Government Shutdown: Democrats Collaborate… Shithole Trump Fascists Roll Over Them Anyway

January 22, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Major parts of the government are now shut down because the Democrats and Republicans didn’t have full agreement on immigration, in particular the fate of 800,000 Dreamers (immigrants covered by DACA—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). So they couldn’t pass a bill funding the government.

Does this prove the Democrats are finally standing up to Trump and carrying through on their promises to defend the Dreamers, immigrants, and other oppressed people? No! It proves that the Democrats are willing to stab millions of immigrants in the back to cut a deal with Trump. And it proves even this effort at collaboration wasn’t enough for this bloodthirsty, white supremacist, fascist regime which is hell-bent on making America White Again and persecuting tens of millions of immigrants!

Last Friday, Senator Chuck Schumer (aka Schmuck Fumer) sat down for cheeseburgers with Trump to try and cut a deal, which the Democrats were bending over backward to do. (Later he complained that “Negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with Jello.”)

Schumer and the Democrats shamefully and criminally did NOT make clear that they consider immigrants—all immigrants—to be fully human beings. They did NOT insist immigrants should NOT be insulted, demonized, spied on, lied about, hounded, harassed, arrested, abused, and have their families split up, simply because they were not born in the U.S. They did NOT speak the truth: that many, if not most immigrants have come here because this country’s imperialist system had turned their home countries into living hells that are impossible for many to live in.

No! Instead Schumer offered to fully fund Trump’s border wall, and increase funding for the U.S. military to rain death and destruction across the planet—including on the very countries many immigrants are fleeing from. In return, Schumer hoped to get some kind of deal granting legal status for the 800,000 Dreamers—while basically throwing 11 million undocumented immigrants and millions more legal immigrants under the bus—plus a few concessions on aid for Puerto Rico and on health care.

As revcom analyzed earlier this week:

The Democrats claim to be the champions of the immigrants while they hinge everything on how much they will concede to Trump… while the persecution of immigrants and their leaders becomes more blatant, intimidating, and unapologetic every day. They are more concerned with working out a deal with fascists who get more aggressive and open about it every day than they are about actually defending in the concrete the masses of people suffering this…

The Democrats differ with the fascists over how best to exploit, control, and—when they deem it necessary—drive out the immigrants, and not whether to exploit and control them. They will make whatever compromises they think serve their larger interests—which at the end of the day is the preservation of the capitalist-imperialist system—which they share with the fascists, even as they differ (sometimes sharply) over how. They pose as friends and call for some reforms in large part to try to control and derail battles waged by immigrants, and other groups fighting oppression; they will not hesitate to sacrifice those fights when they see it is in conflict with what they deem to be “larger” interests. Even now, we hear talk of going along with Trump’s demands for the sake of the elections for the Senate and for the House of Representatives in “the Republican states.”  (Why It Is Suicidal To Rely On the Democrats To Fight For Immigrants)

Democrats’ Collaboration Doesn’t Bring Back “Politics as Usual”; Fascists Barrel Ahead

The Democrats had reportedly banked on Trump being chastened by the public shit storm over him calling Haiti and Africa (and by implication all non-white peoples) “shithole” countries and calling for more immigrants from nearly all-white Norway. Surely, they thought this openly Nazi rhetoric would put these fascists on the defensive.

But this was not to be—just the opposite. Schumer’s concessions on the wall weren’t enough for the Trump/Pence regime and the Republi-fascist Congress. Within hours of the meeting, the Trump/Pence regime demanded harsher treatment of immigrants across the country, stepped up ICE raids and deportations, and much, much more.

Then the fascists started drawing even more public lines in the sand, trying to pound into place new fascist, America First terms around immigration—saying the Democrats were putting a few “illegal immigrants” (which in the fascists’ view includes DACA recipients) ahead of the needs of “real” (i.e. white) Americans and their “safety.” This is a blatant appeal to the racism and chauvinism of native-born people, especially white people, whipping up supposed threats from those who have been kept at the very bottom of society, super-exploited, and persecuted.

Trump’s campaign released an ad on Saturday declaring that the Democrats “will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants” because they’re refusing to crack down on immigration. And the White House is refusing any negotiations on immigration—including DACA (despite Trump’s lie that he “cared” about them) while the government is closed—i.e., the fascists were going to set the terms and only their terms.

This makes clear that criminalizing immigrants and immigration—putting the lives of millions and million in peril, is at the core of the Trump/Pence fascist agenda, and drawing a line in the sand around it has everything to do with consolidating the fascist regime (while consolidating and unleashing its core fascist/white supremacist supporters—and trying to get broader sections of society to go along on the basis of American chauvinism and American lives come first). The Republicans are using this shutdown crisis to advance their agenda, consolidate their power, and enforce terms in which they can rule without even bothering with the Democrats.

Now the Trump/Pence regime is hammering the Democrats for hurting the military and the troops.  Trump tweeted “Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border…”  This too is part of the regime’s campaign to crush their ruling class opponents, and enforce blind, unquestioned support for America’s killing machine.  And how have the Democrats responded?  Not by unequivocally condemning Trump’s rancid anti-immigrant, America First militarism and xenophobia, but first by agreeing to Trump’s demands for a massive increase in military spending, and now by claiming they’re the ones who really support the military and the troops.

In the Fight Against Trump, the Democrats Are Part of the Problem—Not Part of the Solution!

This episode shows that the Democrats’ efforts at compromise and “reaching across the aisle” are not only ineffectual, they’re criminal and extremely harmful! While they’re busy kissing Trump’s ass and normalizing his fascism, they’re setting terms that it’s OK and “realistic” and the “politics of the possible” to throw millions of immigrants into the maw of this fascist regime. Meanwhile, these Democratic leaders are working overtime to keep the millions and millions of people who hate Trump loyal to them and trapped in the killing confines of electoral politics as usual and the current political terms, fighting to prevent them from taking the kind of independent action that could change the whole terrain, as the Trump fascists viciously target immigrants, as they threaten the whole planet and the future of humanity.

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