I think it’s important, before we get tunnel vision around Trump the Man, or Bannon the Man, that we talk about the Democratic Party, aptly billed the “graveyard of social movements”. The Democratic Party has always been a party for the ruling class, from the slaveowners of the Deep South to the finance capitalists today. The Obama years were marked by NATO warfare in Libya, a right-wing coup in Ukraine, the bombing of 7 countries, and the deportation of 2.5 million people, which is more than in the years 1896-2000.

The Dems bill themselves as the resistance to Trump. But how has this held up in practice? Well, the Democrats consciously promoted Trump in the first place in order to attempt to undermine the Republican Party, as evidenced by the Podesta emails released by WikiLeaks:

“Our hope is that the goal of a potential HRC campaign and the DNC would be one-in-the-same: to make whomever the Republicans nominate unpalatable to a majority of the electorate… Force all Republican candidates to lock themselves into extreme conservative positions that will hurt them in a general election… The variety of candidates is a positive here, and many of the lesser known can serve as a cudgel to move the more established candidates further to the right… We need to be elevating the Pied Piper candidates [i.e Trump] so that they are leaders of the pack and tell the press to them seriously.”[1]

Upon Trump’s election, Barack Obama [2], Bernie Sanders[3], and Hillary Clinton[4] have all urged Americans to “give Trump a chance”. Since the inauguration, the Democrats have caved in their supposed ‘resistance’: “According to reports from a recent closed-door retreat, some Democrats have decided it’s in their best interest to allow Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee to be approved” [5].

“Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, who is supposed to be leading ‘the resistance’ against Trump, has voted in favor of every Trump nominee so far. ‘Progressive’ icon Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown voted in favor of Ben Carson for Housing and Urban Development Secretary, both providing optimistic defenses of their votes. Fourteen Democrats voted in favor of Trump’s nominee for CIA Director, Mike Pompeo, including Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine. Additionally, Nikki Haley, General James Mattis, and General John Kelly breezed through their nominations. Surely this isn’t the resistance Democratic Party supporters had in mind.”[6]

Not only has the Democratic Party completely folded in their congressional ‘resistance’ to Trump/Bannon, but they also intend to co-opt and quell the mass resistance movement in the streets:

“As protests spread over policy announcements from the Trump administration, Democrats must work to encourage participation in politics, but face a danger of the party becoming too radicalized, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) said Tuesday.

“‘The radical nature of this government is radicalizing Democrats, and that’s going to pose a real challenge to the Democratic Party, which is to draw on the energy and the activism and the passion that is out there, but not let it turn us into what we despised about the tea party,’ Schiff said.

…

“‘The more radical the administration is, the more radicalized our base becomes, which just feeds the Breitbart crowd, and who knows where that ends.’”[7]



In Germany in the 1930s, the Social Democratic Party (a left-wing liberal party) promoted Hindenburg over Hitler in the elections because he was seen as a “lesser evil”, despite the warnings by the German Communist Party that “a vote for Hindenburg is a vote for Hitler”. Hindenburg ended up placing Hitler in a position of power, but the Social Democrats supported him as a “lesser evil” to illegal Nazi terror. Thus, the Social Democrats systematically disarmed and disempowered the working class and collaborated with fascism against them.

Fascism is an outgrowth of capitalist crisis. At the end of the day, the ruling class wants to remain in power. So when fascism is on the horizon, and it comes time for the ruling class, for the Democratic Party to choose: the capitalists, or the workers? the oligarchs, or the people? white supremacy, or liberation? the Democratic Party and all such institutions will always side with the ruling class against the workers and oppressed.

[1] https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails//fileid/1120/251

[2] http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/14/politics/obama-news-conference-donald-trump-transition/

[3] http://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2016/11/09/sanders-breaks-his-silence-on-trumps-election

[4] http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-concession-speech-trump-election-2016-11

[5] https://thinkprogress.org/supreme-court-surrender-980908ee9037#.5epqr2g02

[6] http://observer.com/2017/01/democrat-party-fails-to-resist-president-trump/

[7] http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-trailguide-updates-rep-adam-schiff-trump-administration-1485895271-htmlstory.html