Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and the Labour Theory of Value
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I am sure she is sincere about the conditions in the concentration camps for illegal migrants in the US. Any decent human being will be but her claim that the US is “headed to fascism” is not “a bit of hyperbole” but nonsense. Political democracy in the US (such as it is) is not about to be replaced by a one-party authoritarian regime. That’s not going to happen, not least because people there don’t want it and wouldn’t stand for it.
I hope your optimism is correct but already some recognize that the duopoly of political power is disappearing from America’s political scene and transforming into a one-party system. Is Pelosi very much different from some Republicans by pledging not to challenge Trump’s legitimacy by any impeachment process, of aligning with the GOP to condemn her own reformist wing in the Democratic Party.
“…That’s not going to happen, not least because people there don’t want it and wouldn’t stand for it…”
I think a lot of polls do suggest that America is now succumbing from the sway of the strong-man…Trump’s popularity and approval ratings has remained consistent and not fallen despite his repeated exposures as inept. Not sure what social opinions should be featured but most Americans are not on the liberal end of them, are they? Many American’s simply do not recognize their basic politics as being reactionary and will not self-identify with being fascistic
I don’t think the rise of right-wing terrorism in the USA is an aberration, but a reflection of the slow drift towards conservative extremism.
I think the real problem is the misuse of the word fascist. Very few right-wing authoritarian regimes mirror Mussolini’s fascism, Franco’s Falangists, much less Hitler’s Nazism.
Trump like the other populist leaders (there are now too many to list) are very different. But does that mean we cannot talk of Trumpism as a identifiable political current with a strong cult of the personality fostered by Fox Media.
But just to contradict myself, very many polls demonstrate that a number of Trump policies do not have majority support from the public. HOWEVER, when you say American people wouldn’t stand it – they do and they have and acquiesce without very much challenge.
As always, when it comes to the US, we cannot view it as a homogenous society, many regions differ in beliefs an opinions. The blog highlighted the political polarization in Oregon where local Republicans boasted of possessing an armed wing to intimidate and threaten the Democrat state government into dropping liberal proposals
To be truthful, if you are an “illegal”, you are already subject to an authoritarian regime, of being hunted down and detained in concentration camps, with only token opposition from a minority of the docile passive majority. Not identical but nevertheless not very different from the UK practice…
What I meant was that what a majority in the US wouldn’t stand for would be the changes in the Constitution (right to free speech, Bill of Rights, elections, etc), i.e in effect its abolition, that the establishment of a fascist regime would require. You don’t think that’s on the cards, do you?
Well, we do have Trump suggesting that the two-term limit for a president is not set in stone tablets.
He has broken the law when he obstructed justice
The Supreme Court saying that state gerrymandering of election districts is not its responsibility so perhaps free elections is at risk.
The demands for Assange to be arrested – a warning shot across the bows to the media not to publish whistle-blowers?
The constant undermining of the right to abortion by use of loopholes in Roe V Wade.
Even Israel managed to convict one of its soldiers for killing a wounded enemy, something a US jury couldn’t bring itself to doing.
But AOC did not say fascism had arrived.
Nor did she say how far down the road towards it America had travelled, just that there are signs of fascism manifesting itself in the political arena.
She is, however, shining a light on many dark places Americans have no wish to see.
But if the use of presidential executive orders is a signal of a dictator, then Trump has never used them to the extent of other presidents.
The USA will continue to slide down the democracy index particularly for those sections of population being targeted as scape-goats.
Marcos, can you clarify. Last thing I read was that she was still condemning the funding deal and had not voted for it.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/06/28/immi-j28.html
Read the last paragraphs of this articles and you will see that she changed her mind and she was convinced by Nancy Pelosi again. Never place your hands in the fire when it comes to US capitalists politicians
Much appreciated, Marcos.
Lie down with the dogs and you get fleas.
Confirms that there exists a murky world of procedural processes but the link does say that AOC did not vote for the actual deal, merely that it should be put to a vote.
“Ocasio-Cortez voted to bring the House version to the floor for a full vote…[Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley and Tlaib] voting “no” for the final bill…”
The WSWS, not unsurprisingly seeks to place the most negative connotations upon Democratic Party maneuvering.
Here is a slightly fuller account from others who also seek to diminish AOC “radical” credentials
I am not singling her out for criticism, nor challenging her sincerity or even integrity. I am criticising those who say that the USA under Trump is heading for “fascism”.
Since, historically, fascism means a single-party totalitarian state (and not just any old authoritarian regime) for America to become fascist would require a change in the US Constitution. When you take into account how difficult it is to change this (two-thirds vote for in both House of Representatives and Senate, three-quarters of states for, i.e a quarter of states could block it) this is just not going to happen. Even to give Trump a third term, let alone abolish the institutions of formal political democracy, would require bipartisan Republican/Democratic support, which it will never happen. If Trump were refuse to leave the White House if he loses the 2020 election, as apparently has been seriously mooted, he would face not only impeachment but also a long term of imprisonment, maybe even the death penalty, for treason. He’s not that stupid.
Certainly, there are and always have been authoritarian tendencies in the US but this is not the same as fascism. As far back as 1928 Togliatti, who later became leader of the Italian Communist Party (and the “Communists” have always been the loudest to cry “fascism”) complained:
“I want to examine first of all the error of generalisation that is commonly made in the use of the term ‘fascism’. It has become customary to use it to designate every form of reaction. A comrade is arrested, a workers’ demonstration is brutally dispersed by the police, a court imposes a savage sentence on some militant of the labour movement, a Communist parliamentary fraction sees its rights infringed or abrogated, in short whenever the so-called democratic freedoms sanctified by bourgeois constitutions are attacked or violated, one hears the cry: ‘Fascism is here, fascism has arrived,'”
Quite.
Much appreciated, Marcos.
Lie down with the dogs and you get fleas.
What do you mean with this expression ?
I am not singling her out for criticism, nor challenging her sincerity or even integrity.
A socialist can not be a member of a capitalist party, specially the political party of the USA ruling class
The concept of Fascism/Nazism was completely distorted by the Stalinists, they used to called Fascism any movement or person that opposed them. Leon Trotsky who wrote thousands of words about Fascism/Nazism did not have a clue what Fascism really is, but he was a supporter of the single party dictatorship
“Lie down with the dogs and you get fleas. What do you mean with this expression?”
If one associate with nasty people, you will acquire their faults
Being in the Democrat Party, AOC will find herself more and more entrapped by it, sucked deeper into the machinations of it.
If one associate with nasty people, you will acquire their faults
Being in the Democrat Party, AOC will find herself more and more entrapped by it, sucked deeper into the machinations of it.
That is what a member of the Socialist Party wrote in this forum before she was elected to the US house of representative, and the same person said that she was changing her ideas before riding on the bus. Since I was pretty young I knew that socialists can not be militants or members of a capitalist political party, or associate themselves with the capitalist class, I also learned that they are our class enemies, I do not believe in class conciliation. We eat in two different tables, therefore, I will not defend any of her decision, because I know that she is going to get completely sucked by the capitalists. Obama is the best example. I bet you that she is going to run to be a president in a near future
The Democratic Party leadership continues to isolate its dissenters and dissidents
hope your optimism is correct but already some recognize that the duopoly of political power is disappearing from America’s political scene and transforming into a one-party system. Is Pelosi very much different from some Republicans by pledging not to challenge Trump’s legitimacy by any impeachment process, of aligning with the GOP to condemn her own reformist wing in the Democratic Party.
It is already a one party dictatorship, and presidents are being elected by a small minority of voters and popular votes have been rejected. Costa Rica which is a small capitalist country in Central America has a more democratic electoral process than the USA
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