Trump
Presidency Comes to an
End
On January
20 the Trump presidency will be over and the world is breathing a sigh
of relief -- even though what comes next looks like more of
the same in too many ways. Trump's election in 2016 indicated that the
old way of doing things was finished; civil society arrangements would
no longer serve to sort out problems of any kind. Four years of Trump
rule could not reveal this more vividly. It remains the case and
defines the present, despite wishes it were not so. 
January 18, 2021.
Streets around the Capitol building barricaded ahead of inauguration.
The armed military camp that will occupy Washington, DC for
the next 30 days, along with seven-foot fences topped with razor wire,
broad closures of public places and transportation, are an indication
of government plans to contend with resistance by the people. Another
indication that police powers by the executive will increase under
Biden is the Joint Intelligence Bulletin issued by the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
National Counterterrorism Centre. It identifies those it labels
"violent extremists," "anti-government and anti-authority violent
extremists," and "racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists,"
along with militias, saying they pose the greatest domestic danger.
Given that the striving of the people for equality, justice and
accountability -- including in relation to COVID-19, demands for the
right to healthcare, housing and a livelihood -- will persist and the
government is giving itself the authority to decide who is and is not
an "extremist," the likelihood of increased repression against the
people is evident. In a neo-liberal world where
cartels and coalitions made up of oligopolies have directly seized the
powers of the state in the U.S. and other capitalist countries, the
rulers cannot sustain a political process. Trump positioned himself to
break the bounds of the Constitution and oversee the consolidation of a
state of police powers, developed under Obama as well, such as with
drones and mass deportations. At this point police power is not
concerned with legitimacy so it tramples underfoot the old forms of
claiming legitimacy through elections. It considers they are no longer
required. Similarly, it does not recognize the validity of having a
civil society which pressures government. Instead, it is pushing the
need to preserve the security of what it calls constitutional order.
Internationally, the Trump presidency and the military that
backed him were opposed to nation-building as an activity of the
military. All hitherto set ways for conducting international relations
were smashed, affecting all bilateral and multilateral relations and
institutions, including not only relations with the closest U.S. allies
and the United Nations and UN agencies but also the aggressive U.S.-led
military alliance NATO. Contention and collusion with all rivals has
been carried out on the basis that the President is "in the game."
Trump's "art of the deal" jives with oligopoly where everything is used
to seek advantage. Trump's foreign policy did not position the U.S. for
or against Russia or China but on how to pit them against each other,
to both contend and collude and seek advantage.  No sooner Trump
was elected, the overall stand of the U.S. polity and most of the world
was one of revulsion and repulsion along with every effort on the part
of the monopoly media to divide the polity by blaming the people for
electing a racist, anti-immigrant and misogynist person. The Old Guard
presented themselves as not racist but, on the contrary, champions of
civil rights, the police powers at their disposal notwithstanding. All
of it was done to divert from the U.S.'s known persona as a racist
state which unleashes various police and other forces to run rampant
and commit crimes against Black lives, immigrant lives, the lives of
the working people and indigenous peoples as well as war crimes.
Great credit goes to the working people of the United States
who have waged a vigorous fight for democracy, not only distancing
themselves from what is done in their name but demanding equality, an
end to police impunity, injustice and the abuse of the human person.
Not only will the battle for democracy in the United States, against
the use of police powers and replacement of rule of law with police
rule continue, but so too the battle of democracy which is still
incomplete and demands to go forward. It requires the politics of
empowerment, a political process that provides for the elimination of
the condition of slavery, privilege and the rule of the few over the
many. 
January 21, 2017.
Women's March on Washington, the day after Trump's inauguration,
rejects his presidency and all that it stands for.
This
article was published in
Volume
51 Number 3 - January 20, 2021
Article Link:
Trump
Presidency Comes to an End
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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