Trumpism may have popular support but it does not have majority support. However, the struggle to preserve democratic government can no longer be preserved strictly via Constitutional means. Our archaic Constitutional system was a great improvement over monarchy but was also created to preserve the rule of the privileged classes as well as the slave owner’s rights to their human “property”. It could therefore not peacefully resolve the issue of slavery without resorting to a Civil War which cost at least three quarters of a million American lives.
That same system still rules us today, one that never completely resolved the issues the Civil War was fought over. And because of this a second civil war now confronts us, the engine which promotes it being the unfinished business of the first Civil War. Driven and financed by elements in our ruling and corporate elites, they have decided to scrap our Constitutional System not with an improved and more democratic system, but with a racist and fascistic dictatorship currently led by Donald Trump. The Republicans, knowing they control the Supreme Court, are also busy using various state governments to pass laws which undermine the rule of law itself and the right to vote.
The Republican Party, not satisfied with a governmental system that was already much too faithful to capitalist and corporate interests, has decided that no one else’s interests count or should be recognized. And have endorsed Trump as their fascistic and racist champion. They already have a ready-made segment of the population to recruit and mislead. The white working classes of today have no working memory of the pitched battles they once fought to establish worker rights and the unions. Nor did most ever realize that African Americans could be natural allies rather than natural opponents in these struggles. The only requirement being they abandon their worship of white supremacy.
Bipartisanism: It’s the Problem not the Solution
Which brings me to the subject of this article, “Biden’s Historic Mistake.”Which is to understand that progress and change in America have historically not been led from the top or by the politics of bipartisanism. Of course, pursuit of bipartisanship today is akin to political suicide for Democrats and Biden, with the Republican Party actively pursuing fascism. In any case, it’s only after progress has been achieved through struggle does the political system recognize those changes and incorporate them into the legal framework of society. Nor does even that guarantee that those hard-fought rights will be immutable and never taken away.
If we transfer this lesson to today’s crisis situation, with fascists operating openly inside our own Congress, we see that the majority of Americans who voiced their opinions for Democratic rule in 2020 by electing Joe Biden are the key and must be set back into motion. Without that, the corporate run media and those progressive members of Congress will be swallowed up wholesale. Fascists are violent by nature and respect neither law nor past precedent.
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Those are the immortal words of Frederick Douglas. Now I am NOT recommending we act like fascists ourselves or become violent. Progressive struggles succeed mostly because of our own activism. Rights are never given to us. The civil rights movement and the movement to establish industrial unions are two prime examples of this. Whatever progress that has been made in the past came at great cost and are still in danger of being lost. Massive but peaceful demonstrations must be organized and clog major cities and the Capital itself. Without this pressure there will be no victory over fascism. We must become the corporate news each day, and not the Trumps of our country.
United Coordinated Actions Can Prevent Fascism
Had we had large numbers in the streets exerting pressure more recently, I doubt if stooges like Manchin and Sinema would have had the moxie to sabotage both voting rights and the president’s agenda. Biden is a politician who believes 100% that his party alone can right the ship and steer us away from the rocks of fascism. History has demonstrated that fascism cannot be defeated solely in parliaments or by a Congress. And certainly not by cooperation with Republican fascists. What helped put Biden in the White House in 2020 were months of demonstrations by millions of whites and African Americans. They can also save America from itself.