No illusions, Marv. I think you are changing the subject without realizing it. That is, you seem to think that a working class party that doesn't advocate the overthrow of capitalism is a "bourgeois" party.
To re-jump the century to get back to 2024 . . . Trump is the symptom of a disease that has afflicted late stage capitalism in the U.S. (and elsewhere), though I think of it more as a secular religion of "the free market" and "private enterprise." It has always been a religion of death to the world, but is has increasingly become mandatory for the Republicans to demonstrate their faith in the ultimate righteousness of that religion by embracing its inhumanity and its cruelties. And they have their own Jesuitical orders like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. Over time, it has institutionalized overt criminality waged against the capitalist state itself. Nixon, Reagan, Dubya were all paving the way for Trump, who has made this acceptance of the cruelties of the system into a public celebration not only of the cruelties of the system but of the blatant criminality of power. The Democrats present themselves as the only viable alternative, after having spent their entire history actively repressing any other possible alternatives. They are co-religionists with the Republicans, and have been no less accepting of the cruelties in the system. As we saw the delegates to the DNC avert their eyes and close their ears to the pleas of Palestinians, the Democratic standard is no less accepting of the cruelties necessary to keep the machine well-oiled and functioning. Every Republican step towards the more open normalization of even greater criminality required the Democrats to step back from their sworn constitutional role to check and balance such shifts in the structure of power. The Democrats not only failed to address the overt criminality of Reagan in the Iran-Contra heist (which actually made Nixon look like a choir boy), but it celebrated Bush the Elder's war for power in the oil fields on behalf of the Saudis. When Bush the Younger knowingly lied the U.S. into a quagmire war, Democratic leaders assured him after winning the House of Representatives, that they would take no action against him over it. And the war ground on with more and more deaths, all part of the cruelties of the system. Just to make sure to get the message across, the Democrats got the point across that they were on the same team, the Democrats brought unindicted Republican conspiractors from Iran-Contra like Robert Gates and Elliot Abrams into Democratic administrations. And they paved the way for Republicans to stack the Supreme Court with right-wing idealogues. Through all of this, Orange Jesus squatted in the wings and took notes, with growing confidence that the Republicans would generally learn to swallow anything and that the Democrats would not take any effective action to stop it. And the Democrats have been consistently slow to investigate, prosecute or take action against Trump's crimes. These are still stacking up, along with newly surfaced stories about old crimes. And those who collaborated in covering those crimes are not sitting in the dock but on talk show panels. at the DNC, delegates averted their eyes and covered their ears as they encountered Gaza protesters, but sat in rapt attention to one Republican speaker after another. And Harris has pledged to put Republicans on her cabinet. It's a fair bet that we'll have a Cheney in the cabinet. My point here is that this isn't a simple cartoonish choice between heroes and villains that it's so often presented here (and elsewhere). The alternatives are not good. And I mean less the candidates than the none-existent parties behind them. That's not entirely the fault of "objective circumstances" and the historic state repression of the Left, however real that has been and still is. There's plenty of blame to go around, and it does us no service to simplify that problem into a cartoon either. The independent Left could have done much over the decades to have left us with better options and it did not. It's easier to sit back, throw up our hands, and say "well, we have no choice now but to back the Democrats who will, at least, fire warning shots before they shoot at us." Or denounce independent politics if it doesn't explicit identify itself in class terms. Or, if it is in class terms, it's not socialist. Or, if it's socialist, it's not got the right club logo. If the point of socialist electoral politics is to leave the movement or its prospects in the best possible position after the election. We can start the process in how we discuss the election here. The fact is that, when this over, whatever the result, radicals who voted Democratic or Green or Vegetarian Bolshevik are going to have to find common ground and work together. As a starting point, let's discard the partisan bullshit promoted that voting Democratic is the only alternative to the victory of fascism . . . as though everybody dutifully surrenders to the cult of the delusional Orange Jesus and his minions. Like hell we will. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#32005): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/32005 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/108216415/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
