[Edited Message Follows] [Reason: Added reference to Meloni referendum defeat.]
On Tue, Jul 21, 2026 at 11:42 AM, hari kumar cited: > > “Project 2025 (also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project) is > a political initiative published in April 2023 by the Heritage Foundation > with the goal of reshaping the U.S. federal government by consolidating > executive power in favor of right-wing policies.” Hi Hari. No dispute that the Trump administration is consolidating executive power in favour of "right-wing policies". As you well know, the trend towards executive consolidation at the expense of the legislature has been an ongoing one in bourgeois democracies under both liberal/social democratic "left wing" and conservative "right wing" governments. Since the decline in trade union density and militancy from the mid-70's executive power has been used by both as a means of rolling back democratic rights and social benefits, but especially aggressively by right-wing governments like Trump (and Modi, Erdogan, Melei, and Orban and Bolsinaro before them). Another striking example of the constraints which bourgeois democratic systems place on would-be “Bonapartists" is Italy under Georgia Meloni. Meloni, as we know, has a background as a fascist activist and her party traces its political antecedents to Mussolini’s dictatorship. Like other politicians on the far right of the political spectrum, she took office aiming to change the Italian constitution drafted by the parties of the Resistance after WW II. In March, she tried to do so by limiting the the power of the judiciary but lost in a popular referendum. Hitler, Mussolini, and Napoleon III all resorted to strictly controlled plebicites to periodically legitimize their rule but never lost a single vote due to their suppression of independent political parties, trade unions, and media and the elimination of democratic rights of speech and assembly Our disagreement has turned on whether these latter are one-party dictatorships outside of or at the far right end of bourgeois democracy. I've made my point and can live with our analytical differences since I know full well you and everyone party to this discussion agrees that on the practical level resistance has to be encouraged against these governments, however they are defined and whereever openings present themselves. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#42581): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/42581 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/119773879/21656 -=-=- 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/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
