Five Ways the Trump/Pence Fascists Are Already Stealing the Election… And What We Can—and Must—Do About It

| revcom.us

 

Many people have been talking about Trump’s threats to steal the election and then violently enforce that theft. Some now say that we should prepare to go into the street after Trump and the Republi-fascists make good on those threats to try to steal the election. 

But there’s a problem with that plan: the fascists already ARE stealing the elections and threatening violence to enforce it. 

Here are just five of many steps they have taken or are taking:

1   Suppressing the votes of Black and Latino people: Trump and the Republi-fascists are sending—in their own words—an “army” of 50,000 poll watchers (for which they are recruiting ex-military and ex-law enforcement) into Black and Latino neighborhoods to threaten and intimidate voters. On top of that, at the debate Trump told “his” voters to themselves “question” (that is, intimidate) people at the polls.1


Fairfax, Virginia, September 19, 2020. MAGA crowd gathered where early voters had to pass to vote, shouting “Four more years” and waving their flags, and of course, not wearing masks or social distancing, putting waiting voters in jeopardy.

2   Attacking mail-in ballots: Mail-in ballots are an important way that people can vote safely without risking the deadly COVID-19 virus. Yet Trump has launched a lying and dangerous attack on mail-in ballots as fraudulent. He is undermining the post office, so that the ballots can’t be received or counted in time. And the Republi-fascists have closed ballot drop-off stations in the cities of states they control, where many votes for Biden will come from.2


Dismantled mail sorting equipment dumped in a parking lot in Grand Rapids Michigan.

3   Preparing an army of lawyers to contest the election in states that go for Biden: The fascists want to tie things up to muddy the waters, create confusion, and allow Trump to use the Supreme Court or other non-electoral means to throw the contest his way—which Trump has admitted to be part of his plan!3

4   Preparing violent fascist mobs to go into the streets: In the presidential debate Trump repeatedly refused to condemn white supremacy and he openly called on the fascist “Proud Boys” to “stand by.” He has also given vocal support to people who have threatened, shot, run over, and even killed peaceful protesters against police murder and white supremacy. Even today these fascists go into the streets and even state legislatures brandishing semi-automatic weapons to threaten and terrorize. They are intimidating people in advance and preparing for what they see as “the real thing”—which for some of them is a one-sided, genocidal “replay” of the Civil War, in which this time the wrong side wins.4


Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand by.” Here in Portland, Oregon, September 26, 2020. (Photo: AP)

5   Preparing to declare martial law and put into place forces accountable only to him: Trump has taken forces loyal to him in the Department of Homeland Security and especially ICE and Border Patrol—the government agencies charged with controlling, suppressing, arresting and deporting immigrants—and made them into a special force, and sent them to a number of cities. He has said that if people protest his election at all, he will declare it an insurrection and suppress it. He has warned of “special emergency presidential powers” that only he knows about.5


Heavily armed Federal police forces – authorized and deployed by Trump—invaded Portland, Oregon. They have shot and teargassed protestors, and carried out military-style operations where unidentified cops in unmarked vans snatch people off the streets. (Photos: Doug Brown, ACLU/Oregon)

***

These threats and actions on their own are more than serious enough to impeach and drive from office this criminal and his gang. Yet, in the face of Trump and the fascists not only saying that they will do this but beginning to do it, we are told to wait… and wait… and wait. No. 

WE NEED TO BE IN THE STREETS—NOW!!  We need to answer the call of RefuseFascism.org for massive nonviolent actions in the streets, every single day from here out.

Face it: if you are relying on the normal processes of the election to solve this crisis, you are making a very big gamble, risking the future of humanity itself … a gamble that will very likely lose.  While voting is absolutely necessary, as the revolutionary thinker and leader Bob Avakian has said, “Simply relying on voting to oust this regime will almost certainly lead to very bad, even disastrous results. This is especially true given what this regime is already doing, and what Trump is already saying, in relation to the election.”

Yes, the top Democrats are telling you to wait and see. 

But these Democrats are totally relying on the “normal processes” in what are very abnormal times. Will you? 

They talk about trying to reach across the aisle and they will try to “live with” Trump if he strong-arms his way in. Can you? 

And can any of the people, here and around the planet, who are directly in the sights of these fascists afford that option?

No. We need to be in the streets now, to sound the alarm to the millions and tens of millions who hate what Trump stands for, but don’t yet get the full threat he poses, or have not heard that there is a way to fight this. Remember how the demonstrations after the brutal racist murder of George Floyd commanded the attention of hundreds of millions around the world and, temporarily, changed the whole terms in which hundreds of millions more thought about everything? That is a lesson that we must learn, and apply to the existential crisis humanity now faces.

We need to be in the streets now to build up our organized strength and learn how to work together, and how to resist and neutralize the fascist attacks, not wait until it may be too late. 

Most of all we need to be in the streets, in growing numbers reaching the millions, day after day to create the kind of political crisis in society in which sections of the ruling class—those with power in society—decide that they MUST act to maintain their global interests and the stability of their system, and present Trump and Pence with an ultimatum that they either resign or face impeachment and, this time, conviction. 

The times, the future, cry out: join now with Refuse Fascism, going day after day and night after night, and not stopping until this regime is fully and finally driven OUT.

(For documentation of the above footnoted points, go to www.revcom.us.) 

 

1. Trump’s “Poll Watchers”: Reviving and Expanding a History of Jim Crow-style Harassment, Intimidation, and Potential Violence Against Voters, revcom.us.  [back]

2. The Republi-Fascists’ Multi-Pronged Drive to “Win” the November Elections, revcom.us.  [back]

3. The Republi-Fascists’ Multi-Pronged Drive to “Win” the November Elections, revcom.us.  [back]

4. Trump Refuses to Denounce White Supremacy, Then Directly Calls Out to His Fascist Thug Followers, in Blatant Moves to Further Pervert and Steal the Election at First Debate, revcom.us.; Who ARE the Proud Boys Trump Told to “Stand By”?, revcom.us.  [back]

5. ALERT! Bill Barr is Paving the Way for Fascist Clampdown and Election Theft, revcom.us; “PEADS—Secret Framework for Total Authority” (in Fascist Juggernaut Moves Forward Rapidly and Aggressively), revcom.us; Trump/Pence Regime: Retooling the Governing Apparatus to Enthusiastically Serve Full-out Fascist Rule, revcom.us.  [back]


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Photo: RefuseFascism.org

What You Can Do NOW

VOTING WILL NOT BE ENOUGH—
WE NEED TO TAKE TO THE STREETS,
AND STAY IN THE STREETS
DEMANDING TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW!

by Bob Avakian

Part 1:
THE DEMOCRATS CAN’T FIGHT TRUMP
THE WAY HE NEEDS TO BE FOUGHT

Part 2:
TRUMP IS ALREADY STEALING THE ELECTION AND THREATENING EVEN MORE VIOLENCE TO STAY IN POWER

Part 3:
TRUMP’S FASCISM—MORE BLATANT AND DANGEROUS EVERY DAY: HOW A DETERMINED FIGHT AND MASSIVE MOBILIZATION COULD DEFEAT THIS

(Long Version—The Larger Canvas and Fuller Picture)

(Short Version—The Basic Picture and Essential Vision)

How Fascism Works, and How to Stop It: An Online Dialogue between Jason Stanley and Andy Zee

 

 

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