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NOTE: See numbered citations at end of document.

The focus of the 2016 election was, of course, centered on the startling victory of Donald Trump. By so many of his supporters, Trump seemed to be regarded as a kind of Messiah. Media coverage continues to be riveted on Trump’s personality quirks, his puerile and unpredictable temperament, his somewhat astounding ignorance, his sociopathic hostility toward opponents, and most of all, his hard-right, bigoted political agenda.

But it’s crucial to realize that, when that minority of voters “elected” Trump (via U.S. capitalism’s distorted, anti-democratic Electoral College), they were not just catapulting into presidential office an authoritarian, dangerous, deranged, sociopathic, proto-fascistic con artist, but they were also empowering his “Nazi circus” – an amalgam of extremist-right Tea Party operatives, the GOP establishment, right-Libertarians, assorted hard-right whackjobs, and the theocratic right, along with actual Nazis and White Supremacist fascists of the Alt-Right (e.g., the Ku Klux Klan, and KKK collaborators such as then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, now Trump’s Attorney General). In other words, what’s long been derided as the “Lunatic Fringe” … plus more. [1]

It’s the bizarre diversity of this far-right political wrecking crew of miscreants that makes the term “Nazi circus” an appropriate epithet, as opposed to “Nazi regime” (since currently as a ruling regime the Trump government is neither Nazi nor fascist). Instead, like a circus with several concurrent “rings” of activity, Trump’s government has different machinations (in this case sinister, sleazy, even criminal) going on in its own different “rings” (arenas or venues). What appears to be an intent in common among this destructive “circus” is to take a wrecking ball to the U.S. social-political status quo as the American population has known it, including the social-economic infrastructure (with the so-called “safety net”) that has supported the living standards and quality of life that prevailed before this scourge was empowered.

The USA’s basic federal infrastructure of essential services and social-economic support policies and programs (even as meager as they already are) have long been in the target sights particularly of much of the GOP establishment, segments of the Tea Party, and the Libertarian right. Now they are squarely slated for the wrecking ball of Trump’s “Nazi circus”.

Understanding this perspective is important, because, even if Trump is somehow ousted from power (e.g., ensnared by his possibly criminal activities abroad, the conflict-of-interest entanglements of his business connections, obstruction-of-justice violations, or whatever), the “Nazi circus” will still be in power, presumably with the theocratically demented, sinister Vice-President, Mike Pence, in charge. The Trumpist-“Nazi circus” wrecking crew will still have the reins of power firmly in their hands.

Of course, liberals – particularly Democratic Party loyalists – are placing their hopes on the small possibility of change in the 2018 election cycle. This could happen, but it seems quite a long shot, mainly because the U.S. electoral system, flawed to start with, has been so thoroughly corrupted through gerrymandering (plus other legally authorized hanky-panky) to favor the extremist-right that it would take a fairly formidable (and unlikely) liberal resurgence to challenge the hegemony of U.S. capitalism’s hard-right wing at the state level, as well as the “Nazi circus” in Washington. [2]

The more likely reality is that American society is no longer looking at the kind of political status quo that has prevailed for decades. Trump’s “Nazi circus” is not just some kind of bizarre continuation, it seems to represent a far more depraved and pernicious departure from the “normal” perversity of capitalist politics. In terms of national impact, it’s a scourge of extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented maliciousness and ferocity – bringing to mind America’s segregation period, and comparable federal policy atrocities such as FDR’s internment of Japanese-Americans and the repressive actions of the Palmer Raids and the McCarthy era.

As working people, labor movement militants, liberal and radical-left activists, and others on the left seek to resist this scourge and develop an alternative political strategy to go forward, It’s critical to have a clear perspective of just what we are all dealing with.

References

[1] See, for example:

Trump’s Cabinet of Cronies, by the Numbers

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/donald-trump-donors-appointments

Will Trump’s “shadow cabinet” of cronies run the U.S.?

http://www.peoplesworld.org/article/will-trumps-shadow-cabinet-of-cronies-run-the-u-s/

Alt-Right Gathering Exults in Trump Election With Nazi-Era Salute

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/us/alt-right-salutes-donald-trump.html

[2] See:

American capitalism enters a darker new era

https://realityanalysisnotes.wordpress.com/2017/06/21/american-capitalism-enters-a-darker-new-era/

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