Trump Indicted for Espionage!
Should the Left support “National Security”?
The response to Trump’s indictment was to be expected. Liberals, Democrats, and most of the national media say Trump deserves it.
“ National Security is sacrosanct. No one is above the law. Trump needs to be held accountable.”
On the contrary, many Republicans see it as a witch hunt.
The emotional reaction of most Liberals and leftists is understandable. Trump is the supreme object of hatred. Anything that will bring down this, racist, misogynist would-be dictator is good. Maybe this will finally get him!
There are plenty of reasons to oppose Trump and Trumpism, but this is not one of them!
The fight over documents is a mud wrestling contest. Anyone who jumps in the ring and supports either side will end up covered in mud.
The whole premise of the debate is that “national security” is sacred. The TV commentators assume that everyone supports this. They think the real question is whether Trump jeopardized national security — -and they say he did.
People on the left should oppose this whole premise. “National Security” is used to justify everything from U.S. slaughters in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Palestine, Sudan, Yemen and…. to jailing whistle blowers like Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. It is used to suppress dissidents on the left and right (but mostly the left!). National Security is the excuse for the 800-billion-dollar military budget while people sleep homeless in the streets of every major city in the U.S. Activists against Cop-City in Georgia have been jailed under “terrorism” laws.
The U.S. is the world’s major imperialist power. It has over 800 foreign military bases. It backs horrific governments like Saudi Arabia and Israel. It’s military is the world’s single largest user of fossil fuels. “National Security” is a slogan used by the ruling class to increase its wealth and power. There is no way that the Left should get stampeded into supporting national security to get Trump!
Unfortunately, some on the Left have gone to the other extreme. They actually defend Trump against attacks on his “civil rights”! They think they can appeal directly and sympathetically to the MAGA crowd because it too opposes the status quo. They forget that MAGA wants a more reactionary society, one with fewer rights for workers, women, LGBT people, people of color and the poor. Instead of appealing to them, we need to oppose them and present a positive alternative.
The Left needs to fight Trump and Trumpism. We need to oppose the right-wing groups that he has encouraged. However, we can’t effectively do this by supporting the liberal wing of big business. This wing, the Democratic Party, is also opposed to workers and the poor.
The Democratic Party has presided over the largest transfer of wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 1% in U.S. history over the last 50 years. One estimate is a transfer of $50 trillion. It has backed austerity, deregulation, and lower taxes on the rich. It refuses to provide even the basics of other economically developed countries (universal health care, free college, adequate old age pensions, public housing, paid parental leave etc.)
Trumpism is the result of the failures of the Democrats. With falling living standards and social deterioration, too many turned to the faux alternative of racist, sexist “America First” politics. We won’t attack the roots of Trumpism by supporting Democratic Party liberalism which nurtured those roots.
The indictment of Trump has created a dilemma for the right wing of the U.S. ruling class. Right wing billionaires and millionaires like Trump’s policies — tax cuts for the rich and deregulation. In the current economic crisis, they want to get what they can as quickly as possible. They are supportive of or at least accepting of racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, and anti-LGBT policies. However, Trump himself is increasingly seen as a liability. He is so ignorant, egotistical , irrational and incompetent that he endangers the whole right-wing project.
The Democratic Party wing of the ruling class opposes Trump on policy grounds. It wants a more ruling class-conscious set of policies. It wants to build U.S. competitiveness against China. See Michael Roberts’ excellent examination of the economic policy of the Biden administration:
The indictment of Trump is justified according to capitalist law. Trump has no legal excuse for his actions. However, it is also an attempt by the moderate wing of the ruling class and the state apparatus to stop Trump from derailing their policies.
The Left needs an independent policy. We need to put forward a socialist solution to the real problems most people face. We won’t do that by buying into the liberal narrative around “national security”. As tempting as it is to bash Trump over stealing documents, we need to focus on the real issues.
