Gallows constructed at the Capitol, an attempted coup, fascist-packed courts shredding the rule of law... all this was just the beginning. 

In Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility Of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed. A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap For This Revolution, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian analyzed that: 

If things have not already fully erupted before then, the scheduled presidential election of 2024 is very likely to be a critical focal point and turning point, through which the fascist Republicans will attempt to gain and lock down power over society, and put an end to any possibility of a future “transfer of power” away from them.

Over the last several weeks, the splits among the rulers are sharpening, with the fascist juggernaut speeding up. The question sharply posed is whether or not masses of people will come to recognize where things are heading rapidly, unless there is a fundamental challenge to the whole set-up, a revolution for a whole new system. For that to happen, a second question is posed: whether the forces for revolution are getting in position to seize on this—not to rescue the norms of this nightmare system... but to overthrow it, to bring that radically different system into being. 

#1. Delegitimizing Biden Through Groundless Impeachment Proceedings

** Last Tuesday, a leader in the Republican Party—Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy—announced an impeachment investigation into Joe Biden. This would be the third impeachment of a president in five years. It opens Biden up to what could be months of investigation from the fascists into what they call “the Biden Crime Family.” Biden is accused of corruption for using his position in government to assist his son Hunter’s business dealings. In fact, this is really a sharp response to the two impeachments of Trump when he was president, and now the four indictments of Trump, with a total of 91 criminal charges, almost all of them stemming from crimes he is accused of during his time in office. ¹

#2. Using Laws to Negate Results of Elections

** Last April, Democrats poured millions of dollars into the elections for a new state Supreme Court judge in Wisconsin. The judge the Democrats were backing—Janet Protasiewicz—won by a landslide, giving liberals on the Court a 4-3 majority. This could seriously undermine Republican rule in Wisconsin—a state where Republicans have gerrymandered (rigged) election districts so that they have a 65 percent supermajority in the state legislature (and very nearly the two-thirds majority needed to overturn any veto by the governor), even though they sometimes get less than 40 percent of the total votes statewide, and rarely get a majority. They have used this “supermajority” to pass all kinds of reactionary legislation. 

What is the fascist response to losing this election, which could put an end to their ability to rig elections overall in their state? On September 10, a leader of the Wisconsin state Republican Party threatened to impeach Protasiewicz—even though she has yet to hear a single case. Impeachment is a process meant to remove an elected official if they are found to have abused their office or committed serious crimes while in office. But according to the fascists, fuck that and fuck the norms if the norms means “we lose.” No, they didn’t outright say that—but they might as well have!

#3. Defying the Courts to Deprive Black People of the Right to Vote

** In January 2022, a federal court ordered Alabama to stop gerrymandering Congressional districts in a way that severely restricted the impact of the votes of Black people. Basically, the fascist-dominated legislature had drawn election maps in violation of the Voting Rights Act passed of 1965. This meant that Black voters did not have a realistic opportunity of electing their preferred candidate because the maps were purposely drawn to dilute their votes. Finally, in July 2023, Alabama produced a new map, which was still set up to limit Black representation—defying the federal court yet again. On September 5, the court threw that out, stating that it was “deeply troubled” by Alabama’s defiance, and ordered that independent experts draw up new maps. In response to that, Alabama is ignoring the federal court order while appealing to the majority-fascist U.S. Supreme Court. While no one knows what the Supreme Court will do, there is a real danger that it will take the opportunity to strike down what remains of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (which allowed millions of Black people to vote who had previously been denied that right). And again, what is the response from the fascists to an attempt to restrict their violations of “the norms”? Once more: fuck that and fuck the norms if the norms means “we lose.” 

What Has Held This System Together Will No Longer “Hold”

These examples illustrate both the determination of the fascists and why relying on the “political norms” of this system to defeat these fascists is deadly. The fascist forces are moving to remake society with a theocratic (biblically based) form of rule. They’ve unleashed an organized and armed social base of millions who believe they’re on a “mission from god” to impose an agenda of open white supremacy, the patriarchal subordination of women and the purging of LGBTQ people from public life, anti-immigrant terror and anti-scientific lunacy. To accomplish this, they need to and are itching to “blow up” the normal operation of political rule of this system.

Just this week, Mitt Romney—one of a tiny number of outspoken anti-Trump Republicans—was reported in the Atlantic magazine to have said that many fellow Republicans didn’t vote for Trump’s impeachment out of fear of violence against themselves, and even assassination, from the very fascist movement they were part of unleashing. Romney himself said he has personally spent $5,000 every day for security since the attempted coup on January 6.

In talking about a discussion that went on with Republicans during Trump’s second impeachment trial, the Atlantic said, “When one senator, a member of leadership, said he was leaning toward voting to convict [Trump], the others urged him to reconsider. You can’t do that, Romney recalled someone saying. Think of your personal safety, said another. Think of your children. The senator eventually decided they were right.”

Think about this.

Wake the Fuck Up, People! 

What is the answer of the Democrats? A writer for the New York Times characterized the position of people in the Biden administration towards these developments as being, “that it will work out all right in the end because it has worked out all right before.”

First of all, coming from the Democrats—a ruling party of this oppressive system—this is twisted! It is not “working out all right” for millions of women without legal access to abortion, many now forced by the state to bear children against their will... for the Black, Latino and Native American people continually and way disproportionately harassed, brutalized, imprisoned and even killed by the police… it is not “working out all right” for the LGBTQ youth who are being terrorized by fascist thugs in and out of government... or for the millions of migrants viciously demonized, now trapped in detention centers in Mexico or forced to risk their lives crossing the Rio Grande only to be met by a floating raft of barbed wire and circular saws! 

But still, this does capture a widespread delusion among millions of people who do care but are keeping their heads in the sand—actively ignoring where things are headed. Ignoring the existential danger of climate destruction—worsening floods, fires, droughts—caused by this system of capitalism-imperialism. Ignoring when Biden says that the proxy war he's waging with Russia in Ukraine poses the threat of “nuclear Armageddon.” Ignoring when former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin says to those indicting Trump, “Do you want us to be in civil war? Because that’s what’s going to happen... We’re not going to keep putting up with this.” Ignoring when the former governor of Arkansas and serious former presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, says about the legal attempt to prevent Trump from running because he tried to incite an insurrection, “Here’s the problem: If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets.”

What's Needed Now

All this is reality, and no one can escape this reality. Either we radically change it, in a positive way, or everything will be changed in a very negative way. 

—Bob Avakian (BA), Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating

Right now, changing this in a positive way means making revolution to overthrow this system of capitalism-imperialism. It is this system that is the source of such needless, and seemingly endless, suffering. And it is the underlying dynamics of this system that are driving things towards an all-out crisis—where the fundamental direction of society could be battled out in a way that has not happened since the Civil War in the U.S. in the 1860s... and that time could come sooner than you think.

If you are not seriously checking out the work of Bob Avakian in the face of this—his analysis of this situation, the strategy for revolution he’s developed, the vision and blueprint for a whole new society embodied in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America and the scientific method and approach that undergirds all this—you are being derelict and irresponsible as a human being, and frankly full of shit!

There is no time to waste!