My Response To A Friend Who Fears The Nation Is Lost

A Message To A Friend-  (unedited)

Well, I wouldn't say it is hopeless, but I can see a number of States effectively leaving the Union over the next years. It's going to be a huge mess. We will see what happens by the end of this year. It is possible New York's DA  will indict Trump and his family.. The Oligarchy itself may see Trump as a liability and decide to dump him,  having served his purpose of unleashing chaos. What they have waiting in the wings however is just as bad, Tom Cotton, DeSantis, Pompeo, Pence, Noem, Abbott, etal. They and the Think Tanks behind them are the most dangerous fascists who will rise up and promise to bring "order" out of the chaos they have unleashed. 

The most important thing we can do is to unify our forces to lead the opposition. During the rise of Nazism in Germany, the Social Democracy spent more of their energy fighting the KPD (the German Communist Party) and vice-versa than the fascists. The German "Left" was at each other's throats in conflict over who would lead the Labor movement. The SPD (German Democrats) deployed their paramilitaries known as "The Reichsbanner" against both the Communists in the streets, as well as Hitler's Brownshirts. Stalin ordered the KPD to fight the SPD because he pronounced them more dangerous than the fascists. The same approach carried over into their parliamentary politics.  The German Christian "center" parties and the Army felt driven in many cases to accept Hitler because he promised to restore order and smash the Labor movement, among other things.

The worst failure of the German Social Democrats was their continued underestimating of Hitler, and their narrow parochial separate interests which allowed them to foolishly divide the forces of the German Left. My greatest concern since Trump was elected was not just what Trump would do, but to prevent the Democratic Party of today from failing in the same way. That is why I will not be a cheerleader for the White House, but will be a loyal critic. 

So I have been highlighting the destructive role of the Manchin/Sinema group of Dems,  and some of the rabid Biden hating Progressives being almost as dangerous as the Trump GOP, because of their divisiveness. Frankly, we will at some future point need the kind of unity that will enable us to organize nationwide general strikes and literally shut the country down for a good while, without violence. We saw the potential of this in the Summer of 2020 in response to the George Floyd murder, which we will need to do even bigger and better without looting or violence. 

If the GOP does take power, we will simply need to make a revolution to topple them. There has to be a unified approach to both economic and political program to wage an effective opposition. I don't see us defeating Trumpism with legal cases in the Courts. Not when they control SCOTUS, the Federal Bench, and have developed the talent for deliberately creating crises on the fascist model to justify ruling by executive orders. 

This is why I've said that I believe that the youth, and the military leadership will have a huge say in which way the nation goes. The youth have to generate the new informed leadership, and the military has to defend the Constitution and the People first, not those who illegally seize power. It will all play out in the next few years. 

My advice is to focus on those things which we can control. If Democrats cannot unify in a fight to defend our very right to vote, it is all over, the fascists will win and hold power. I believe it is time to put aside our personal causes and side issues for a time, and concentrate on this one thing. If we have the discipline and goodness to do that, then we can get somewhere. That is my hope at least. 


(Photo, demonstration in Philadelphis July of 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd) 



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