Defeating the Fascist Bloc - Max Elbaum

"Most of the time it makes sense to skip past Donald Trump’s rantings on social media to examine the underlying material dynamics that shape US politics: The crisis of the neoliberal economic model. The erosion of US global hegemony. The 60-year right-wing backlash against the gains of the 1960s. The persistence of economic inequality, racial injustice, and patriarchy. The impact on the US working class of deindustrialization, COVID, and post-COVID inflation. The anti-democratic features built into the US electoral system.

The Left’s assessment of the moment and our strategies for transformative change need to be grounded in these realities. But a periodic check on Trump’s messages on Truth Social is also warranted. It tells us a lot about the way this aspiring dictator thinks and what appeals to a MAGA base consisting of 70% of Republican voters and 35% of the electorate overall. Left assessments and strategies will be mechanical and one-sided if this dimension of class struggle—what Marx calls “the ideological forms in which men (sic) become conscious of conflict and fight it out”— is neglected."

Read the full article here.