[Edited Message Follows] [Reason: Referenced seperate thread where Hari's comment appears.]
On Mon, Aug 10, 2026 at 06:06 AM, John Reimann wrote: > > Bonapartist regimes are not all the same. Compare the Baathist regimes to > those of Galtieri and Pinochet to the PRI regime in Mexico. There are huge > differences, but none of them was truly fully independent of the > capitalist class. I think it is the same with Trump, whose regime is not > fully Bonapartist yet. But if he manages to steal the upcoming election, I > think that will be a huge step in that direction. On Mon, Aug 10, 2026 at 05:36 AM, hari kumar wrote at https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/42863: > > A small but perhaps very important distinction: > (i) I do not say, or if I have said something sounding like it, it is/was > not my intention - that the Trump admin *is now already fascist*. I have > said, and continue to maintain that it is - if judged needed by the ruling > class - going to make that attempt. It is tending to that. > > Good morning John and Hari, I think we're all substantially in agreement. Consider the following points, most of which I've made before: 1. Everyone agrees resistance to Trump needs to go beyond the ballot box into the streets, requiring a united front of the broad left, as during the Vietnam war. 2. If I'm understanding you correctly from the above, we agree that while Trump and his administration may aspire to one-man or one-party rule, they *have not yet* gone beyond the bounds of bourgeois democracy. They may be said to represent the far right wing of bourgeois democracy, in the same way as their favourites Orban, Bolsinaro, Modi, Erdogan, Melei, Meloni etc. 3. I'm confident we equally agree that the distinguishing features of a fascist or Bonapartist regime are the effective abolition of the multi-party political system and constitutional checks on executive power by other branches of government, as well as the banning of independent trade unions and other mass organizations able to criticize and organize against the government. 4. While the governments referred to above have been able to bend the legislatures and judiciaries to their will and to restrict democratic rights in varying degrees, they have not been able to wholly eliminate these rights and institutions as did the fascist states in Italy, Germany, and Spain and the "Bonapartist" military dictatorships in Argentina and Chile and the Assad regime in Syria mentioned by John. 5. We also of course agree that if Trump is able to shut down or otherwise transparently steal the midterms and suppress the almost certain resistance which will follow, the debate about whether his administration is fascist or Bonapartist will tragically become more than academic. Our only point of disagreement may be over the likelihood of Trump succeeding in his project. I think the odds are against it because: a) the US bourgeoisie does not face a threat to its power and property from below; b) it is far stronger than those which perceived such a threat and decided to transfer power to one-party dictatorships to protect their class rule, and c) there is a long history of mass struggle for democratic rights in the US which will not be surrendered easily. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#42878): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/42878 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/120665425/21656 -=-=- 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]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
