There is currently no more Republican Party. Just the name is still in use. It is an openly fascist party dedicated to dictatorship and one that is using white supremacy as its vehicle, which has long had a foundation in our economy, legal system, foreign policy, class divisions, segregation, and our very way of life.
“All in” on Trump
No secret that Trump awakened white supremacist activism like no other national politician has before him since the days leading up to the Civil War. The reason the Republicans have gone “all in” on Trump is rather simple. All they have left to attract support today is pandering to white supremacy, racism and fear mongering conspiracy theories. Otherwise they are almost 100% opposed to anything positive or beneficial for their own supporters outside of the upper middle and wealthier classes. The only thing they materially promise is to maintain the oppression of people of color, and make sure that whites are always better off than they are.
It is therefore almost miraculous that Biden was able to defeat Trump. I would be remiss not to mention that significant numbers of whites and women joined the record turn out by people of color to do so. Further polarizing the situation. Any way you look at it, white supremacy and opposition to it has taken the main stage of politics today, as it did in the years leading up to the Civil War. The extreme racial strategy of the Republicans and the protracted activism by both people of color and progressive forces has forced Biden to the left, and to openly oppose, at least in words, the five headed monster of white supremacy.
We have all the makings for violent action provoked by the Republicans, who have been busy throwing gasoline on the fires of white supremacist revolt and using their positions in Congress to subvert the rights of people of color to vote at a massively accelerated rate. At a certain point open warfare or another coupe attempt may be inevitable, just as the last Civil War was years in the making. While on the surface, such a conflict may play out differently, its causes are the same.
What is “News Media Exclusivity”
All of which brings us to the current continued maturation of “News Media Exclusivity” — or NME. It being a new word phrase in the political dictionary. It means that nearly half the country now never gets to hear or consider what the other side is saying. While most news contains a political opinion or slant, whether stated or implied, there has been a proliferation of recent “news’ outlets that tell deliberate factual lies and promote unfounded or made up conspiracy theories. As much as any other factor in America, the right wing news machine today is setting the stage for continued conflict. It is making facts, whether good or bad in nature, almost irrelevant. A healthy percentage of Americans today relies on such outlets, often to the exclusion of any others.
NME is particularly evident as it applies to COV19, which while seemingly to rational folks a matter of public health preservation and protection, has been negatively politicized by a campaign led by the Republicans. With sides being taken on whether or not to wear masks or take precautions and get vaccinated. While not exclusively an issue related to white supremacy, race and class are a huge factor in the number of deaths and attitudes towards preventive measures. Even without blatant politicization. Another example of successful big lies is of course the notion that the 2020 election was fixed. While not numerically believed by a majority of Americans, it is believed by a significant minority. Without an effective strategy to combat the massive lies being promoted, a violent direction to addressing our nation’s history of white supremacy seems inevitable. There is already an accelerated level of daily violence imposed on people of color.
Who Owns the Government?
Politics is itself more akin to combat by words instead of bullets. For most of our history, our political parties have been more similar than different, and represented the rule of competing upper privileged classes and the capitalist economic system based on profit and private ownership. Today we see that this may be changing for the first time in our history. Biden’s ability to rule, although legitimately elected, has increasingly put him under pressure to respond to a different constituency class wise than the Republicans. In the past, both parties mostly agreed that Wall Street interests must dominate and white privilege a fact of life. The differing rhetoric projected at differing constituencies did not change this basic understanding. Today, bipartisanship collaboration, even if behind the scene, seems on life support. I’m not mourning its passing, just recognizing that we have entered a new stage. The question that arises today more than ever, is “Who owns the government.” Theoretically, if not in practice, the people do. Hence the reason for all constant Republican anti- government propaganda.
Words, facts, ideas and truth matter. The Republicans are literally throwing their supporters to the wolves of war, ready to ride such a wave to power. With a progressive movement without its own party, we must address the Democratic leadership as long as its willing to listen and act in defense of democracy for the disenfranchised, which must be fought for and extended before substantive economic progress can be made.