The forces within U.S. politics that oppose the agenda of the ultra-monopolists; that wish to end their degrowth efforts, their wars, their stranglehold over medicine, their attacks on liberties; are being confronted with a great obstacle in their mission. This is that Trump, the candidate who’s nominally aligned with such goals, is not truly willing to realize these goals. Nevertheless, many among this anti-monopoly element have invested themselves in MAGA.
When you look at how these MAGA-aligned anti-monopoly figures view Trump, quite often they show they’re already aware of Trump’s pro-imperialist record. For example Angela McArdle, the chair of the Libertarian Party, has made it clear she’s against many of the things Trump stands for. McArdle and other Libertarians like her have entered into an alliance with Trump not because they view him as a reliable fighter of the deep state, but because doing so can help them advance their own objectives. (Which by McArdle’s will they don’t intend to compromise on).
Given their strategic place compared to communists, I believe it’s right for them to take the posture towards MAGA that they are. As unlike communists, they actually have hope for gaining direct policy influence through the Trump campaign. The Libertarians have adopted a practice where they’re running their own candidate, but working with Trump where possible so that he can give them more sway. This isn’t the kind of relationship with Trump that the organization I’m part of (the CPI) has; we lack the LP’s proximity to Trump’s circle, and we don’t fit in with this circle anyhow. CPI believes communists should be open to making alliances with people in the government, but we see that Trump isn’t one of the people who’s compatible with us in this way, and it’s not like we’ll change our values to win his favor. What CPI has instead done is join a coalition that includes the Libertarians, which lets us better take advantage of the opportunities MAGA’s contradictions are creating for us. The deep state is aware of this, because it’s attacked our coalition quite directly.
After seeing the ways in which the resistance towards the Ukraine proxy war has developed; and how the only strategy that’s seriously threatened NATO involves collaborations among different antiwar tendencies; I’ve become convinced that Trump’s likely second term will catalyze developments which we can greatly leverage. Developments where the lower levels of capital, which badly desire for Trump to re-industrialize the country, instead see the present degrowth policies continue. And where communists, if we take the initiative, will then be able to prove ourselves as the true force that can bring this growth.
We communists who’ve recognized the correctness of Deng’s theories; who see how socialism has needed to transition towards something with a market sector; are the ones that can truly help these smaller entrepreneurs. We advance a program not of trying to reform the present state into something that fosters growth, but of overthrowing this state, and building a new pro-industry state in its place. This is the great issue that unites us with these politically passionate business owners, who at first look to be our enemies.
These lower-level capitalists are (at this stage) overwhelmingly anti-communist for a different reason than the ultra-rich are anti-communist. Whereas the ultra-rich hate communism for being pro-growth, the smaller bourgeoisie hate communism because they’ve been led to believe communism is anti-growth. The John Birch ideological tradition, which Trumpism carries on, views communism as simply being a program of governmental control. In reality, it’s the countries with communist ruling parties that are best embodying the vision which these pro-growth entrepreneurs want implemented. Which have been using their market sectors to facilitate massive economic expansions, lifting up all within their societies.
Trump and the figures who uncritically tail him say they’ll do this. But they won’t, as evidenced by how Trump has massively advanced the goals of the imperial war machine that’s blocking growth. In terms of its leadership MAGA is not revolutionary, even though its popularity depends on appealing to revolutionary impulses. Its leaders can only be expected to do whatever they think benefits themselves at the moment, and because the deep state holds the most sway within the present system, the deep state will be what predominantly guides Trump in his second term. Communists provide an alternative to the dead-end strategy of Trumpism, one that’s revolutionary in practice.
Many within the smaller bourgeoisie have turned to the Libertarian Party, and many among them support the LP’s building ties with MAGA. Even though I want to connect them and the working class MAGA supporters with communists, these business owners are already helping our cause in a certain way. The LP is injecting an ideological energy into MAGA that’s genuinely antiwar, opposed to the monopolists, and against the intelligence agencies. Which means it can bring more of these small entrepreneurial elements and conservative workers into the proximity of communists.
What happens when the anti-deep state principles advanced by McArdle’s wing of the Libertarian Party fully clash with Trump’s pro-imperialist opportunism? How are these kinds of Libertarians, and the parts of the MAGA base which have become ideologically influenced by them, going to react when they see Trump continue the monopolist policies at such a crucial moment? Since Trump left office, we’ve entered into a new stage of our class conflict. One where this country’s people, including many within the lower levels of the bourgeoisie, have come to be increasingly unified against the endless war paradigm. This comes from a desire for raised living standards, as in growth, amid a living standards crisis that Covid mismanagement exacerbated. More are coming to see that the lockdowns, and the inflation that’s perpetuating their destructive legacy, are connected to the wars our government keeps going.
This is why whereas four years ago the left-right cultural conflicts were being inflamed by our crises, now our crises are making the culture wars less impactful. The narrative managers are needing to scramble to divert people back towards focusing on such issues, with their primary strategy at the moment being to advance the anti-woke psyop. They want Libertarians and MAGA people to be distracted from Trump’s failures by anti-woke rhetoric, made to care more about the trending conservative outrage narratives than about what actually matters to people’s lives. Some will fall for this trick, while others won’t, and some will even join with the anti-imperialist coalition. These discourse psyops have grown more limited in their potential to change the popular consciousness, because the people’s objective reality is catching up with their subjective interpretations of this reality.
It’s no longer possible to make the culture wars overwhelm our society’s conversations about the real problems we’re facing. And these conversations aren’t of the kind that Democratic Party “progressives” can control, like how they managed the opposition towards police brutality in 2020. They’re conversations about evils that the Democrats can’t plausibly claim to be opposed to: the war on Russia, the genocide against Palestine, the war on working families, the related war on non-monopoly enterprises. Communists can show ourselves to be reliable fighters against these things, and win the respect of all who are compatible with us.
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