Letter From a Reader #3:
There Is No Santa Claus, and the Democrats Cannot Be Relied on to Drive Out Trump

Playing to Save the System, Not Trying to Defeat Fascism

December 5, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Yesterday’s letter dug into the fact that while the Democrats and Republicans each represent competing forces of capitalist-imperialist exploiters and war-makers, Trump represents an immediate and extremely dangerous threat to humanity as a whole and must be driven out. We exposed that the Democrats are fighting this on the extremely narrow terms of the “national interests” of the U.S. empire. But it’s more than that: the Democrats at the head of the impeachment process—Piglosi and the rest—do not at this point seem to be aiming to oust Trump, even on these narrow terms.

Take one example: Two weeks ago, the Trump-appointed ambassador Gordon Sondland said that “everyone was in the loop” of the attempt to blackmail Ukraine into giving up, or creating, dirt on Joe Biden. Sondland named not only Trump, but Vice President and Christian fascist Pence, Secretary of State Pompeo, the maniacally aggressive former National Security Advisor Bolton (now on the outs with Trump), and others. Other witnesses have similarly implicated higher-ups in the regime. Trump has utterly violated the Constitution by forbidding these people to testify before Congress.  Their testimony would make it even more undeniable and might even drag more of their foul stuff into the light.

Yet the Democrats refuse to bring these people before Congress. They say that they are worried that the courts will delay this. If they are worried about delay, why are they not calling masses into the street to demand the full story? Why are they not bringing legions of lawyers into the courts? Why are they not, in short, doing everything possible to drag everything into the light of day to win? 

And why are they virtually conceding that after the indictment is brought they will lose in the Senate trial? What kind of fight is it when you acknowledge your defeat in advance?

The Three Fears of the Democrats

The Democrats do want to check Trump. They want to prevent him from bringing in competing imperialist powers to aid him in his election.  More overall, they worry that if he gets away with this, he will go even further in violating the Constitution and the rule of law itself. And they worry that if they do nothing, they will lose legitimacy among a large part of those they are in charge of corralling and controlling.

This goes back to the “three fears” that Bob Avakian describes in “Individualism, BEB and the Illusion of ‘Painless Progress’”.  The Democrats fear both the fascist thugs in power and among the people. They worry that if they did win, then Trump would just not comply with impeachment or legal verdicts. And then the Democrats would do… what? Call out the army against Trump and risk a split in the military?  Declare the (fascist-packed) courts illegitimate? And then what?

Along with this and most important, the Democrats do not want to risk the upheaval that would be involved by unleashing the masses, either against the outrageous stonewalling now going on or in whatever even more outrageous moves could come later.  In that BEB piece just cited, BA writes:

They’re afraid of the people who are angry about what’s represented by Trump and Pence. They don’t want those people out in the street, unless it is contained within the narrow confines of what the Democratic Party, and the system it serves, can allow. … That’s one of the worst nightmares of Piglosi and Company, not only because of the potential for militant confrontation with the fascists, but because people could then get completely out of the control of the Democratic Party, and the whole system of which the Democrats are representatives, functionaries, and enforcers.

What Must Be Done by Us?

Those who do see the need to oust the Trump-Pence regime should take deep note of this. The specter of the masses in the streets is their nightmare.  But for humanity worldwide, the vision of millions surging in protest through the streets of America against this regime, while raising and debating questions over what kind of a system brings forward such a monstrous regime, would be a most welcome sight indeed. And this is what WE must do.

The future remains unwritten. If millions flood the streets, even this tightly constrained impeachment process might play a role in providing a further opening for that struggle. But absent the masses, acting from below, this will come to naught. Worse still, it would leave the fascists wounded, needing to hit back, and with the initiative to do so. And it will leave those who will be hit by them in a position of passivity and/or collaboration.

In this light, the December Disruptions called by Refuse Fascism represent the direction we urgently need.

Previous: Part 2: The Democrats’ Impeachment Strategy: Whose Interests?

Next: Part 4: Gallagher, Graham, and Barr: How the Fascists Intend to Fight to the Finish