“They are frightened, confused and lonely.” That’s how the worker who reported on the racist and misogynistic and nationalist comments in Oaklandsocialist’s previous post described the mood among tens of millions of workers.

Yes, it is primarily white workers, and white male workers in particular. But that’s not all, as the following report shows: 

A fourth grade teacher in the SF Bay area reports that on election day five kids, all the children of Mexican immigrants, broke out chanting “Trump! Trump! Trump!” She was shocked, calmed the classroom down and then had a conversation with them. She asked them why they supported Trump and they said because he’s going to improve the economy and make food more affordable. She asked them if they knew about Trump’s plans to deport immigrants. And they didn’t believe her. She said no it’s absolutely true and she showed them the proof. They were shocked and one of them still doubted her. The parents of these children are  evangelicals.

So, yes, white supremacy/racism is a driving force behind MAGA, along with ethno-nationalism, misogyny, and homophobia, but these have always been a part of US culture. The question is why are they dominating today? 

That frightened confusion and loneliness stems from many factors. In 2018, Das

Das Gupta’s “Demise of the Nation State” explained a lot.

Gupta wrote a piece in the Guardian called The demise of the nation state. In it, he described how capitalism has always been organized around nation-states and that system is breaking down. In the absence of a global working class solidarity movement (which Gupta of course doesn’t think about), this leaves hundreds of millions “frightened, confused, and lonely.” They are looking for a return to “normalcy” and they are looking for somebody to blame.

It is similar to the dynamic that brought Hitler to power in several ways. In that situation, there were two mass working class parties whose utter failure opened a huge gap into which the Nazis drove. Today, the union leadership has played a similar role. Rather than building international working class solidarity, it has fostered nationalism, selfishness and individualism. The “left”, including the “socialist” left has been no better. They have happily lived for decades in their own echo chamber. That includes kissing up to the “progressive” union bureaucrats. They have stepped up their disastrous approach by in effect saying that it doesn’t really matter if Trump comes into office. Their main theme has been to attack the Democrats, which means that the Republicans/MAGA are better. Some of them have actually said that they want to “punish the Democrats” by denying them a victory. That can only mean wanting Trump to win.

The role of the German Communists helped usher in Hitler. When there was zero reassessment of that role, the Communists proved that they had for all time lost any claim to leading the working class. Today’s equivalent had lost that claim many decades ago. Their complete failure to understand what Trump represents or the significance of this election is just icing on the cake for these “socialists”.

There will be many differences between the new Trump presidency and Nazi Germany, but the mass psychology has a lot of similarities.

Britain’s version of Trump will have received a boost.

Just like the ascension of Mussolini and Hitler gave an impetus to far right and fascist movements around the world, so Trump’s ascension will have a similar effect. Nor will his presidency have the same guardrails as his previous one had. He approached the previous ascension thinking that he could just give orders to his underlings – any underlings he liked – and they would carry it out just like Michael Cohen had done. He found out differently. First and foremost was “his” generals, for example former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Milley, who made it clear that he would disobey an order to send U.S. troops onto the streets. Trump learned from that and this time he will lean on the “Dr. Strangelove” wing of the military command, such people as the fascist/Christian nationalist Lieutenant General (retired) Michael Flynn. Trump will appoint an attorney general who will prosecute any “enemy” Trump designates. He has a vice president who will eagerly carry out any order to refuse to certify presidential election results.

The UAW leadership’s call to action. Let’s hope they are serious. See:
https://solidarity.uaw.org/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGYYeJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHeXl8vXVf6aKd-aF8Hr84DjOPmoPICBu4RoqKpTUnNdTF9bxpcbLT66H7Q_aem_HdJqhFbguC3VresuZhBGRw

The leadership of the United Auto Workers has put out a call to organize against Trump. We hope they are serious. All workers, all socialists, all those who see the need for international working class solidarity, should sign up, but we shouldn’t wait for them to act. We have to start by organizing among ourselves, starting with figuring out what the hell just happened, why, and where things might go from here. 

November 11 Update: We didn’t look at that call carefully enough. It was issued before the election. In other words, it was just a ploy to get names of people to advocate for Harris, and nothing more than that. This is from the top reform bureaucrat. They will do nothing to resist Trump and MAGA other than maybe encourage a few lawsuits… unless there is a serious movement from below.

These are our preliminary thoughts. Oaklandsocialist will have a lot more to say on this huge defeat. And make no mistake, this is a defeat and a serious one.