I have been hearing nothing but talk about the “impending civil war” that is “definitely coming” and is “going to hit us at any second now.”
What I have not heard is any consensus on what that Civil War would be. Who would be fighting each other? Why would they be fighting each other? Would it be a hard-force (with guns) civil war, or would it be a political fracturing civil war?
Some people think we are going to see Democrats and Republicans shooting at each other in the streets as Blue and Red States call out their National Guards and all hell breaks loose. There’s some credulity to this as we are witnessing Democratic Governor’s coalescing in the “Governors Safeguarding Democracy” (GSD) organization. GSD claims to be non-partisan with bi-partisan support (there even being rumors of GA Governor Kemp cooperating). However, the GSD is still run by two Democratic Governors: JB Pritzker of Illinois (God bless the great state that is my home) and Jared Polis of Colorado, and they are organizing the GSD as a counter-measure to Trumpian MAGA Republicanism (aka Fascism). The media lens will represent the GSD as a a Blue v. Red phenomenon that is highly reminiscent of 1860, and indeed they already are.
Other people believe that there will be a DNC civil war. We have seen since at least 2016 an active effort by, in my opinion, the stupider elements of the party to rub out Progressives. This is in large part because the DNC is, arguably, too “big tent.” Blue Dog — pro-corporate business — Democrats and Democratic Socialists are not going to play nicely with one another (one suckling the teat of corporate billionaire donors — the other trying to get the DNC clean of the dollar narcotic). The DNC is already looking to have a new election for the DNC chair very soon.
Know who the DNC is looking to put into the chair?
Rahm Emanuel. A pro-corporate business Democrat who has vocally eschewed progressivism for most of his career. And the DNC is baffled on how it could possibly have lost the faith of the “worker class...” www.commondreams.org/...
“Emanuel has some powerful backers among the war-and-Wall Street wing that has dominated the Democratic party for decades.”
www.chicagotribune.com/…
“Emanuel is a nonstarter, based on his mayoral track record alone. That would include his decision to close nearly 50 Chicago public schools, as well as half of the city’s mental health clinics, most serving African American and Latino communities.”
Wall-Street ties and closing 50 public schools in the city of Chicago??? Gee, why does that sound so much like… being a GOP billionaire puppet?
The point that must be drilled into people’s heads is that, with this constant fetish for centrism and moderation, the DNC is not a Left-Leaning Party. Indeed, the DNC is losing much credulity to claim it is a “liberal” party. In nearly any country in Europe, the DNC would be considered a conservative group because of its “establishment” focus.
Many voters see straight through the hypocrisy of the DNC claiming to “defend the people,” when too many of its members are guilty of the same original sin as the RNC: cozying up to billionaires.
Think it is ridiculous to believe the DNC is trying to push aside Progressives completely? It already happened to the Labor Party in the UK: www.nbcnews.com/…
And the Labor Party’s victory in the most recent election is already acting as a vindication for many DNC operatives that want to push the party farther to the center — farther to the right. It is getting bad enough that many within the progressive movement are trying to encourage figures (such as Bernie Sanders) to create a new progressive political party. This is what some within both the progressive and establishment DNC desire. Some Progressives see this as an opportunity to finally be free of Centrists to finally rally the workers, while Establishment politicians see this as a chance to finally be free of those annoying radicals like AOC and Bernie. This is also something that the RNC would also love to see occur.
A DNC split would be tantamount to total political suicide for any and all pro-democracy politicians and all but guarantee MAGA hegemony for the rest of this century (because we would simply have full 100% dictatorship). Any new progressive party would immediately get stomped on and crushed to death by both the RNC and the establishment DNC, happily funded by billionaires. At the same time, a fully Establishment — non-Progressive — DNC would just get steamrolled in perpetuity by the RNC, with the DNC just becoming a cheap knock-off of RNC conservatism while failing to deliver the radicalism so many voters clearly desire.
So those are two potential civil wars that could potentially happen, both with disastrous consequences for non-fascists, Americans, and the species as a whole.
But what about a third possible civil war?
The MAGA movement, despite some individuals’ feelings, is indeed “big tent.” In a two-party system, like ours, both political parties are going to unavoidably be “big tent” and cover many different, sometimes warring, factions. So who are these different factions within MAGA?
As the video above describes, there is a “Libertarian” half of MAGA and there is the “Protectionist” segment of MAGA. The Libertarian faction is represented by individuals like Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, while the Protectionists are shown in people such as JD Vance and RFK Jr. Both factions are constantly tugging and pulling at Trump to pay attention to them. That is the status of MAGA today.
These MAGA two factions are exponentially more opposed to one another than the Progressive and Establishment wings of the DNC because their agendas cannot even functionally co-exist with one another.
The Libertarians, like Musk and Ramaswamy want to absolutely crush and obliterate the Federal Government, reducing it to nothing but an empty husk — giving corporate billionaires complete freedom to go full robber-baron, like the good ole’ days of the 1890s and early 1900s. This requires eliminating federal departments, culling federal power, and essentially giving the reins of American Democracy power to companies. To them, this is fantastic for business growth, in their monopolistic vision.
On the other hand, Protectionists want to use the full power of the Federal Government to enforce their social-religious goals. One example from the video is RFK Jr’s crusade against chemicals in food. This aim alone would require Herculean efforts on the part of the federal government to achieve. JD Vance and idiots like Mike Johnson, want to enforce a chauvinistic “white-supremacist” “Christian value” police state upon the United States. That would require the full power of the federal government, and then some. Don’t even get me started on the whole “immigration” issue. Who is going to deport anybody if there is no federal executive power to make that happen?
The Libertarians, who have already been exiled into the imaginary “DOGE,” want to cull 75% of federal workers. Protectionists cannot physically accomplish their goals if the Libertarians have their way. At the same time, Protectionists stand no chance of success without the donor money that comes from members of the Libertarian faction (Elon’s billions).
It is physically impossible for either side to accomplish their goal. Compromise would define disaster for their aims. That, and both are militantly fanatical in being successful.
That means a split is just a matter of “when,” not “if.” This is just my opinion, but the only thing holding these factions together is Trump’s ability to rally the bigoted, the uneducated, and the disillusioned. Neither faction can stand without Trump to rally the shambling zombified masses, and without him the “house of cards” will be sucked into a blackhole power vacuum no one is orange enough to fill.
We are already starting to see fracturing occurring within the MAGA movement, as we speak: www.rawstory.com/…
There is shouting and even physical confrontations happening amongst members of the Trump Transition Team. Everyone is stepping on each other’s toes, no one can or will compromise, and everyone is vying for the attention of their false idol (Trump). This is not a recipe for cohesion and success.
One way or another, regardless of which faction collapses first, something has to give. Our nation, politically, has fought itself to complete and total exhaustion across the board. Politically, our factions have been in a war of attrition since the Reagan years (when it became clear that there was now a clear divide between conservatism and liberalism as we know it today). Neither side has budged these last 40 years, only become more entrenched.
One side is going to give out and implode at some point. I would like to hedge my bets on MAGA (and the RNC) imploding first, but the DNC has to take the first step to adapting and instilling hope into the hearts and minds of the people. This is never going to happen if the DNC persists on its fetish of centrism. The DNC has tried “Moderatism” and “Centrism” for decades now, and all we have accomplished if flip flopping back and forth — each flop taking us one step deeper into fascism.
I think I shall end with this:
How about a “Centrist” approach — you could even say a ”conservative” idea. How about we do things the way that we used to in the DNC and America as a whole? You know, like the good ole’ days that some older folks talk about. Let’s mimic FDR’s Progressivism. He did it a long time ago, and many Democrats worked to expand on his efforts thereafter. It won FDR four terms in office. None of FDR’s ideas or methods are new — they are old. So old (it’s been over 90 years since FDR first took office) that you could say FDR’s ideas are even more conservative than Reaganism.
We’ve been trying this new-fangled “meet them in the middle” Moderate approach for a while now, and it just isn’t working. We should go back to the way to the way people like FDR did it, the way Lincoln did it, and the way the Founders did it. We should be pushing the boundaries of politics and social norms to make society a better place for everyone. That is the truly “conservative” thing for American to do. This is what we have done since our founding. Let’s see ourselves live up to how the rest of the world has seen us for centuries — by being radically progressive for our times.
