In case you haven’t noticed, the Republicans have gone all in, Texas hold’em style. Trump was the catalyst. What they stand for is no longer even thinly disguised — white supremacy, dictatorship and an end to the two party system. Our system of market capitalism betrayed the cause of African Americans when Union Troops were pulled out of the South, and white rule and control was reestablished through terror. The North looked the other way and market capitalism was content for 100 years to leave things largely undisturbed. The Civil Rights Movement put selective fascism back on trial and forced concessions which today are in jeopardy.
The Republican Party has gone full circle
Once the Anti-slavery Party, the Republican Party has gone full circle, starting in the 50s when they not so slowly became primarily the party of white supremacy. At first by trying not to cause too much attention and not going too far. All that has changed. The blind submission to Trump, the failed coup of January 6th, the fraudulent charges of a fixed national election, and now an all out effort to again deprive African Americans of the right to vote, leaves no doubt that a second Civil War is in the making. There are already fatalities accumulating as I write this, an estimated huge number of unnecessary deaths cause by Trump’s incompetence and politicization of Cov19 prevention measures. Affecting the poor, people of color, and immigrants in disproportionate numbers
In would not surprise me that if the Democrats succeed in passing legislation to prevent the recent attacks on voting rights, the Republicans consider refusing to obey any laws passed, taking it to the Supreme Court, even threatening to leave the Union as they did in 1861 if they don’t get their way. It has become quite clear that national voting demographics will continue to favor Democrats. It is also clear that the Democrats have been pressured by circumstances to defend openly the voting rights of African Americans as well as democracy itself.
Will Anyone Blink?
The question becomes, perhaps sooner than later, if anyone will blink? Given Republican control of more than half the states, allowing these voter suppression laws to stand would be a tremendous blow to the Democrats, shattering the two party system and real democracy and making it near impossible to ever elect a progressive president or a Congress. Market capitalism cares little about either side prevailing, and is more concerned with the long term intentions of the Democrats, which seems likely to have more spending on social issues, infrastructure and more taxes on corporations and the wealthy if they come out on top. If the Republicans prevail, a period of Civil War is possible and a destabilization of profits. It does not appear that Wall Street is of one mind on how best to address the crisis, perhaps there is a slight lean towards the Democrats.
So it’s shaping up as a life and death struggle. If I were advising Biden, I would advise him to emphasize that the struggle to preserve voting rights is in the interests of all Americans, and counter pose his vision of America, and democracy for all Americans, against the Republican view of placing power only with corporations and the wealthy. He really has no other choice
The Republican appeal is to historic white supremacy and racism. That is the way backwards for America, not forward. I suspect Biden is well aware of what’s at stake. This is not the time to waffle the way that Centrist Democratic leadership has done in the past. I suspect the Republicans are holding a losing hand, and are largely bluffing. Their bluff must be called. To survive, capitalism must make some strategic concessions. Had the right wing captured the White House instead of FDR in 1932, all of history would be different. FDR made those essential concessions, recognize unions, and essentially saved capitalism from itself. And defeated Hitler and the Japanese fascists. Today the enemy is much closer.