Kash Patel
On November 30, Donald Trump nominated his fanatically loyal follower Kash Patel to head the FBI—the main political police organization in the U.S. (See "What the FBI Is… and What It Is NOT".) In order to make this possible, the current FBI director had to retire—which he quickly did. To give a sense of how fanatically loyal Patel is, he has written a children’s book called The Plot Against the King, in which Trump is cast as a good-hearted king and in which a character called Hillary Queenton (get it?) is cast as a shifty pretender to the throne who spreads lies about the Trump character. Patel gives himself a role as the king’s wizard. The book ends with “Hillary Queenton” banished from the kingdom once and for all.
Book cover for Kash Patel's The Plot Against the King
If you dismiss Kash Patel as a clown, be aware that he is one of those vicious, sadistic, murderous and deadly serious clowns, straight out of the horror movies. And this very unfunny “clown” is being appointed to head one of the most powerful repressive forces in the world.
Patel literally ends his more serious 2023 book, Government Gangsters, with an enemies list of 60 high-level opponents of Trump. These range from Biden and Harris to General Mark Milley (the recently retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) to the present and former heads of the FBI itself.
Patel does not even pretend that they have violated actual laws, other than the “crime” of rejecting Trump’s claim—proven false many times over—that the 2020 election was “stolen” and that he (Trump) was the true winner.
Patel looks at the news media through the same lens, saying that:
We will go out and find the conspirators—not just in government, but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.… We’re going to come after you.… we’re putting you all on notice…
Ask yourself: “What does it mean for society as a whole for the most powerful instrument of federal law enforcement to be run by someone who thinks people should be persecuted, prosecuted and even jailed—or worse—because they promote political views that go against Trump and his MAGA-fascist agenda? What does it mean if even ruling class news media are to be sued or shut down by the political police for reporting news that is not favorable to the regime?”
The answer should be clear: FASCISM. Nothing less. If this is not beaten back—which can and needs to happen—we will be leaping and spiraling rapidly into a society that is utterly suffocated under a thick blanket of fear, in which “watch what you say” becomes the mantra, every minute of every day, of the entire population. In which no idea that goes against the regime, and Trump, can be spoken without the threat of severe consequences.
This is a critical and integral part of implementing and enforcing their fascist program. Trump and the MAGA movement have a passionate commitment to an all-around fascist society—to persecuting and driving out of public life LGBT people; to reducing women to incubators of children and property of men; to putting Black people “back in their place” as openly second-class citizens; to uprooting, imprisoning and deporting millions of immigrants; to making Christianity the official and ruling religion; to denigrating, distorting and suppressing actual science and the scientific worldview… and much more.
And while Patel focuses almost entirely on MAGA’s enemies within the ruling class, Trump has made very clear that he has the masses in his sights as well. Let us not forget his brutish calls to “beat the hell out of” protesters, his call to “shoot them [protestors] in the legs,” and his repeated efforts to deploy the U.S. military to crush the George Floyd protests in 2020. Trump says:
We have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics. And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.
The tearing up of the “rule of law”—and in particular unleashing the FBI to surveil, to infiltrate, and even to conspire in assassinations goes hand in hand with and is a necessary condition for carrying out this overall fascist agenda.
A Crucial Moment
Those who oppose Trump’s fascism—and certainly those who dare to dream of a far different and better world than this rotten system could ever provide—need to recognize the extreme danger in what is happening with the appointment of Patel and other fascist fanatics to positions wielding vast amounts of power. This is not “going away” and it is not something we can “ride out.”
At the same time, it’s crucial to recognize that these fascists do not have everything sewn up. Tens of millions of people are bitterly and deeply opposed to what Trump and MAGA are moving to do, and there are divisions—some quite deep—and potential ruptures within the ruling class and within the institutions of the state that MAGA is moving to control. The program represented by Patel is not without risks for Trump in regard to sparking opposition at all levels of society.
In this situation, there is both an urgent need and potential for fierce opposition to erupt to every step they take. We should not forget the George Floyd protests nor the recent outpouring of hundreds of thousands of protesters in South Korea when its president declared martial law.
But we cannot wait for this to just “happen.” The revolutionary leader Bob Avakian has said the following in his @BobAvakianOfficial social media message REVOLUTION #111, “We revcoms are serious—and all decent people need to be serious—about actually defeating this Trump/MAGA fascism”:
As I have said before, this is not a time for demoralization and despair. It is not a time for accepting this Trump/MAGA fascism as “legitimate,” and staying within the confines of “how things work” under this system, as Democratic Party heads and other “mainstream” ruling class representatives are urging people to do. It is not a time for turning inward and attempting to “take care of self” as the juggernaut of Trump/MAGA fascism gains momentum and crushes masses of people. This is a time for reaching out to all the others who feel the same outrage at Trump/MAGA fascism—a time for collective action and self-sacrificing struggle for the greater good: the greater good of defeating this fascism.
So, what does defeating this fascism actually mean—how can this actually happen? It means building and mobilizing a truly broad and determined mass movement—uniting all who can be united, in rapidly and continually growing numbers, all over the country—aiming to become so massive and powerful that it creates a profound political crisis, such that Trump cannot govern the country and implement his fascist program.
We call on everyone who has any care for justice and basic rights, and any regard for the rule of law, to join us in this fight.
This is an except from We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, A Fundamentally Different System.
We Need a New Socialist System Based on the CONSTITUTION FOR THE NEW SOCIALIST REPUBLIC IN NORTH AMERICA
A Whole New Dimension of Freedom and Rights of the People
WE DECLARE AND DEMAND:
The Existing Capitalist-Imperialist System And Institutions Of Government In This Country Must Be Abolished And Dismantled—And Replaced By A New, Socialist System Based On The CONSTITUTION FOR THE NEW SOCIALIST REPUBLIC IN NORTH AMERICA.
So long as we are still living under the rule of this system of capitalism-imperialism, we will defend people against attacks on their lives and on the rights that are supposed to be guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. But we need a whole different system, with a whole different Constitution—the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America—which will provide much greater rights for the people, including the basic right to have the fundamentally determining role in a new society and government whose purpose and goal is to eliminate all exploitation and oppression, everywhere.
The fact is that, despite its claims to speak in the name of “we, the people” the U.S. Constitution is a document that was written by and has served the interests of slave-owning and capitalist exploiters, from the beginning of this country down to today. It is a document that restricts the notion of “freedom” to what is possible within the killing confines of this system of capitalism-imperialism, a system of brutal exploitation and murderous oppression. It is a document that sets the terms for enforcing this system which treats the masses of people, here and all over the world, as objects to be used and abused to generate profits and increase capital for a small number of big-time exploiters...a system that casts off as useless, and treats as dangerous, huge numbers of human beings who cannot be profitably exploited...a system that causes endless wars that kill off millions and cause massive destruction...a system that treats the environment as something to be plundered in the pursuit of profit and rivalry to dominate the world.
The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America is completely, fundamentally different than the U.S. Constitution. This Constitution for a new socialist republic provides a sweeping vision, a firm foundation and concrete blueprint for bringing into being a society, and ultimately a world, free from all forms of slavery, all exploitation and oppression based on class, race, sex and gender, all relations in which one part of humanity is subordinated to and dominated by others.
The new socialist system based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America will do what can never be done under this system of capitalism-imperialism: Through its institutions, through elections and in an all-round way, this new socialist system will provide the means to politically empower the masses of people, in order to carry out the revolutionary transformation of society, and to contribute to this process in the world as a whole.
A Whole New Dimension of Freedom and Rights of the People
The role of government institutions established with this new socialist Constitution, including the police and military, will no longer be to contain, control, repress, brutalize, murder and slaughter people, here and all over the world. Instead, these radically new institutions will safeguard the rights of the people and give backing to the masses of people in moving to abolish all forms of discrimination and inequality, all relations of oppression and exploitation. They will defend the new, emancipating society against attempts to sabotage, attack and destroy it, and will support people throughout the world fighting for the goal of emancipation.
As set forth in this Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, the people in this new society will not only be allowed but encouraged and enabled to fully speak their minds politically, to express themselves freely through artistic and other means, to dissent and protest with constitutional and institutionalized protection of their right to do so. They will be provided with the means for doing this, because this is an important part of creating an atmosphere where people can “breathe” and feel at ease, and where they will be inspired to join with others in grappling with what will, and what will not, contribute to the emancipating transformation of society and the world as a whole.