This is an irritating question I get asked, especially by family. Let me be clear: NOBODY can be truly happy right now. Humanity is facing existential threats on multiple fronts. This is the Coronavirus War, which is the revolutionary war to prevent WW3 & MAD. Trotskyists are on the side of rationality & science, while capitalism is about irrational greed & class dominance. The Coronavirus War must be won by Trotskyism, otherwise we all die. The only way someone can claim to be happy under these conditions is if they are smugly self-satisfied and/or deluded.
Happiness is a relative term. I’m happier than I was in the past, but I don’t claim to be completely happy & fulfilled. There’s still too much work to be done. Only trifling minds can believe in their deep happiness. We have a social system where there is a class of people who can check-out whenever they please because they are taken care of. It’s nice if you can get it, but it’s not for me. Historical materialists posit that eventually their bubbles & illusions will be shattered by reality.
Donald Trump is part of this parasitic elite, full of anger among other bad things. Every MAGA supporter is like him, so none of these people can be happy. Trump’s pathology is that he is a sociopath. Sociopaths have no empathy, they revel in meting out cruelty & abuse, always targeting the weak when they are most vulnerable. Soft targets are the lifeblood of sociopaths & fascists, which feeds their bottomless appetite for hate, violence & terrorism.
All this is constructed on a mountain of lies which include historical falsification, anti-Semitism, and the perpetual use of the Big Lie. Fascists have fully adopted the techniques of US intelligence agencies & military. Most of the shock troops from the 1/6/21 US Capitol assault were recruited from far-right sympathizers in the police, firefighters, military, etc.
US Secret Services agents subpoenaed to turn over their cell phone data from 1/6/21 deleted all their texts, messages, etc. Far-right sympathizers in US police, military & intelligence agencies were the organizers & foot soldiers in Donald Trump’s coup attempt on 1/6/21. The 1/6 Committee led by Republican Party war-hawk Liz Cheney sought to whitewash all this filth & criminality, by pinning the entire blame on the actions of a single individual– Donald Trump. The facts overwhelmingly prove otherwise. Facts are stubborn things.
The FBI monitored the entire planning & unfolding of 1/6, with agents planted & active at all levels, and they did nothing to prevent an armed assault on the US Capitol building when Congress was in session, going through the ceremony of certifying a presidential election. After the 1/6 insurrection fizzled-out, the coup-plotter-in-chief began his next campaign to deal with the consequences & political fallout. First, Donald Trump intimidated Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell into not impeaching him during his swift (second) impeachment trial in the weeks after January 6, 2021.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican whip who was initially shocked & outraged over being a target of enraged MAGA vigilantes, checked with his grassroots supporters, (who both said don’t cross Trump) and thus jelly-spine Mitch caved-in to the Godfather of the Republican Party. Mitch McConnell swallowed his indignation, as well as his sworn duty to protect the US Constitution, uniting his party colleagues in voting “No” to impeachment, when no clearer case of criminality against American law could be imagined.
It was the best chance the Republicans ever had to handle Trump once and for all, and possibly redeem themselves (somewhat) in the eyes of the vast majority of Americans who STRONGLY disapproved of Trump’s coup attempt. The Republicans couldn’t do it because the political fallout would have been too devastating for the far right, whom they must protect at all costs. It would have killed the Republican Party, because Trump the Nazi became the Republican Party in 2016. Republicans, more than anyone else, can’t endure short-term pain & long-term sacrifice.
For historical reference, Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial was part of the Democrat attack campaign on him for beating Hillary Clinton in Election 2016. If there is one thing Donald Trump is genuinely good at, it’s a legal battle. If you’re going to beat Trump in court, you had better have the goods on him– and the resources to outlast all his dirty-tricks. Trump is a maestro at appealing verdicts, delaying, deflecting, denying, counter-suing, buying judges, ignoring rulings, etc.
The ruling establishment grievance for his first impeachment trial was that President Trump held up covert military aid to Ukrainian neo-Nazis for a few months. That’s it. For a long, long time in top-level US military planning circles, Ukraine has been considered the leading front in the war against “Russian interference,” whose goal is regime change in Moscow. These olden cold warriors lead humanity recklessly into the 21st-century with their nuclear brinkmanship & empty bluster. All of them are hard-headed & senile, along with being sore losers. These qualities are widely considered red flags for serious leadership positions, but under elite capitalism being stupid, heartless & greedy makes you most qualified for leadership.
Of course, as the true reasons for the first impeachment campaign against Donald Trump became apparent, and with strong Republican Party support, he was acquitted in the Senate. The whole matter was considered bogus by rational observers, with the real issue of arming Ukrainian neo-Nazis stricken from discussion, thus feeding into President Trump’s hand.
The Democrats do that very well, and Bush v Gore is perhaps the best example. Conservative Democrats (always claiming to be vaguely liberal) never mention how Election 2000 was stolen by Bush/Cheney. In the end it was Democratic Party leadership, bowing not to the will of the voters, but to a right-wing US Supreme Court which ruled that since the Electoral College decides the election for US President, there is no need to count all the votes in Florida.
The final counting of all Florida ballots, particularly the Miami area which leaned ~85% Democrat, was stopped by Republican lawyers. Governor Jeb Bush organized his machinery, while mobs of angered right-wing supporters stormed voting precincts where tens of thousands of uncounted ballots remained in storage. They were never to be counted, as the Supreme Court ruled 5-4, in favor of not counting all the ballots. Antonin Scalia authored the majority opinion, which was a legal & democratic travesty– the ‘justice’ of a mafia don.
Having lived in Central Florida for over 25 years I can say that most people oppose the right-wing politics of Florida, but that will never be allowed to express itself at the ballot box. Republicans took over the governorship of Florida in 1998, and they will never give it back without it being taken from them. In 2022, the Florida political machinery is solid Nazi with Trump hunkered down in exile at his Mar-a-Lago luxury compound, and Ron DeSantis in the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee.
The Villages, FL is a key financial & political base for the far right, to counter the liberalism of Sanford/Orlando in Central Florida. Massive right wing capital went into building the sprawling retirement community known as the Villages out of swampland in the late-1990’s. Politically the Villages first came to prominence as the right-wing Tea Party in 2009, which was their reaction to Barack Obama winning the presidency, and then later as rabid MAGA Trump supporters. For instance, much of the racist ‘birther campaign’ against Barack Obama was incubated in the Villages, which brands itself as “America’s Friendliest Hometown”. Between fits of hysterical anger towards Democrats & anything vaguely left-wing, Villagers like to think of themselves as happy & enlightened.
For the Democrats, the ideological front lines of mainstream propaganda (since ~1972, and then Barack Obama for sure) has been identity politics as a tool to divide workers & youth. The Nazis have white supremacy, anti-Semitism, vigilante militias, etc, and that ugliness largely speaks for itself. Most working people are repulsed, and you don’t have to convince too many educated people that the KKK is horrible, and that the Holocaust was a massive war crime. The lunatic fringe of Holocaust deniers, Q-Anon nuts, right-wing militia groups, etc, are now all that’s left of Donald Trump’s political base. The political establishment is trying to put the Republican Party back together again, after Humpty Trumpty forever shattered it on 1/6/21.
The MeToo campaign under the banner of liberal feminism is also fascism, but of a different stripe. MeToo has the power of illusion (feminine beauty), claiming to be a force for progress, but in fact it’s a nefarious tool for political reaction. The MeToo campaign is a McCarthyist witch-hunt, organized & led by the CIA Democrats, targeting leftist artists & top talent. Artistically speaking, this has a chilling affect on those who remain. MeToo is not a movement, but a cynical campaign whose core message is vote Democrat.
Both major parties like nothing more than a well-framed debate in the corporate media. For instance, what always gets mentioned in every spectrum of the fake media are Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Here we have a madman completely turning facts, science & history on its head, which gives the Democrats ammunition. The Democrats then use that ammunition to attack Trump (and everyone else) from the right. Trump may still command an audience of supporters, but they are ever-dwindling. The window of opportunity for fascism to regain power is closing fast, but this is not due to the efforts of the Democrats.
As Joe Biden said after 1/6, “We need a strong Republican Party… We need unity with the Republicans [fascists].” Indeed he does. People are now starting to realize that the Democrats are just as fascist as the Republicans, maybe even worse because of how they lie about it.
Their fascism is perhaps most apparent in their dictatorial control over the trade unions, bloated with corporate bureaucrats assigned to sell out the rank-and-file in all industries. The Democratic Party is the party of the CIA, the leading purveyor of misinformation on the planet. Their covert deceptions provide fuel for the big lies of Nazis everywhere. It’s a self-perpetuating system of hate & inequality called capitalism, dictated & financed on Wall Street, and then veneered-over with debased politics & vapid pop culture.
International socialism is how to overcome all this ignorance, hatred & inequality foisted upon us by the madmen & madwomen who own capitalism. To all oppressed workers, youth & socialists: Keep organizing rank-and-file workplace committees, along with school & neighborhood safety committees– everywhere!! That coalesces international labor power politically under the banner of Trotskyism. That’s how to win. It’s also how to be happy.
………<><><><><><><><>……….
