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The Significance of Analyzing Unfolding Events The Battle Over the U.S. PresidencyThe following analysis of the unfolding events in the United States is based on the discussion held at a recent meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) with leading Party cadre from Quebec, the Workers' Centre and Party youth. ***The first debate in the current U.S. presidential election took place on September 30. These debates set the agenda of what are said to be "the issues" in the election. They play a role in revealing which of the candidates can emerge as a champion for what the financial oligarchy wants the next president to achieve on its behalf. The topics which were supposed to be addressed were the Supreme Court, economy, racial justice, climate change, handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and election integrity.
The only thing Joe Biden, the Democratic Party's candidate for the presidency, was passionate about was defending his son who served in Iraq, saying he resented Trump's comments that those who have died were losers and suckers. Trump responded by attacking Biden's other son and thus they reduced themselves to openly enacting the stereotype of mafia relations: no politics, no civility, no solutions; just a turf war. Even the expectation that they would address their preoccupation with "the end of America as we know it" was betrayed as, instead, they enacted "the end of America as we know it." Meanwhile, open talk that a disputed election could open the way for a military takeover in the name of defending democracy carries on. Responses to the threats of U.S. President Donald Trump to either postpone the presidential election or refuse to accept its results if they do not favour him are a call for military action. The situation is so tense that postings calling on the people to take up arms are not unusual. Indeed many felt Trump's call to the state-backed racist, Hitlerite group "Proud Boys" to "stand back and stand by," was just that. The "Proud Boys" themselves responded by saying they stand ready. Recently the Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, Michael R. Caputo, accused scientists at the Centers for Disease Control of engaging in "sedition" and/or harbouring a "resistance unit" determined to undermine the President. In a live conversation on his Facebook page he said he had received death threats and that "leftist groups" were preparing for armed conflict after the presidential election. Referring to when Trump insists on a second term, he said: "If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it's going to be hard to get."
There is also widespread discussion on the inadequacies of the methods for casting a ballot in the U.S. as well as its racist exclusion of large numbers of Blacks, Latinx and Asian Americans unable to vote, as well as the prisoners who are disproportionately Black unjustly incarcerated, and so on. All of it shows the doubt in the minds of all, no matter what their political persuasion, that the U.S. "democracy" can sort out the crisis in which it is mired without resorting to violence. Meanwhile, a plethora of speeches have been delivered on China, the Communist Party of China and communism by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr, the head of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haas, Director of the FBI Christopher Wray, and National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien. All of it constitutes the official disinformation which seeks to divert people from formulating an outlook of their own. Without establishing their own reference points based on their own aims, people are not able to successfully express opinions on how things pose themselves so as to sort out what's what in a manner that favours them. This is required in order to organize appropriately and avert the dangers inherent to the situation. An increasing number of news reports are repeating scenarios from the previous election, with CIA and Director of National Intelligence officials declaring there is foreign interference by Russia, China and Iran in the U.S. election. A report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on July 24 is titled "Election Threat Update for the American Public." National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina says he is providing the American public "an unclassified overview of foreign threats to the 2020 election and offering basic steps to mitigate some of these threats." Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden also issued a statement saying that Russia is interfering against him. CNN dove in by reporting other intelligence agents say that the content mentioned in various reports is not accurate. And so it goes. What took place in the last election and has dominated accusations and counter-accusations through the Trump term of office is playing out once again. The difference is that today the contradictions are even sharper over control of everything and everyone and, most importantly, artificial intelligence and its uses to control who dominates the world. In the last election it was the Clinton forces who used what Hillary Clinton called the "intelligence community" to interfere in the election campaign. Some claim that cyber warfare by either China or Russia could certainly be used to trigger an emergency or otherwise say the vote is not valid or the intelligence agencies themselves could do the same and say Congress, specifically the House of Representatives, must decide a disputed outcome. Nancy Pelosi, head of the House, is already instructing House members about preparing for such an outcome and organizing to ensure a Biden victory. Such an outcome will raise another furore about whether the vote counts, what constitutes a majority, is the president legitimate, and so on. While promoting various scenarios, the politicians and media persist in claiming that it is the people who elect the president. This is ridiculous even at face value. The people do not nominate the candidates who clearly do not represent their interests but those of the financial oligarchy that bring them to power. Furthermore, given the failure to modernize how votes are cast so that a true reflection of eligible voters reflects the true majority of members of the U.S. polity, saying the vote records a majority decision is fictitious. But more than that -- it constitutes a state-perpetrated campaign of disinformation intended to make sure Americans are stuck with old equations based on arrangements which have perpetuated different forms of slavery, exploitation, oppression and imperialist domination to this day. Those arrangements cannot possibly be relied on to sort out the problems of today.
Other diversions which constitute disinformation also include Trump's short-lived resuscitation of tariffs on aluminum from Canada -- a desperate move to appeal to auto and steel sectors to side with him in the election, not the Democrats. Interestingly enough, he was answered by Canada's Deputy Prime Minister, not Canada's Prime Minister. With the support of certain union leaders, Chrystia Freeland postured as a militant defender of Canadian national interests. In fact both aluminum and steel are crucial in war production and, in the last round of tariffs from both sides of the border, the rich got richer because of them. It is the most cynical ploy to divide the working class from both countries behind interests which parade as something they are not. As well as stepping up attacks against China and Iran, the U.S. also continues to stir up serious trouble in Europe in ongoing attempts to isolate Russia as well as Iran. Directly and through the use of proxies, it continues to step up attacks against revolutionary Cuba in various ways, against Venezuela and other countries of Our America. Prospects of holding a peaceful election in Bolivia are next to none. To divert attention from the crisis in which the U.S. and its institutions and economy are mired, the danger of Trump launching a foreign invasion is ever present. A known practice in the U.S. is to launch a foreign invasion as part of attempts to unite the military and avert the danger of civil war at home. Already in the U.S. as attempts escalate to end the mass movement which continues to rage across the country in defence of rights, we see the kind of disagreements between competing authorities which can readily escalate into violent conflicts. The disagreements signal that the civil war could turn violent at any time as various military and policing and intelligence agencies are lining up behind the narrow private interests vying to exercise the power of the presidency.
The most cynical use has been made of the Trump presidency to further dismantle the constitutional arrangements from the past. Today, the public authority and institutions, including the political parties and houses of congress and judicial system, no longer function to serve their original purposes of sorting out the contradictions between the factions and to keep the people in check. The establishment of Homeland Security has created many more police forces under the federal authority in a move designed to take over state rights and to put down the revolt of the largest faction in the U.S., the so-called mob. All of it seeks to give unfettered direct control of the U.S. state to the oligopolies, their coalitions and cartels which dominate the narrow private interests. The fight over control sharpens the contradictions between these private interests fomenting the civil war at home and danger of wars of aggression abroad. The fight over fossil fuels and oil versus what are called green solutions is over control of the use of artificial intelligence and space, which is fuelling the war machine. The same oligopolies and their cartels and coalitions are behind both fossil fuels and green solutions. The colour of the cat does not matter to either side, so long as it catches mice. In the opinion of CPC(M-L), it is important to pay attention to the U.S. election from the vantage point which helps the peoples of the United States, Canada, Mexico and all countries of the world to prepare for what lies ahead. Canada is integrated into the U.S. war machine and the government of Canada is an extension of the narrow private interests which have taken over the office of the U.S. presidency. The conflicts in that country are mirrored by the conflicts of interest raging in Canada itself, including the palace coup which is unfolding before our eyes. (Photos: VOR, K. Erikson, S. Devol, Portland Independent Documentarians)
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
However, with the
dismantling of all institutions related to what
was called a public authority and civil power,
even the existence of a polity which has
standards, political culture and norms is no
longer recognized. The debate was a mud-slinging
shouting match such that even the media described
it as a mess and a disaster. Name-calling by both
candidates clearly revealed that political parties
worthy of the name no longer exist. They have been
replaced with individual acts of hooliganism,
defamation, idiocy, ignorance and irrationality.
The very notion of politics as a link to a body
politic has been so undermined that the United
States is no longer capable of holding a
presidential debate of any stature.
Other responses
take the form of calls to defend the Constitution
which does not permit a president to set election
dates and is also supposed to defend the right to
speak, protest and assemble. The Bill of
Rights together with the Civil War-era Posse
Comitatus Act are supposed to block the use
of the military against the American people --
except in times of insurrection. The government's
common reference to demonstrators as "anarchist
mobs," "violent rioters" and "terrorists" along
with the talk of "sedition" are laying the ground
for declaring the protest movement of the peoples
across the United States an insurrection. Already,
military police have been used against
demonstrators in Washington, DC, alongside the
National Guard, with another 1,600 active duty
troops on stand-by. Use of the military against
the people demonstrating for rights constitutes
tyranny, something the Constitution is supposed to
prevent but clearly does not.
It is a great irony
that at a time when there is no doubt in anyone's
mind that the U.S. itself has descended into
tyranny, it is launching the most vituperous
warmongering attacks against China based on
arguments which bless the crisis-ridden U.S. as
the model of democracy and its defunct liberal
democratic institutions as the pinnacle of
governance humanity can hope to achieve.
The fact is that
since George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld's
expectation that their "shock and awe" aggression
against Iraq would be met with open arms in Iraq,
worldwide and in the U.S., this and other foreign
invasions have failed to unite the military or the
policing and intelligence agencies. Despite this
and the tyranny the U.S. has proven itself to be
in the handling of the mass movement taking place
at this time, both candidates to the presidency
issue vicious statements against Venezuela as well
as socialism which they equate with mob rule and
tyranny.