A Call to Our Readers

On the Midterm Elections and the Fascist Violence

October 29, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

The elections set for November 6 are shaping up to be a major political flash point. Trump has been holding increasingly aggressive and almost daily fascist mass rallies around the country in the lead-up to these. He has been whipping up his base not only to vote, but to adopt an increasingly aggressive stance to those he has declared to be enemies. At the same time, there has been in the past week a series of violent fascist political acts.

First, this past week someone mailed pipe bombs to leading major political figures who represent what has been the mainstream of the ruling class and others opposed to the Trump/Pence fascist regime, and who the regime recognizes as obstacles to consolidating its fascist rule. Since the 2016 campaign, the regime led by Trump has repeatedly, viciously demonized and targeted these figures with threats of jail and even violence. The pipe bombs were sent to former Presidents Obama and Clinton, ex-presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Biden, two former major figures in the U.S. intelligence establishment, several other major Democratic Party figures (most of whom are African-American), and major liberal donors and philanthropists—as well as to the progressive actor Robert De Niro. Throughout the week, Trump responded in an openly callous and, in the circumstances, extremely aggressive way to this, with pro forma calls for “unity” and continued, and in some ways stepped-up, attacks on both the media and political opponents.

Then on Saturday, someone attacked a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 people at worship. This Nazi-style attack sent a jolt of horror and terror through the Jewish community and should both outrage and compel deeper reflection on the part of everyone who opposes racism and fascism. And again, Trump initially responded with a pro forma denunciation that was quickly accompanied by calls for more armed security and the death penalty as a way to deal with this—these are reactionary and fascist watchwords. In both cases, suspects have been arrested and deserve due process, but the fascist content of these actions is clear.

All this—the aggressive rallies, the murderous attacks, and Trump’s response to it all—has heightened contradictions and brought home more deeply both the fascist character and aims of this regime and the sharpening polarization in this country. It has also revealed the utter inability and lack of desire of the Democratic Party to meaningfully oppose this for what it is: fascism. The fact that a number of these bombs were sent to the CNN news network and that Trump continued to stir up the crowds at his rallies to attack CNN, and that he also assigned the blame for the “atmosphere” in which such murderous bomb attempts could happen to CNN and other news organizations, drives this home even further.

 

Watch and spread!