Trump Administration is in deep crisis early on |
Trump:
“I’ve been saying for the last year and a half that the best thing we can do
politically speaking is to let Obamacare explode…..It is exploding right now.”
Paul Ryan: “We’re going to be living with Obmacare for the foreseeable future”
The vote on the health bill that is supposed to replace
Obamacare has been postponed. Trump has informed the media, the “fake media” no less, that the bill has
been “pulled.” Trump asked Ryan to
pull it and the Republicans headed in to an emergency session. Paul Ryan
is supposed to be giving a press conference at 4 pm today.
Rep.
Greg Walden, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee has stated that the
bill is dead.
This
is a huge setback for Trump and his Administration and adds to the thrashing he
got from the Wall Street Journal editorial pages three days ago. The Wall Street Journal is the leading
mouthpiece of US capitalism and its comments have to be taken seriously. This
is not the gutter press, the mass media that is aimed at the masses, it is the
voice of the US ruling class and meant for its members.
The
WSJ editorial compared Trump to “…a drunk
to an empty gin bottle...” because of his refusal to back of or apologize
for his unsubstantiated claims that former president Obama and the British
wiretapped Trump Tower.
“If President Trump announces
that North Korea launched a missile that landed within 100 miles of Hawaii,
would most Americans believe him?”, the WSJ wrote. This voice of the US ruling class also took a
swipe at Breitbart, the right wing news agency once run by Trumps close advisor
Steve Bannon, sometimes referred to as President Bannon.
It
is becoming clear that a dominant section of the US bourgeois is losing
patience with Trump. His endless double speak, lies and threats normally
through Twitter, are a destabilizing factor and a hindrance to profit taking.
Capital loathes instability and obstacles to the business of making money. The
Journal pointed out in its editorial that Trump’s approach, his “false claims” survived the campaign
as his supporters treated them as “mere
hyperbole”. This may have been true
in the sense that some people may have thought Trump was just mouthing off but the
fear he has instilled in people, women, blacks and immigrants especially is
real as a whole section of Trump supporters took him seriously and welcomed his
racist, misogynistic and nationalist tone. There was no hyperbole as far as
they were concerned and the increase in racial violence and killings by white
nationalists and Nazi elements are a product of Trump’s rhetoric, hyperbole or
not.
But
the majority of the bourgeois are nearing the end of the road as far as Trump
is concerned. Their candidate, Hillary Clinton lost the election and they admit
that she was not a popular alternative but, as the WSJ adds, “…. now he’s President, and he needs support
beyond the Breitbart cheering section that will excuse anything”
The
collapse of the health care bill is another nail in the coffin. The problem is
what to do?
US
capitalism is in such a deep crisis that it has been almost impossible to predict
what will happen. But it is beginning to
appear like Trump will be, as some have predicted, the shortest serving president
in US history. I for one, cant’ say with
certainty that he will be gone before too long but they won’t put up with him
for much longer. There are huge
divisions with in the Trump Administration and the Republican Party is slipping
back in to a fractious melee after a brief period of euphoria after the Trump
win.
If it seems likely that Trump is incapable of showing a real sense of class solidarity and loyalty by building coalitions and reaching out to Democrats as some like McCain have said there are other options. There is still the claim by the ex British spy that the
Russians have something on Trump that happened during his visit there. There
are ongoing investigations by the FBI in to his and members of his cabinet’s
dealings 2ith Russia that could be used as a reason to remove him.
The
US ruling class in no stranger to assassination and if they had to they would
resort to that although it is highly unlikely as it would increase the already
volatile and unstable environment in the US. Trump is at war with the second
branch of the US government’s three branches, the Judiciary. His attacks on
judges as individuals and the Judiciary as an important aspect of the state apparatus
are dangerous as they undermine the credibility of the system, of class rule,
what we know as Bourgeois Democracy. This concerned them all when Trump
suggested he might not accept the election result if he lost. If he could do that, so could we.
As
is usually the case, the silence from the heads of organized labor is
deafening. The building trades leaders,
as we are all aware by now, met with him and spent some time kissing his ass in
the hope of getting a few jobs out of an infrastructure program that may well
head down the same road as the health care bill. Their dream of increased
revenue to keep their part of the “union
business” going and their obscene salaries safe is fading along with
Trump’s popularity. Their colleagues
atop the public sector unions have been whining, hoping things will change
in 2020.
Things
are happening so rapidly this commentary will be almost ancient news by the
time it’s posted on this blog but as we remind ourselves in our weekly phone
conferences, we are closer to another severe recession or deep slump. This will
add fuel to the fire and give rise to more social unrest and build upon the
developments we have seen with the women’s marches, the airport protests
against attacks on racial and religious minorities and other developments.
Some
of us, I am one of them, are grateful to Trump for giving confidence to those
normally silent racists to come out in to the open. It’s better that we can
see them and deal with them openly.
One
last point I want to make is that I do not think we should support the state,
security forces investigating or interfering with a media outlet as they are
with Breitbart and others I understand from reports. It sets a dangerous
precedent. Please feel free to share your views about this; we are in interesting
times. There will be increased attacks on workers up ahead and, as we have said
before, it is the “whip of the counter
evolution” that will drive the movement from below as workers, women,
people of color and all those who are savaged by the market are forced to fight
back and begin to unite along class lines.
At present, the developing movement is hugely influenced by the petite
bourgeois and middle class elements. The failure of the heads of organized
labor to mobilize their 14 million members contributes to this, but capitalist
crisis which includes the costs of foreign wars in defense of corporate profits,
will soon change this dynamic.
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