Right now, it appears that Trump is going to win the upcoming election. At the same time, it does not seem likely, but there is still a possibility, that the Democrats could actually mount a vigorous campaign, and that the Democratic candidate for president could actually win, not just the popular vote but also the Electoral College count. In that case, as I have emphasized before, it is almost certain that Trump and the Republicans would refuse to accept these results, and things could be “thrown into chaos” on a level beyond even what occurred in the last presidential election (in 2020) where Trump also refused to accept his loss in that election and nearly pulled off a coup to remain in power.

Or, if Trump does lose the vote and then appeals his loss all the way to the Supreme Court, and the Court rules in his favor (which is also entirely possible), then the Democrats would be faced with the question of whether to accept this, or to defy the Court’s ruling as illegitimate and seek to maintain the presidency in Democratic Party hands, in accordance with the actual results of the election.

In that situation, as well as in a situation where Trump “legitimately” wins the election (at least the Electoral College count, if not the popular vote), the Democrats could very well capitulate and passively accept fascism coming to power.

But, of course, none of this is certain or predetermined.

To return to the biggest question that I raised at the beginning, what does all this have to do with the possibility for an actual revolution, to sweep away this whole system? To get into this, let’s look further into these possible scenarios.

* The Democrats actually win the election, but the fascists, including the fascist-dominated Supreme Court, refuse to accept this and declare Trump the winner. If the Democrats did not capitulate to this but defied the Court’s ruling and attempted to remain in power, the Republicans and those in their camp would almost certainly not accept this situation, and would likely engage in violent opposition to it. This could very well lead to a new kind of civil war. In this situation, there would be the challenge, and there could be the possibility, for the revolutionary forces to seize initiative to transform this fight—changing its main character from a battle among those fighting to maintain this system, in one form or another, into one where there were masses of people fighting with the aim of abolishing this whole system, which has given rise to the fascism of Trump and the Republicans, and which continually perpetrates massive crimes against humanity and war crimes, whether the government is headed by Democrats or Republicans, because the need to commit such monstrous crimes is built into the very nature of this system of capitalism-imperialism.

In this situation, the forces for revolution would need to come to the fore in the fight against the fascists—and do so not with the aim of preserving, or restoring, the “democratic” form of this murderously oppressive system of capitalism-imperialism, but with the strategic goal of bringing down this whole system, and bringing something much better into being.

* Other real possibilities: Trump “legitimately” wins the election—or he loses, but the fascist Republicans, including on the Supreme Court, declare him the winner—and, instead of fighting against this, the Democrats capitulate and passively accept it. In that situation, there would almost certainly be, among tens of millions of decent people, both demoralization and fear—and at the same time tremendous agonizing and outrage, and at least a simmering desire to do something, while at the same time the paralysis of the Democrats would create a “political vacuum,” providing an opening for the forces of revolution to provide the leadership masses of people would be hungering for in order to oppose the imposition of fascist rule by the Republicans.

Let’s look into this further.

On a lesser but still significant scale, this kind of thing has happened in the recent past. In 2003, with the illegal invasion of Iraq by the U.S., masses of people in this country were strongly opposed to this invasion. But the Democrats could not give expression to the strongly felt impulse to oppose this war, because overwhelmingly the Democrats supported this illegal invasion of Iraq. The result of this was a situation in which we revcoms (revolutionary communists) were able to take the lead, and establish the terms, for uniting people very broadly in initiating mass mobilization against this war in Iraq, and the opposition to this war became truly massive.

More recently, in 2022, when it was becoming clear that the Supreme Court was actually going to move to overturn Roe v. Wade, ripping away the right to abortion, and the Democrats once again were demonstrating that they were not going to put up any serious opposition to this, we revcoms were again able to take initiative to unite with others to bring forward large-scale opposition to this outrage, mobilizing tens of thousands.

Clearly, even as these are examples of major developments, they are not on the same scale as what would be involved in an actual revolution aiming for the overthrow of the whole system. But the point is that, if things came about, in this immediate period ahead, in such a way that the Democrats just capitulated and accepted Trump/fascism coming back into power—with a vengeance—there could be the kind of “political vacuum” on a profound level that could make it possible for the forces of the urgently needed revolution to seize the initiative and win masses of people to rise up to fight for this revolution.

Of course, what I have discussed here are not the only possible scenarios that could develop in relation to the election scheduled for November, or more generally in the period ahead. But they are real possibilities and, along with other extremely jolting events, they illustrate the fact that the “normal way” this system has functioned in this country for some time will almost certainly be continually disrupted, and even very likely become impossible, as the contradictions and divisions within this country, and particularly the conflicts between the different sections of the ruling class, continue to sharpen and deepen.

Clearly as well, the possibility for wrenching an actual revolution out of all this could only become a reality if there is a hard-core revolutionary force of thousands, able and prepared to lead millions to have a real fighting chance to bring about this revolution. This is what I will get into further in my next message.