In relation to the election—and the larger conflict it is part of (and concentrates now)—the striking fact that the “mainstream” ruling class cannot fight the fascists in the way they need to be fought has found expression again in relation to the comment by Biden that the actual “garbage” is Trump’s supporters. (This was in response to the recent Trump rally in Madison Square Garden, and specifically the racist “joke” by a “comedian” that Puerto Rico is a floating island of garbage.) The way the Democrats have allowed themselves to be put on the defensive about Biden’s remark, and the “mainstream” media have to a significant degree played into the fascists’ hands in how they have covered this: All this sharply highlights the basic point that the “mainstream” imperialist ruling class representatives cannot fight the fascists in the way they need to be fought.

Here these “mainstream” forces (including the New York Times) are finally acknowledging, and emphasizing, that Trump is an actual fascist (and Trump’s former Chief of Staff General Kelly, in his interview with the Times, even gave a fairly accurate characterization of the content of fascism) but then these “mainstream” forces become defensive—refusing to follow through on the logic: If Trump is a fascist, which he clearly is, then his supporters are supporters of fascism, and that means they are truly despicable people.

As I made clear in my social media message REVOLUTION #98 (@BobAvakianOfficial),

Don’t bother with that bulls**t that the basic reason why people support Trump is because they are having a hard time economically, and so on. In fact, many Trump supporters are well-off economically (and some are very rich). But even for those who are having a hard time economically, the really relevant question is: why do they support the all-the-time-lying, ignorance-promoting, racist, misogynist (hater of women) and all-around fascist Donald Trump? The answer can only be that, at the very least, they find nothing wrong with racism and misogyny—which makes them misogynists and racists (what a terrible irony for those Black people and other people of color who support Trump!). Just like those who supported Hitler and the Nazis in Germany, they support a fascist because fascism appeals to them.

Would, or should, anybody be defensive about saying that those who supported Hitler were despicable people?!

But the “mainstream” politicians, media, commentators, etc., cannot follow this logic to its logical conclusion. Biden immediately “clarified” his comments to indicate he was just talking about that “comedian” who made the racist “joke” about Puerto Rico (and racist “jokes” about Latinos in general—and about Black people). And, again, the “mainstream” media allow Biden’s comment to become something that puts the Democrats on the defensive.

The Democrats cannot break free of the line—continually voiced by Barack Obama for 20 years, and by others—that “we are all Americans” and the problem is that Republicans, and now especially Trump, are “dividing us” (“the American people”). The Democrats (and their “surrogates” in the media) are allowing themselves to be put on the defensive when Trump spokespeople make the argument that, after all, Trump supporters are “half the country.” The Democrats (and other representatives of the “mainstream” section of the ruling class) cannot recognize, or acknowledge publicly, that there is a whole mass fascist phenomenon in this country—of which, as I have said, Trump is both an expression and a driving force. The Democrats cannot deal with this correctly because, in the framework of elections, they think it is a losing strategy to do so (allegedly alienating those largely mythical “undecided voters”). And, for more fundamental reasons, the Democrats (and the “mainstream” section of the ruling class overall) cannot do so because to acknowledge that essentially half the country is fascist blows apart the whole “shining city on a hill” and “leader of the free world” mythology, which is crucial for the way they seek to hold the country together and project its power in the world.

The actual, larger and more fundamental dynamics are (as I pointed to, for example, in my 2017 speech The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!) that the current polarization is basically an extension of the polarization that led to the Civil War in the 1860s. And, as I have also pointed out, the outcome of the Civil War—with the defeat of the Confederacy and the formal ending of slavery—was in decisive ways substantially reversed with the ending of Reconstruction in the 1870s, which basically paved the way for an unreconstructed South to “rise again,” not only in the sense that essentially the same kinds of forces that led the slave-owning Confederacy dominated in the South itself, but also in the sense that they increasingly exerted disproportionate power in the country as a whole. All this is a big part of the historical background and basis for the strength of fascism in the U.S. today.

The fact that, in today’s situation, the fascists have been able to win a section of people, and in particular men, who are themselves victims of white supremacy—this is to a large extent due to the role and impact of male supremacy. In this regard, there is the fact that in the historical development of this country, male supremacy—rationalized to a large extent on the basis of a literal reading of the Bible—has been closely interwoven with white supremacy. It is in those parts of the country—especially but not only the South—where white supremacy has historically been, and remains today, most overt and openly aggressive, that this is also true of male supremacy. Look, for example, at the states where draconian, severely restrictive and repressive bans on abortion have been enacted, especially after the fascist-dominated Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade: to a large degree, this is the old Confederacy (and, to use the parlance of the times, “Confederate-adjacent” areas).

But now, unlike in the time of the Civil War (and the end of Reconstruction) the U.S. is not a country with relatively limited impact in the international arena: Through the course of a number of “cycles,” or spirals, of world events, particularly involving two world wars, the U.S. has emerged as the world’s most powerful imperialist country, and the greatest plunderer of people and the environment. Of even more fundamental and decisive importance, as I emphasized in “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating”:

This is not the time of the Civil War in the 1860s, when the goal of those fighting against injustice was to abolish slavery, and—in terms of who ruled society—the only possible positive outcome was the consolidation and strengthening of the rule of the rising capitalist class centered in the North. That time is now long gone. And this system of capitalism, which has developed into a system of worldwide exploitation and oppression, capitalism-imperialism, is long outmoded—long past its expiration date, long past any circumstances where it could play any positive role. The goal now must precisely be getting rid of this whole system of capitalism-imperialism.

All this relates to the critical point that the “mainstream” representatives of the ruling class cannot fight the fascists in the way they need to be fought. And this has very important implications precisely with regard to the fact that the fight against this fascism must be waged, not to maintain (or restore) this system of capitalism-imperialism, as it has imposed its domination over people, here and throughout the world, for generations—but, instead, this fight must be waged as part of fighting to abolish this whole monstrous system. This is of strategic, and very immediate, importance in the current situation where the contradictions and conflicts in the country overall, and within the ruling class, are deep-seated and intense, and cry out for resolution, but can have no good resolution within the framework and confines of this system.