Are YOU On The “Same Team” As Trump?

Do YOU Want To Find “Ways to Work Together” With Him As He Installs Fascism?

This Is What The Top Democrats Say, And Here’s Why.

January 5, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The day after Trump was elected president, Barack Obama said that he and Trump were members of the “same team.” He said they were running a “relay race,” and the election was an “intramural scrimmage” to see who could best represent that team. And now that Trump won “we are all rooting for his success.”

Why did Obama say this? And why do Democratic Party leaders like Schumer, Pelosi and “Saint Bernie” Sanders, as well as “flavors of the month” like Doug Jones, keep talking about how they’re willing to work with Trump?

Because they are on the same team. They’re telling the truth about this. It’s one of the rare cases when they do tell the truth. So people need to face what this means—and its implications for society.

First, what team are they talking about? It’s “Team America.” It’s the team made up of those ruling and representing America’s capitalist-imperialist system. Let’s not forget that “Team America” founded itself on the genocide of Native peoples and the enslavement of millions of Black people. Team America to this day has white supremacy, male supremacy, and American global supremacy knitted into its very core—it is a capitalist-imperialist system that cannot do without any of that.

And what kind of “work” is it that they’re talking about doing together? Making sure their “team” and its murderous, oppressive system “succeeds in today’s world.”

The top Democrats do have sharp differences with Trump and the Republicans—but they’re not over how to best serve the interests of humanity; they’re over how to best run their empire and maintain the stability and coherence of their oppressive society at home.

That means that no matter how sharply the Democrats disagree with this or that Trump policy, they are doing so from within that framework. So one of their core goals is keeping people loyal to the “team”—their system and working through its social and political channels.

This is why the only thing you can “rely” on these Democrats for is to keep the struggle within the narrowest possible bounds and to use whatever credibility you lend them to suppress those people who DO take this fascist threat seriously—people who do NOT feel as if they are on the “same team” as people trying to restore open white supremacy, people directly threatening nuclear destruction, people unapologetically bragging about sexual molestation and assault.

Don’t believe it?

Then why, last April did the Democrats cheer when Trump launched 59 cruise missiles against Syria? Senator Chuck Schumer called it “the right thing to do.” The “militant” Senator Elizabeth Warren agreed: the “Syrian regime must be held accountable.” The “radical” Bernie Sanders mildly criticized the war criminal Trump for not consulting Congress first. This normalizes U.S. aggression around the world, normalizes Trump’s fascism, and trains people not only to passively tolerate U.S. crimes around the world but to root for the imperialist “team” no matter who is in charge.
Why did leading Democrat Schumer agree with Trump on moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem (a U.S. rubber stamp of approval for Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people), but also criticized his “indecisiveness” Trump didn’t say when the U.S. embassy would move, and he wouldn’t recognize Israel’s total control over all of Jerusalem (East Jerusalem remains home to over 400,000 Palestinians, nearly half the population of the entire city, and has been seen as a potential Palestinian capital in any “two-state” solution.) Here again, Schumer normalizes Trump, and casts those who oppose Israel’s genocide as beyond the pale.
For nearly three years Saudi Arabia has been waging a reactionary and barbaric war in neighboring Yemen. With U.S. bombs and military support Saudi Arabia has targeted broad sections of the Yemeni people, killing thousands and pushing millions into the death-grip of famine and cholera. Some Democrats have raised concerns that Saudi Arabia’s actions could weaken it and U.S. power in the region. But they have not called for breaking ties with and ending military aid to the bloodthirsty, fundamentalist Saudi monarchy or condemned it for committing war crimes. This is shamefully imbuing people with the notion that the only lives they should care anything about are American, and that they should stay silent in the face of mass genocide and towering crimes against humanity.
Trump repeatedly threatens to “destroy” North Korea with nuclear “fire and fury” and many experts fear a U.S. war on North Korea is a real and looming possibility. This is an enormous, cataclysmic danger which will take determined mass protest and resistance by millions to stop. Yet the Democrats are fighting for people to confine their actions to calling Congress, cheering a few Democratic speeches or resolutions, and waiting until the 2018 elections (which won’t change anything fundamental).

What about racism and white supremacy? The Democrats talk of inclusivity and equal right, but in Alabama, Doug Jones didn’t call out Roy Moore’s pro-slavery ravings. He mobilized Black voters on the down-low, while reaching out to Trump’s fascist base. Squarely confronting and challenging the racism and white supremacy at the core of Trump’s fascism has the potential to mobilize millions to become part of driving this regime from power. But the Democrats refuse to do so because they understand white supremacy is woven deeply into the fabric of America and unleashing millions to take it on could threaten or call into question their whole system.

#MeToo and women’s oppression? The Democrat’s quickly ran Al Franken out of the Senate after he was accused of harassing several women. Some Democrats have issued statements against Trump for his sexual predation, but the Democrats have refused to call out people like theocrat Roy Moore and the whole misogynist, Christian fascist agenda at the core of the Trump/Pence regime which aims to strip women of their most basic rights and reassert open patriarchy with a vengeance—much less mobilize the millions awakened by the #MeToo movement to take on this whole regime. Just compare how the Democrats still tolerate and only very mildly and intermittently bring up Trump’s admitted molestation of women to the kind of all-out struggle waged by the Republicans over Bill Clinton’s crap.

Trump’s ugly fascist program has been clear from the day his campaign began and has become uglier, and more apparent and dangerous since. Yet the Democrats continue to counsel patience and working through the same channels that brought Trump to power in the first place—even muzzling talk, repeat talk, of things like impeachment as a “distraction” from the 2018 elections.

Given all this, how, in good conscience, can you rely on the Democrats to STOP this monster before he drags down the entire globe in flames?

So the real question is, which team do you want to be on? It depends on what you’re trying to do. If you want to advance and maintain capitalism-imperialism, making some criticisms of Trump where you think he is harming imperialist interests but you don’t want to call out or take on fascism per se, then clearly—the Democratic Party is the thing for you.

However, if you want to not just criticize and call out, not just take on, but seriously set about preventing the consolidation of fascism and DRIVING OUT this fascist regime, then you need to be on a different team. Don’t be on Trump’s team; don’t be on the intramural squad that’s scrimmaging against Trump; be on a team that’s trying to really STOP him.

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