by The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not represent the official position of Reform and Revolution.
By Philip Locker
Yesterday’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump has significantly strengthened his political position. The shooting is likely to rally the minority of GOP voters who were previously uneasy about Trump, as well as further energizing and radicalizing his base. Along with Biden’s abysmal debate performance this dramatically increases the danger of a second Trump term with all the horrible implications entailed for working-class people, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, women, the environment, and much more.
The motives of the shooter are not yet known. If they were politically motivated by a hatred of Trump, their actions will backfire terribly. Even with the best intentions, desperate terroristic methods do not serve the interests of the working class or the oppressed. Instead, they demobilize the masses and create favorable conditions for intensified state repression.
Marxists have nothing in common with such destructive methods. The Left should in no way associate itself with this unhinged act or make light of it. If evidence emerges connecting the shooter with the Left, the consequences will be no laughing matter.
The only viable way to fight Trump – and the far-right populism he expresses – is building a massive, democratically organized, multi-racial working-class movement. There are no shortcuts to building political opposition to Trump and the decaying capitalist system that is spawning far-right populism internationally. Our methods must be based on collective action and the democratic self-organization of workers and marginalized communities.
US society is in crisis. One way or another our living conditions and democratic rights will come under fierce attack in the coming period. The only way forward is to come together in mass organizations and a new working-class party to fight for a political revolution against the billionaire class.
The capitalist establishment and their mass media is in overdrive with their usual calls to put “politics” aside for the sake of “national unity” and combating “extremism.” Of course these appeals serve a conservative political agenda of perpetuating the status quo. While they will likely receive a popular echo from ordinary people for a time, the Left, especially Left leaders, must stand against this conservative propaganda. While opposing acts of violence like yesterday’s shooting, we must entirely reject calls to “unite” with far-right Republicans and Wall Street Democrats.
Let us not forget that the same establishment politicians who are denouncing political violence today are at the same time providing billions of dollars of US military aid to the Israeli state for its wanton slaughter of tens of thousands of children and civilians in Gaza.
Strengthening the socialist, labor, and Palestinian solidarity movements is now all the more essential. Join DSA and help us build a mass political alternative to the right-wing Republicans and corporate Democrats! This can be best expressed in November by voting for Jill Stein to register the largest left protest against Trump and Biden (or his establishment replacement), while tactically voting in the 7-10 “swing states” for the Democratic candidate to block Trump — with no endorsement for corporate Democrats like Biden and with open criticism of their politics.
Philip Locker
Philip Locker, he/him, recently was co-chair of Seattle DSA and was a candidate for DSA’s NPC. He was the Political Director of Kshama Sawant’s 2013 and 2015 independent Seattle City Council campaigns and the spokesperson for 15 Now, which played a leading role in making Seattle the first major city to adopt a $15 minimum wage.
