Doug Jones’ Victory Won’t Stop Trump/Pence Fascism…
Only We Will—By Voting With Our Feet—in the Streets!
December 14, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On Tuesday night, Doug Jones defeated Roy Moore to become Alabama’s first Democratic senator in 30 years. There is a sense of euphoria and relief on the part of progressive people—what the media has described as a “stunning upset” and a “political earthquake.”
Yes, it is a relief that Roy Moore, an openly theocratic fascist, was not elected to the Senate, on a platform that stated the last time America was great was during slavery when “…families were united—even though we had slavery—they cared for one another…Our families were strong, our country had a direction."
Someone who thinks homosexuality should be outlawed and Muslims should be barred from serving in Congress. Someone who was ousted from the Supreme Court of Alabama twice for defying the principle of separation of church and state, with Christian fascist advocacy of the Ten Commandments as the “moral foundation” of U.S. law. (He was first removed for installing and refusing to remove a two-and-a-half ton monument of the Ten Commandments in front of the state’s judicial building, and then after being elected again, removed for ordering lower court judges in Alabama to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage and refusing to issue marriage licenses to LGBTQ couples.)
But what actually happened on Tuesday? Doug Jones barely won the state, with about 21,000 more votes than Moore received out of over 1.3 million vote cast. While Black people turned out to vote, likely in response to the vile white supremacy advocated by Moore, the only reason Moore lost was that a small sliver of people—22,000—who typically vote Republican couldn’t stomach pulling the lever with the drumbeat of allegations against him on predatory sexual behavior—but couldn’t stomach voting for Jones either, so they cast write-in votes. Even though Trump and most of the Republican leadership lined up behind Moore, with endorsements, proxy campaign rallies (Trump in Pensacola), or statements of support to the effect that this is “the choice of the people of Alabama.” In other words, the nakedly Christian fascist and slavery-loving program got a “pass” by most of the voters in Alabama and the Republican leadership… with all of this, the fascist theocratic agenda got a major boost, and this should not be under-estimated!
And Doug Jones, the reasonable alternative compared to Moore? He ran as a “tough-on-crime” Democrat! He fully backs the murderous U.S. military as he has stated in an interview with AI.com: “You have to be smart about how money is spent. The federal budget is very large and it contains many components. But I think in today's world, defense spending is very important, making sure we have a capable and modern military to protect this country is incredibly important. That is the most paramount thing.”
Jones not only refused to sound the alarm about the grave danger the Trump/Pence regime represents to humanity, much less expose its fascist character, he is now calling for reaching out to the racists, misogynists, and other “deplorables” who voted for Trump and Roy Moore! In a press conference after the election, talking about a congratulatory call from Trump, Jones said they talked about seeking “common ground” —on what, pray we ask? On the preservation of white supremacist monuments, on deportation of immigrants, on potential war against North Korea and in the Middle East, on the attacks on the media and rule of law … or on “infrastructure and jobs,” the favorite Democratic trope… which is just another term for normalizing a fascist regime, with momentum and dynamic seeking to consolidate fascist rule?
So this was no great shift. It was no “political earthquake.” And there will be none, and no progress of any kind without frontally exposing, denouncing, and actively protesting white supremacy, patriarchy and the oppression of women, and American chauvinism—and the notion that American lives are more important than other people’s lives, and so the U.S. is justified in committing murder and mayhem across the globe.
This is the “triad” of reaction at the heart of the Trump/Pence fascist regime, and it’s a triad that the Democrats will not and cannot call out and seriously oppose. Why? Because the Democrats are a ruling class party (even as many oppressed and working people cast votes for them), representing the same capitalist-imperialist system that Trump does, and they have no fundamental answers to the accursed horrors: the wars for empire, the oppression of Black people, of women, of immigrants, and the destruction of the environment. With significant and qualitative differences with Trump on the nature of the social compact in the U.S., the cohering norms of bourgeois democracy (see “The Trump/Pence Regime Is Not “Self‑Destructing”), and the best way to project and enforce U.S. interests around the world, nevertheless they are not willing to risk the stability of the system in calling out the horrors and illegitimacy of the Trump/Pence fascist regime, or calling out the people into the streets to protest and oppose this regime.
The Deadly Illusion of Working and Waiting for 2018
Now the Democrats are claiming they have “momentum,” and a “blueprint” to defeat the Republicans in all 50 states. They’re telling people—including the millions who have a deep gut-hatred of Trump and a deep desire to see the whole direction his regime is plunging the world reversed—to put their hopes, energy, and money into electing Democrats in 2018. That is, they are not calling for mass protests and outrage but working to channel this outrage into the electoral calculus of the Democrats.
There are many reasons this is a deadly illusion. Here are three:
First: victories by Doug Jones and other Democrats in recent elections have done absolutely nothing to halt the deadly momentum of the Trump/Pence fascist regime—including its threats and preparations to wage war. Two days after Jones’ victory, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley conducted a made-for-TV demonstration of how Iran was threatening the Middle East, reminiscent of Colin Powell’s performance before the UN on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Tensions with North Korea are extremely high and the U.S. could launch a preemptive and potentially cataclysmic attack at any time.
And if Trump did feel his regime was in danger of being ousted, thwarted, or even losing ground, that could propel him to launch a war to demand Democrats and people broadly rally around his regime as their patriotic duty in a time of “national emergency.” The Democrats’ fundamental unity with Trump on the need to maintain U.S. global dominance, including in the Middle East and the Asian-Pacific region would compel them to “rally ‘round the flag,” as they repeatedly did when George W. Bush was in power. If you doubt this, just listen to what candidate Doug Jones told Alabama voters in the face of Trump/Pence military escalations and massive increase in military spending: “a strong national defense is incredibly important.”
Linked to these moves, each and every day the policies this regime has enacted are wreaking enormous damage against Black and other oppressed peoples; against women; against immigrants; against the environment; and against people across the world—from the Korean Peninsula, to Afghanistan, to Yemen, to Palestine, to Iraq and beyond.
There is in fact a greater danger of the fascist regime “doubling down” on its agenda in the face of challenges, compelled by its own logic! This is what Trump has consistently done in the face of trials—from the start of his campaign all the way to the present, and it is part of the fascist playbook and logic.
Second, electing more Democrats isn’t going to stop or get rid of Trump/Pence. While Democratic Party leadership has consistently ruled impeachment out of order , others like Senator Gillibrand have started voicing calls for this. Even with all this, in the face of Republican dominance of all branches of government, a few election wins are not going to provide the Democrats with what is required to actually oust a fascist regime from power, a regime backed by powerful and significant sections of the evangelical movement, national security and enforcement establishment, and vile fascist thugs. With the upheaval and the chaos involved, most fundamentally, the Democrats are not going to risk the stability of this system, for they are part of the ruling class, for whom, even with very significant differences, “fascism is a matter of taste.” Without massive mass protests that shake the system to political crisis, there is the lack of the necessary compulsion, possibility, and feasible mechanics to oust this regime.
Third, thanks to the legacy of slavery, voter suppression, and gerrymandering, the electoral deck is still stacked in favor of the Republicans and fascists. Just look at Alabama! In a state that’s nearly 30 percent African-American, of seven congressional representatives, only one is Black (and she and Jones are the only Democrats from Alabama in Congress)!
As we have stated before, and it remains still true, this does not mean that Trump has it all sewn up, nor that the divisions that do exist at the top cannot become part of what ends up removing this regime. But this is neither going to continue as an open-ended possibility, nor will it happen unless millions take the streets in a sustained, nonviolent movement. This makes it more, not less, urgent to demand that the nightmare end NOW, and that the regime be driven from power; more, not less, important for people to take up and get into or unite with Refuse Fascism. There is no easy way out, no shortcut and no way around what this will take: millions of people demanding Trump/Pence Must Go!—voting in the streets with their feet to make this happen.
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