Author: Victor Fowler Calzada | internet@granma.cu

January 17, 2021 7:01:58 PM

It is up to humanity to remain vigilant in the face of what will survive Trumpism: the eruption of the profound forces that contain the extreme texture of today's capitalism. 
There is so much that accumulates that it is only possible to undertake an initial, or partial, or small route, but -in any case- it is worth asking beyond, behind or below the obvious (the assault on the Washington Capitol by part Trump supporters last Wednesday, January 6), what happened that day? What has continued to happen and what should we expect? The news about it accumulates in such variety and quantity that it seems that time has accelerated and divided into parallel dimensions.

It is not only that a crowd mocks the security (no less than) of the Washington Capitol, the exact center of political power in the United States, but that the event is refracted in dozens of microscenes of a delusional script where: there are police who -in Instead of fulfilling their duty to "protect and serve", as the phrase that identifies the ethics of this body goes - selfies are taken together with the mob; a Republican congresswoman posts the notice of the exact location of Nancy Pelosi's office (exposing her to the crowd instead of taking care of who is Speaker of the House of Representatives); a character, calling himself "the shaman of QAnon," walks in, walks through the building shirtless, covered in animal skin, the painted face and pair of horns on the head in a disturbing performance that invokes some kind of primitive claim; another walks up to Pelosi's office, takes the Democratic congresswoman's chair, leans back, puts his feet crossed on the desk, and has a picture taken. One more walks the halls with a flag of the Confederate army, there are those who show neo-Nazi symbols, a former policeman wears a bunch of plastic handcuffs and it is even possible to see an American flag with the phrase Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president. In both photographs and videos, there are several occasions in which the MAGA (Make America Great Again) flag appears, around which those who offer support to Trump unify. he occupies the chair of the Democratic congresswoman, leans back, puts his feet crossed on the bureau, and has a picture taken. One more walks the halls with a flag of the Confederate army, there are those who show neo-Nazi symbols, a former policeman wears a bunch of plastic handcuffs and it is even possible to see an American flag with the phrase Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president. In both photographs and videos, there are several occasions in which the MAGA (Make America Great Again) flag appears, around which those who offer support to Trump unify. he occupies the chair of the Democratic congresswoman, leans back, puts his feet crossed on the bureau, and has a picture taken. One more walks the halls with a flag of the Confederate army, there are those who show neo-Nazi symbols, a former policeman wears a bunch of plastic handcuffs and it is even possible to see an American flag with the phrase Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president. In both photographs and videos, there are several occasions in which the MAGA (Make America Great Again) flag appears, around which those who offer support to Trump unify. a former policeman wears a bunch of plastic handcuffs and it is even possible to see an American flag with the phrase Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president. In both photographs and videos, there are several occasions in which the MAGA (Make America Great Again) flag appears, around which those who offer support to Trump unify. a former policeman wears a bunch of plastic handcuffs and it is even possible to see an American flag with the phrase Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president. In both photographs and videos, there are several occasions in which the MAGA (Make America Great Again) flag appears, around which those who offer support to Trump unify.

If the panorama that the previous moments draw looks chaotic, when to all the mentioned episodes we add the death of five people, the whole becomes something dark. Here, as the FBI investigations progress, data is released according to which, among the crowd gathered, both outside and inside the government building, voices were heard calling Mike Pence a traitor, the vice president who refused to carry Trump's wish into action: reject Biden's electoral victory and make the coup real.

On a kind of the third level, congressmen and senators from the Republican Party presented one of the most painful examples of political corruption and hypocrisy when - closing ranks around Trump - they spent the first hours after the assault minimizing the events of the Capitol and then, when Democrats filed the impeachment petition against Trump, tried to stop the process. The vote, 232 votes in favor and 197 against, gives way to a new spectacle when Republican voices begin to multiply, asking to stop insisting on impeachment with the argument that - and here the formidable hypocrisy - what the country you need is to heal the wounds and regain unity rather than impeachment. In opposition to it, Peter Meijer,

This points to the fourth level of implication and opacity when we recall that Trump's defeat occurred despite having a more than respectable 74 million followers. If the amount is enormous, Trump's histrionics, his permanent resort to fake news and other media manipulations, as well as tireless inflammatory rhetoric, have instilled fear and paranoia in wide sectors, absorbing, feeding, and producing a type of anger and frustration that is supported by irrational fears and blindness in the face of operations that are nothing but logic of the system.

How to understand what is happening? Or, better yet, in the midst of such an overwhelming tide of events, what is happening? Who are these millions of Trump supporters? Why do you arouse fanatical reactions, to the point that examples of fundamentalists are mentioned who, coming from the extreme Christian right, consider you a kind of Messiah? Why, among the speeches of Democratic congressmen, requesting impeachment, so many times was there talk of American exceptionalism? In what way is the ideology of white nationalism and Christian nationalism unified in the discourse of Trumpism? What do the post-election statistics tell us, which showed that Biden was a favorite candidate in urban, densely populated, and large industrial areas; while Trump was favored in rural territories,

Not surprisingly, in the moments that followed the final electoral result, there were columnists who spoke about the urgency of recovering that kind of another country, which extends beyond the cities. Another text, which appeared in The Atlantic, draws attention to the fact that, on the day of the revolt, for the first time in history a black senator and an American Jew had been elected to the Senate of Georgia; In this way, the author considers that the assault on the Capitol was not “an uprising against a tyrannical government; it was an uprising against a multicultural government. Such an analysis, which in reality means preventing any government like this from having the possibility of existence in the country,

Last week, in a debate broadcast by Telesur, one of the participants used, as a basis for his argument, the opposition between a model of capitalism inclined to the type of domination that is established through large flows of finance, which privileges large areas of "Free trade" and other transnational processes (which he identified with Obama and Hillary Clinton); while he put, at the opposite extreme, strongly protectionist capitalism (which he identified with Trump), interested in "returning industries" to the nation. From such an angle, what relationship do the events in the neighboring country have with the commercial, political and other confrontations over areas of influence, between the northern nation, Russia, and, above all, China?

Biden's inauguration will take place in just days, amid the deployment of a security device like never seen before, in an environment overshadowed by the FBI's suspicions regarding the possibility of simultaneous protests (in the 50 capitals of the nation) and more violence from Trump's many supporters.

An article, recently published in The New York Times, presents a sharp interpretation of what happened, considering the Trump moment as the present development of a long history of degradation within the Republican Party; According to Lisa McGirr, author of the text, the current convulsions would have started more than four decades earlier, when "neoliberalism left long segments of the party's social base, like many other Americans, with declining living standards."

Along with this path, in the author's opinion, both the economic crisis and the increase in immigration led to a state in which space was left open for "calculating politicians" to exploit what she calls "white cultural resentment." Another way to understand it would be by adding the export processes of industries, the devastating effects of capitalist globalization in the agricultural sector, the loss of strength (real economic power) of the middle class in the country.

Now the tension is growing in a Washington occupied by more than 25,000 troops to guarantee tranquility and order in the presidential inauguration.

In this context, multiplying the questions keeps us awake, joining distant points to unveil the plot, not only of the will or whims of the highest figure of a government but of the ideological nuclei that have found shelter, beyond the leader, in the set of positions and ideas that are identified as part of Trumpism. Increase in racism, white nationalism, extreme right, opposition to multiculturalism, criminalization of immigrants, naturalization of fake news and other forms of media manipulation, silence in the face of forms of neofascism, extension, and strengthening of the Monroe Doctrine, policies of economic strangulation and cultural for any government considered "enemy" (which includes the articulation of international blocs to achieve it), isolationism,

This list of components of the ideology that were articulated under the shelter of MAGA is much more important than the particular figure of the President who concludes his mandate. If partisan loyalty to Trump is shattered over the next several months, as is expected as the Biden administration advances and ties between Republicans are weakened, and if the punishment of those who invaded the Capitol is severe, and if the groups of the extreme right are also weakened, so the political destiny of the current President will be really decided and he will be disqualified from holding public office. In parallel, there are those who suppose that he is going to found a news chain, which, giving continuity to what he has done until today, can only be a powerful and bitter emitter of hate speech, which will continue to fuel the worst of belief in American exceptionalism. It may also happen that he will face charges for allegations of fraud and corruption, although there are also those who speculate that he will end up granting himself a presidential pardon. In any case, humanity has to remain vigilant and active in the face of what is going to survive from this momentary Trumpism, which is nothing but the eruption of the profound forces that contain the true, extreme texture of today's capitalism and its projects. Of the future.