Revolutionary Fervor in the USA? Is This for Real?

 

By David Starr

 

Something should be made clear here. What the right-wing in the USA have been attempting has been called a revolution. It certainly is not a revolution, and it’s not radical. It’s a reaction by reactionaries who want to go back to an antiquated past, however digressive and delusional that is.

 

According to a July 2024 article in Politico, (originally from the Associated Press) before the 2024 presidential election, an example of reaction came from a reactionary named Kevin Roberts who is the leader of the fascistic think tank, the Heritage Foundation. From here, the term Fascist Foundation will be used. 

 

Roberts was a guest on Nazi Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. Among the incendiary remarks made by Roberts were the following: He claimed that Republicans are “in the process of taking this country back.” He also claimed that the USA is on track for a “second American Revolution” which could be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.”

 

It’s not surprising that Roberts, like other righties, would resort to threats. This has been their kind of assertions. When in doubt, threaten, or commit, violence.

 

Roberts went on with his boastful delusions, saying that U.S. citizens “are in the process of carrying out the second American Revolution to take power back from the elites and despotic bureaucrats. These patriots are committed to peaceful revolution at the ballot box. Unfortunately, it’s the left that has a long history of violence, so it’s up to them to allow a peaceful transfer of power.”

 

Besides the obvious hypocrisy, with the right being instigators of violence both systematically and overtly in U.S. history and up to now, Roberts’s claims are morally bankrupt. Further, besides neoliberals, neoconservatives have indulged in elite behavior over the years. The right is especially feeding at the monetary trough. 

 

Now, in the present, the Trump regime and its allies are in dismal disarray. It’s apparent that the majority of the masses have turned on them. Those who voted for Trump are now angry, feeling betrayed. And the left is just as angry based on past anger against the right’s transgressions. But are also are disillusioned with the “moderates,” “centrists,” and “Third Way” democrats who are also part of the elite; and are hellbent on caving to the Republicans in the name of “bi-partisanship.” (How can one compromise with those who are not compromising?)

 

The World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) published an article which stated that “hundreds of thousands of people in hundreds of cities across the United States protested in opposition to the threat of fascism under the Trump [regime].” 

 

There is the “’50501 Movement,’ which claimed to have organized over 700 protests throughout the country and a few internationally.” The article mentions that over 100 protests occurred with the slogan, “Tesla Takedown” on a banner, referring to Elon Musk’s company, which has fallen apart mainly because of the fascist billionaire and Trump accomplice.

 

The 50501 Movement’s Tesla Takedown protest was smaller compared to the April 5 demonstrations, “which drew an estimated 3 million people.” And the WSWS noted the reason: “…the actions of the main organizers affiliated with the Democratic Party, who sought to sow confusion and fear among potential attendees.” Further, WSWS asserts that the movement has “been largely co-opted by the Democratic Party-aligned Political Revolution organization [which] tried to preemptively cancel the protests,” and that various chapters can choose to protest but the national leadership was not going to call for national protests. 

 

Instead, the movement organizers suggested “donating to a local organization,” “hosting a picnic,” or “starting a book club.” These things pale in comparison to harnessing the widespread anger among the U.S. population targeting the monopoly on power the Republicans and Democrats currently have in government. The movement organizers, however, fear the potential attempt for the Trump regime to use military force could be a possibility because of the protests going nationwide.

 

One source highlighting the protests was Secular Talk, hosted by Kyle Kulinski. Kulinski was impressed how many came out for the demonstrations, even for liberals who seem to express revolutionary fervor. But it remains to be seen whether liberals can permanently adopt a revolutionary attitude, given the conditioning by the current Democratic leadership.

 

WSWS concludes, “While threats of police violence coupled with the sabotage of 50501 organizers depressed turnout, those who came out on Saturday [April 5] expressed a more militant attitude and willingness to fight against the Trump [regime] and the capitalist system that created him.”

 

Counter Currents published a piece by Ellen Issacs, a retired physician, anti-racist and anti-capitalist, where she explores the role liberals (corporatists) have played in caving to the right and thus paving the way for fascism. 

 

Isaacs writes, “Many have expressed astonishment at how readily universities, law firms and state governments capitulated to the Trump [regime]. We believe that not only did these entities surrender because they are highly dependent on federal funds, but they are all, at heart, defenders of capitalism – even if said to be liberal.”

 

Isaacs adds, “The trajectory has many similarities to that of Europe in the 1930s.” She points out Germany after its defeat in World War I and its creation of a social democratic government known as the Weimar Republic. The Social Democrat Party (SPD), however, was “allied with the old economic and military elites of pre-war imperial Germany, seeing its priority as the maintenance of capitalism” while also making some social changes. 

 

“As Rosa Luxemburg said in 1918, ‘what has been pasted together and called a socialist government is nothing but a government representing the bourgeois counter-revolution.’ She was assassinated the next year with the collusion of the SPD.”

 

With the late 1920s worldwide economic depression, Germany was a dire straits. Unemployment was high, production decreased and poverty was widespread. Along came Adolf Hitler, creator of the German National Socialist Workers’ Party (NSDAP), which, as Isaacs writes, “had nothing to do with socialism but espoused extreme nationalism and antisemitism.” It should be added that Hitler simply used the words “socialist” and “workers” because many in the German working class were socialists and Marxists, in an effort to try to appeal to them.

 

Unfortunately, many Germans were indoctrinated with Nazi ideas, with Hitler taking advantage of the dire economic situation affecting them. Then, came the firing of Jewish, Marxist and left-wing intellectuals from various professions, like education. Also persecuted were communists and even members of the SPD. Both of their parties were banned.

 

Then, of course, came massive deportations with Jews particularly being singled out. It was deportations to the Nazi death camps. And then there was the atrocities committed by the Nazis.

 

In conclusion, Issacs makes a connection between the liberals political surrender when faced with a fascist threat, and how it actually compliments capitalism. The neoliberals today in the Democratic Party are behaving in a somewhat similar manner, saying or implying that not much can be done against Trump, and make attempts to compromise with Trump and the Republicans, while they condemn Trump at the same time; as though he’s the only threat to social justice and equality. Trump is a major symptom of an overall ideological disease: the rule of capital.

 

To reiterate, the Republicans are not fomenting a revolution. It is ironically a response to a degree of revolution itself, i.e., opposing the left/progressive policies that have been established over the last 50 years. It is a reactionary attempt to try and impose tyranny.