With another round of the U.S. empire’s regularly scheduled electoral spectacles concluded, and Trump once again the “victor” of the “election,” we’re confronted with what many see as a dire threat to their “democracy,” to their safety, to their freedom, and to their survival. Are they wrong?
Likely not. Objectively speaking, the Trump regime promises to be at least as tyrannical and destructive as it was before. The electoral contest of the past year was undeniably a contest between which faction of the ruling elite was willing to promise the most violence, the most bloodshed, and the most destruction. The fear felt by the vulnerable and marginalized members of our communities is real. The threat to immigrants, ethnic minorities, queer people, the disabled, and so on is more imminent and urgent than ever. Not to mention of course the ongoing U.S.-sponsored genocides in Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Congo, Yemen, Myanmar, and Ukraine. Every life lost is a tragedy in its own right. Whether or not the Harris regime would have been any better, any kinder, any less vicious, is irrelevant at this point. The question now on everyone’s minds is “what do I do now?”
The answer we’re seeing many settle on is placing blame. Everyone has a different answer (or answers) as to who is at fault for the election results. Non-voters are to blame for staying home. Stein voters are to blame for taking away votes from Harris. The anti-genocide left is to blame for campaigning against the Biden regime’s genocidal actions. Arab and Muslim voters are to blame for refusing to back Harris. Mexican and Latino voters are to blame for backing Trump. Trump voters are to blame for their selfishness and bigotry. Women are to blame for failing to sufficiently back Harris. Men are to blame for disproportionately backing Trump. And of course the Democrats are to blame for running a terrible campaign, for refusing to waver even slightly on their commitment to genocide, and so on, and so on.
Who then is truly to blame? Seasoned socialists will see clearly what’s really going on here. These “elections,” rollercoasters of drama and intrigue that they are, are full of stories of plots and treason, endless debates, felony charges, assassination attempts, hateful violent rhetoric, and never-ending fearmongering of the “end of democracy” by the corporate news media. The ruling capitalist class has their “electoral” system refined down to a science to sow division, fear, paranoia, and hatred. 24-hour news cycles diligently maintain the frenetic atmosphere with constant updates. Every slight lull in the cycle is immediately disrupted by new coverage of “Project 2025” or breaking news about something Trump said or did, etcetera ad nauseum.
This is not a democracy of course, and at this point it barely resembles one. It is a vast system of social engineering designed to sort the masses into mutually hostile camps, to keep us at one-another’s throats, to make us fear and hate each other, to blame one-another for the brutalities and crimes committed by the ruling elite. This is the keystone of the empire’s global regime of terror. Terrorism has always been the beating heart of the settler empire. Genocidal terrorism in Palestine tells the oppressed masses of the world what happens to those who dare defy the U.S. empire’s control. Settler-garrison police terrorize the empire’s own citizens, beating down, arresting, and disappearing dissidents, and lynching minorities from “problem” communities in so-called “officer-involved shootings.” Innocent people are executed by the so-called “justice system,” or imprisoned for years, decades, lifetimes, comprising the world’s largest prison population, a system of legal terror where your “right” to a fair trial, or any trial at all, is done away with by 90%+ conviction rates.
And of course the corporate news media and political system engage in stochastic terrorism directed at the masses at large. They tell us to fall in line and vote for the perpetuation of this grotesque system, vote for empire, vote for destruction, terrorism, bloodshed, death. Sign your name to affirm your loyalty to the regime and your continued support for genocide, or your rights will be stripped from you. Every woman dying of sepsis because she can no longer access abortion is an act of terror by the ruling class, every dead trans child, every homeless person frozen to death on the sidewalk, every Black person lynched by cops, every mother worked to death just to feed her children, every individual who succumbs to the raging COVID pandemic. They want you to live every waking moment in fear that you’ll be next to suffer and die, and to blame and hate your neighbor for it. After all, they voted for the candidate you hate and fear, they voted for your rights to be taken away, they voted for genocide, they voted for more suffering.
Every progressive-minded person in your life is feeling this fear acutely. Do not allow the capitalist ghouls the satisfaction of taking out your fears on your fellow workers and community members. Now more than ever is the time for strategic action and unity. The people in your life are desperate for a way out. Forget the election! Forget who voted for whom! The only people truly at fault for the hellish mire we’re immersed in are the ruling class! The fault lies with the capitalist elites, every vile genocidaire and billionaire oligarch and investment tycoon. We are all in this together, we are all the victims of their petty arrogance and callous disregard for the sanctity of life and disdain for the dignity of their fellow humanity.
The empire relies most heavily on terror in times of crisis. The crisis is here. The decline and fall of this system is inevitable. A revolutionary moment is fast-approaching us, as the world reaches the brink of global war and financial meltdown looms. It is your task to educate yourself and build consciousness and organization among the members of your community. There is no time to spare, and there is nothing the ruling class would prefer you be doing right now than petty squabbling over the results of their electoral circus. Now more than ever it should be clear how critically important it is to divest all action and energy from the U.S.’s federal political system and direct our efforts to the construction of local organizations and the linking-up of these organizations into a coalescing revolutionary movement.
