all manner of gains and rights. The problem is that by calling this ‘fascism’ the left tails, does the bidding of the Democrats. And, if they really convince themselves that Trump is beyond the pale, is a ‘fascist’, who knows what they and their friends in the state machine will do?

Trump’s January 6 2021 self-coup was never going to succeed. However, while at the moment Trump and Harris appear to be neck and neck in the polls, if that changes, if Trump regains his lead, crucially in the swing states, things could easily change. Instead of a coup attempt coming from Trump, maybe next time, it will be Joe Biden, the chiefs of staff, the FBI that will give the coup order.

An assassination (that works), ballot fixing (for real), disallowing the wrong members of the Electoral Colledge … Who knows? But do not imagine that the threat to what passes for ‘democracy’ only comes from one direction.

Notes

  1. youtube.com/watch?v=N42O28alWYgyoutube.com/watch?v=N42O28alWYg.↩︎
  2. youtube.com/watch?v=gE7xoHJkgvE&t=35syoutube.com/watch?v=gE7xoHJkgvE&t=35s.↩︎
  3. youtube.com/watch?v=dQkrWL7YuGkyoutube.com/watch?v=dQkrWL7YuGk.↩︎
  4. news.sky.com/story/joe-biden-set-to-close-border-with-mexico-after-signing-order-capping-asylum-seekers-crossing-into-the-us-13147915news.sky.com/story/joe-biden-set-to-close-border-with-mexico-after-signing-order-capping-asylum-seekers-crossing-into-the-us-13147915.↩︎