[D66] The impeachment trial begins as Trump escalates fascistic appeals

[A.OUT]

wsws.org:

The impeachment trial begins as Trump escalates fascistic appeals
17 January 2020

The Senate trial of President Donald Trump began Thursday with the 
ceremonial swearing-in of Chief Justice John Roberts, who will oversee 
the proceedings, followed by the administration of an oath to the 100 
senators. But for all the invocations of history and the official 
formalities, Trump’s impeachment and trial avoids the extreme danger to 
democratic rights posed by the increasingly authoritarian character of 
his government, with its open resort to criminal actions both at home 
and abroad.

Indeed, the trial begins just two weeks after Trump openly carried out 
an illegal state killing: murdering Qassem Suleimani, one of the most 
influential figures in the Iranian government in a January 3 drone strike.

Trump could have been charged with leading a criminal conspiracy to 
subvert the constitution, seeking to illegally prolong his term in 
office, fomenting violence against political opponents, and scuttling 
the Bill of Rights. But the Democrats, instead, have chosen to impeach 
Trump for holding up military aid to Ukraine and slightly delayed the 
timetable of a long-running operation by the CIA to expand military 
operations against Russian-back separatists in eastern Ukraine.

For all the sober faces on the House Democrats who delivered the two 
articles of impeachment to the Senate, the impeachment campaign has 
taken on the character of a farce. The Democrats don’t expect the 
Republican majority in the Senate to hold more than a perfunctory trial 
of the charges. This would be followed by a swift vote of acquittal, 
allowing Trump to declare himself vindicated and possibly strengthening 
his political position.

While the Congress goes through the motions, Trump is holding rallies 
where he employs fascistic demagogy to create a mob-like environment. On 
Tuesday night, on the eve of the final House vote to deliver the 
articles of impeachment to the Senate, Trump ranted at a rally in 
Wisconsin, celebrating the US murder of Iranian General Qassem Suleimani 
by a drone-fired missile. Speaking like the gangster he is, Trump 
vilified Suleimani as “this son of a bitch.”

He went on speak of the Democrats in similar terms, describing them as 
“demented,” “crazy,” and “loony,” and denouncing them as socialists and 
“traitors.” This diatribe came the day after Trump retweeted a doctored 
photograph showing Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer 
dressed in Muslim attire and standing in front of an Iranian flag.

Nothing approaching language of this sort has ever been used by an 
American president. His words are an open incitement to violence against 
those he deems his enemies; and they have political consequences.

On Thursday, the FBI arrested three white supremacists, two of them 
ex-soldiers, who were preparing an armed assault on the Virginia state 
capitol, using a gun-rights rally set for next Monday—Martin Luther King 
Day—as a screen for their actions. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam 
declared a state of emergency, warning of another Charlottesville, the 
2017 neo-Nazi riot in which an anti-fascist protester was murdered, and 
where Trump praised the white supremacists as “good people.”

The impeachment process is itself unfolding in an atmosphere of violent 
threats and provocations. This week an associate of Trump’s attorney and 
ambassador-at-large Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, has come forward to 
reveal efforts to conduct physical and electronic surveillance of Marie 
Yovanovitch, then the US ambassador to Ukraine, who was viewed as an 
obstacle to Trump’s efforts to obtain political ammunition against 
Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden in Ukraine.

The position of the Democrats is completely feckless. Even as the 
impeachment process gets underway, they work hand-in-hand with the White 
House on key questions of economic and foreign policy. Only hours before 
the beginning of the Senate trial Thursday, Senate Democrats voted 
overwhelmingly for the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, sought by Trump 
to intensify trade warfare against China and Europe. House speaker 
Pelosi has sent Trump an invitation to appear before Congress and 
deliver his State of the Union address.

The Democrats continue to propound the reactionary fantasy that Trump is 
an agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, rather than the expression 
of the turn towards fascism by powerful sections of the American 
financial aristocracy.

They claim that they are acting to protect the “legitimacy” of the 2020 
elections. But it is becoming increasingly clear that the election will 
be held under conditions of threats of violence against Trump’s 
opponents; and there is no reason to assume that Trump will accept the 
outcome of the vote on November 3, should he be defeated. At his rally 
in Wisconsin, he repeated his threat that he will seek to stay in office 
indefinitely, regardless of the US Constitution.

It is striking that the Democrats have never explained what they intend 
to do if Trump is acquitted and remains in office. His assault on 
democratic rights will continue, and he will be emboldened to intensify 
his efforts to instigate the growth of a fascistic mass movement.

There is no way that the interests of the masses of working people can 
find expression in a conflict between the fascistic Trump and his 
Democratic opponents, who act as political attorneys for the CIA. For 
the vast majority of the population, the impeachment process is 
completely detached from their real political and social interests. 
There are many reasons for workers to oppose Trump, but his delay of the 
CIA’s timetable for a war in eastern Ukraine, which could trigger a 
confrontation with Russia, is not one of them.

The removal of the Trump administration is urgently required. But a 
genuine struggle against Trump requires the independent mobilization of 
the working class against the entire rotten structure of American 
capitalism and capitalist politics. This is what the Democrats are 
determined to avoid. They want a change in certain aspects of 
imperialist policy, not any sort of fundamental change in policy that 
undermines the power of the ruling class and impinges on their wealth.

The criminal character of the Trump administration is a symptom of the 
putrefaction of American capitalism. The United States is stricken by 
the twin cancers of historically unprecedented social inequality and 
decades of military aggression overseas. The only cure is an independent 
revolutionary struggle of the working class, based on a socialist and 
internationalist program.

Patrick Martin