Well short of the backing they need from Republicans to impeach and oust President Donald Trump before the 2020 election, many Democrats are becoming increasingly nervous that none of the 18 candidates contesting their party’s presidential nomination is capable of beating him at the polls.
“There is genuine concern that the horse many have bet on [Joe Biden] may be pulling up lame,” David Axelrod, a long-time Democratic Party operative and former adviser to Barack Obama, told the New York Times. “And the horse who has sprinted out front [Elizabeth Warren] may not be able to win.”
The crusade to impeach and indict Trump is driven by liberals’ contempt for — and fear of — the millions of working people who either voted for Trump in 2016, or who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for either candidate of the two main capitalist parties. Convinced that these workers are backward and bigoted, liberals want at all costs to get Trump out now to prevent working people from electing him again in 2020.
Hillary Clinton, who smeared Trump supporters as “deplorables” when she lost to him in 2016, has stepped up her public appearances, refusing to rule out running again. Others from her wing of the party, like former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Secretary of State John Kerry are being urged to get into the race.
Weeks after launching their impeachment inquiry into the president — built around secret hearings and copious leaks to the press — Democrats now say they will put authorization for their inquisition up for a vote in the House.
Democratic House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi says that the six House committees investigating Trump will then place their “findings” before the Judiciary Committee so it can consider filing articles of impeachment.
But liberals aren’t convinced that their “evidence” against Trump will be sufficient to get him thrown out. It rests on the president’s request that the Ukrainian government probe corruption, including Hunter Biden’s efforts to profit from his father’s position as vice president.
So they continue to dig around on other fronts. New York prosecutors got a court ruling that Trump must hand over his tax returns to a criminal investigation they are pursuing, a move the president appealed Oct. 23. The Democrat-led House Ways and Means Committee has sued the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to try to force them to hand over Trump’s returns.
Their goal is to criminalize those they disagree with.
Democrats use of FBI and CIA agents against Trump opens the door for the use of the U.S. rulers’ political police and criminal “justice” system against others they see as enemies. First and foremost this includes militant workers the U.S. rulers fear will wage struggles to defend themselves under the impact of the deepening crisis of capitalism.
Leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and the Minneapolis Teamsters union were convicted in 1941 for organizing opposition among workers to the rulers’ drive to join the Second World War. This attack was led by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the liberals who stocked his administration.
Stability of two-party system shaken
The ruling rich have not been able to restore the stability of their two-party system, damaged in 2016. That setup works by convincing working people that their only “choice” is to cast their votes for the “lesser evil” — one of the two main capitalist parties.
The swath of Democratic and Republican candidates in 2016 evoked unprecedented distrust and loathing from wide layers of working people. Trump said he stood outside of the Washington quagmire, claiming to be different from all factions within both parties. From the moment he got elected, Democrats and their mouthpieces in the liberal media like the New York Times have been in a frenzy to undo the result.
Both wings of the Democratic Party believe impeachment would help clear their way to power. The left and socialist wing of the party wants a road to the presidency built on turning their back on the majority of the working class they dismiss as reactionary. They believe they can get elected by winning votes of African Americans, Latinos, and women largely in the big cities.
Elizabeth Warren, the front runner for the Democrats’ nomination, says she’s a radical-minded capitalist who will manipulate taxes and use an army of federal regulatory agencies to manage the big corporations and make capitalist exploitation more agreeable. Bernie Sanders offers similar policies in the name of “socialism.” Both contrive to treat workers as objects to be administered.
Like Trump they both say they dislike U.S. wars abroad, but all of them will continue to command Washington’s vast military power in defense of U.S. imperialist interests around the world, if elected.
“In contrast to the Democrats, Republicans and other politicians who seek to reform capitalism, Socialist Workers Party candidates start with the capacities of working people to change our conditions,” Seth Galinsky, SWP candidate for New York City public advocate, told the Militant.
“We organize together with fellow workers to fight against assaults by the bosses, their parties and their government. We advocate building a labor party, independent of the capitalist parties. Such a course offers a way to mobilize workers in our millions to take power out of the hands of the capitalist rulers and establish a workers and farmers government.”