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I always like a lot of what John writes, but I have to take exception to some of his observations. His latest, "Can Trump keep up the happy face?" concludes with, "In short, Trump will probably get a boost in his ratings following this speech (his first State of the Union message). But he will not continue his happy face. He cannot because his entire situation is too unstable. The only question is when and how will a renewed working class movement develop. In its absence, Trumps’ slide towards bonapartism will continue." Trump really did not look all that happy while he was speaking, but that is besides the important point: Trump has a lot of big problems that are likely to get much worse soon even though there is no "renewed working class movement" in sight. The confrontation between Trump and the FBI, CIA and the Democratic Party is a real crisis within the ruling class. John is correct to write about Trump's corrupt relationship with the Russian oligarch's, but misses the fact that this is exactly the point of conflict within the ruling class that is leading to a governmental crisis. The fact that this is happening in the midst of economic growth that has resulted in labor shortages in places like the San Francisco Bay area where John and I live has indeed given the working class unprecedented bargaining power, but this has yet to result in any major advances made by workers themselves. That economic growth however, is making the crisis within the ruling class even sharper, for the Republican Party, despite the fact that it loathes Trump almost as much as his wife does, has decided to close ranks around him. This has brought us into uncharted waters, making this crisis potentially much deeper than the Watergate crisis. The second bone I want to pick with John is his talk statement that " Trumps’ slide towards Bonapartism will continue." John is correct that Trump is attacking the institutions of the bourgeois state across the board, including even the sacred dogs of the FBI and CIA, and he is correct to imply that this is a big change from the actions of his predecessors, but this is not a slide towards Bonapartism. Bonapartism, in the sense of Louis Napoleon, is institutionalized in the Constitution of the United States. What Trump is doing is accelerating the undoing of the time honored and celebrated balancing act that epitomizes American bonapartism. While concentration of power in the office of the President has been going on for a long time, what is different now is that Trump is trying to place himself as an individual above the law and above the institutions of the executive branch. This is not a continuation of the Bonapartism of Barack Obama who also concentrated power, but who relied on and deferred to the institutions of the executive branch. Personally, I think this crisis is going to blow up before the working class comes on stage, and that it will develop in a very unpredictable way fraught with both danger and opportunity. Like John - I would be more than happy to see a mass working class movement sweep all of the rascals out of the halls of government. Who knows, maybe the crisis that is sweeping through Washington DC will sned off enough sparks to light the fires of working class anger. Anthony <https://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/president_donald_j-_trump_state_of_the_union.jpg> _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
