In recent days there have been a spate of articles by a number of bourgeois commentators, including “conservative” ones, raising serious and well-founded alarm about possible moves from Trump to cancel or negate the elections if there is unfavorable result for the fascists, and detailing different ways he could do this.  See, for instance, J. Michael Luttig’s The Final Battle for America’s Democracy, in The New Republic.  In that light we want to call to people’s attention to the following section from HUMANITY ON THE BRINK: A Forced March into the Abyss, or Forging a Way Out of the Madness?

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From HUMANITY ON THE BRINK:

From the fundamental point of view of moving beyond the horrors of capitalism-imperialism—and, in more immediate terms, in order to open the way to the possibility of any decent relations within this country and in the world overall—it is crucial to defeat and remove the fascist Trump regime, on the basis of massive, nonviolent but sustained and determined mobilization, involving people with many diverse political perspectives, as has been called for and actively worked for by Refuse Fascism.

With regard to this fight against Trump/MAGA fascism and the fight for the future, the following are possibilities:

** First, fascist consolidation with all that means: the Trump regime remains in power and brutally enforces its reign of terror and atrocity, within the country and in the larger world. Things are already very far along in this direction—and this further emphasizes the critical importance of massive mobilization against this regime with the aim of actually removing it from power.

** Second, through a combination of massive nonviolent but determined struggle from below interpenetrating with very real, sharp and deepening contradictions at the top, the regime is driven from power.

** Third, the swirl of events leads to a situation where revolution, to abolish the whole system, becomes immediately and sharply posed as the necessity, even in order to remove the Trump fascist regime from power. Or, the regime is removed from power, short of revolution. In that case, the ouster of the regime would likely lead to at least a temporary cooling off of the struggle from below, giving rise to illusions, and new challenges—but a fundamental revolutionary resolution still could be possible (although certainly not guaranteed, especially in more immediate terms). At the same time, an actual civil war is a real possibility in that situation, if fascist forces, among the ruling class as well as in society more broadly, refuse to accept the defeat and removal of the Trump regime and turn to civil war to re-establish fascist rule. 

It is in light of this, and the overall consequences of allowing this fascist regime to remain in power, what I emphasized in my social media message #111 is crucially important: “We revcoms are serious—and all decent people need to be serious—about actually defeating this Trump/MAGA fascism.” And:

One of the most fundamental principles of the new communism I have developed is the need to consistently approach things in a serious, scientific way—and this means being open and honest about what our objectives are. As I said at the beginning, we revcoms (revolutionary communists, based on the new communism) are serious about defeating this fascism—because this fascism represents a very real horror not only for the people in this country but for people throughout the world.

At the same time, as I have repeatedly emphasized, this fascism has been brought forth by—has grown out of the very soil of—the system of capitalism-imperialism and its development through the history of this country. By its very nature, this system has continually brought forth horror after horror; and only an actual revolution can open the way to finally ending the terrible atrocity and needless suffering constantly caused by this system.

We revcoms will continue to work urgently to win people, in the thousands and then millions, to see the need—and to act on the need—for revolution. If it turned out that a massive movement actually succeeded in defeating Trump/MAGA fascism, without that involving the revolutionary overthrow of the whole system of capitalism-imperialism, then we would certainly not somehow be “disappointed”! We would recognize the great importance of this victory, for the cause of humanity. And we would continue to work tirelessly to carry forward the struggle toward the goal of revolution which is necessary to end the endless horrors of this whole system of capitalism-imperialism, and bring into being a much better system—as set forth in the Declaration at revcom.us: WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM.

The present situation is one where the efforts to drive out the Trump regime, as focused in Refuse Fascism’s Call and mobilization to D.C. last November, have not succeeded, at least in immediate terms. In light of this, while resistance against the regime’s overall onslaught (and different particular egregious outrages, such as the ICE raids) must and will continue, the attention of decent people will increasingly be drawn (spontaneously and through the action of the Democratic Party and those aligned with it) toward the 2026 mid-term elections (and even beyond that toward 2028). In relation to this, there are also different significant possibilities:

* Through a combination of factors, a profound and acute crisis for the regime could arise which would prominently, and more or less immediately, put its removal, through one means or another, “on the agenda.” In this connection, there is once again the real question of whether, in the event of a serious move to remove Trump, this could lead to a civil war in some form, with the Trump/MAGA fascists, including figures within the ruling structures, refusing to accept this and moving to armed rebellion.

* The Trump regime could move to prevent (or “delay”) the mid-term elections.

* The regime could move in (other) ways to maintain Republican control of both houses of Congress: “rigging” the elections and/or refusing to accept results that allow the Democrats to win a majority in one or both houses of Congress.

* Somehow, as a result of those elections, the Democrats become a majority in at least one house of Congress while the Trump regime remains in power otherwise, very likely with the continued backing of the fascist-dominated Supreme Court.

In relation to all these (and other possible) scenarios, it will be crucial to maintain active resistance and a basic “organizational structure” to give orientation and effect to the overall fight against the Trump fascist regime.

In any case, what is said in my social media message #141 will be continually borne out: 

“Every day this is driven home more and more forcefully and cruelly: There is no living with this Trump/MAGA fascism.”

It is not possible, at this point, to determine which of these scenarios—or perhaps some other situation—might develop. But this orientation is crucial: While the resistance against the fascist regime must continue, the advocates of the new communism, while continuing to be actively involved in this resistance, must be firmly oriented and prepared to carry out ongoing work for revolution—theoretical, political, practical and organizational work—even as this will need to be done under the conditions that will likely be qualitatively more repressive and difficult.