Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

While Trump frantically multiplies measures, initiatives, and faits accomplis that are paving the way for the establishment of a truly dictatorial regime in the United States, the leaders of the Democratic Party, foreign ministries around the world, followed by the international media, as well as the overwhelming majority of “political scientists” and other think tank experts, persist in seeing nothing of the sort. Or rather, all these fine people persist in seeing only “incomprehensible” acts, ‘whims’ or “mood swings” on the part of this “unfathomable” American president.

For example, when Trump deploys the National Guard or even the army in large cities such as Los Angeles, Washington DC, or Chicago, which are governed by Democrats, the Democratic Party establishment does not see the president’s attempt to test the reactions of his opponents, nor to accustom the population to the militarization of public life and the possible imposition of martial law. No, the Democratic leadership, followed by sympathetic media outlets, led by the New York Times, does not see any of this, but rather a... “diversion” by Trump to prevent public attention from focusing on the Epstein scandal, which could tarnish his image !

Thus, the non-existent or at best lukewarm reactions of the Democratic Party leadership, the Democratic mayors of these cities, and the media close to them should come as no surprise. By refusing to call for a general mobilization of the populations concerned to counter Trump’s anti-democratic provocations in the streets and by ostensibly maintaining the illusion that salvation can only come from...judges, they can only encourage Trump to harden and expand his fascist offensive, which openly flouts all laws and constitutions, [1] even in an area as important and sensitive as the health of his fellow citizens. And it is no coincidence that a legendary doctor in the United States, such as the director of the CDC’s Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), Demetre Daskalakis, has resigned from his post, opportunely recalling that his Cretan grandfather - whose name he bears - died fighting the fascists and denouncing the eugenicist logic of Trump’s policies!

So how can we not remember another fascist provocation, this time also intended to test the reactions of opponents, 92 years ago? This was, of course, the parade of the Nazi SA and SS in front of the enormous headquarters of the German Communist Party in Berlin (called Karl Liebknecht Haus) on January 22, 1933. A parade that provoked no reaction whatsoever from the communists, who merely requested - in vain - the intervention of the police, even though this had been considered “unthinkable” and “impossible” the day before by both the KPD leadership and the Nazi party.

Commenting on this event in his diary, Goebbels did not hide his surprise at the “paralysis” of the KPD, but also his overwhelming enthusiasm, concluding that no one was going to react against the Nazis’ rise to power. This is exactly what happened a week later when Hitler became chancellor and the Nazis came to power without the slightest street demonstration by either the Social Democratic SPD or the Communist KPD! As for the Karl Liebknecht Haus, the Nazis occupied it a month later to use as their own headquarters...

In short, history repeats itself and, unfortunately, not always as farce. For example, when the same Democratic establishment, but also its co-thinkers around the world, declare day after day that Trump’s future will be decided in the midterm elections in a year’s time and that, as there is a strong chance that Trump will pay dearly for his anti-democratic “follies,” all the Democrats can do is to do everything they can to win these elections. Their reasoning would be consistent, if it weren’t for one major snag: who can guarantee that there will be midterm elections? Or even any elections at all in Donald Trump’s United States? Or at the very least, who can guarantee that these elections will not be rigged, as suggested, for example, by the systematic gerrymandering of electoral districts or the mass exclusion of “undesirable” voters from the electoral rolls, which Republican governors are already happily indulging in?

The “naivety” of the Democratic Party leaders, or rather their total misunderstanding of the (mortal) dictatorial and fascist danger represented by Trump and his acolytes, leads them not only to believe in myths such as the unshakeable “solidity of American democracy,” but also to entertain illusions about their ability to ultimately tame Trump, who is, after all, flesh of their capitalist flesh. But all this imperceptibly brings to mind a historical precedent that cost humanity dearly: that of the right-wing and far-right bourgeois political establishment of the Weimar Republic, which, “naively” believing it could easily tame Hitler and his Nazis, ultimately only brought him to power!

An emblematic figure of this German bourgeois establishment of the 1930s, Franz von Papen had fought hard to form a government that included Hitler, promising that it would be easy to “control” him, “corner” him, and make him lose all popularity. It was with promises such as “in two months, we will have Hitler cowering in a corner” that von Papen finally persuaded the other bourgeois parties and the then President of the German Republic, the old reactionary Marshal Hindenburg, to support the new government with Hitler as Chancellor and von Papen as Vice-Chancellor. We know what happened next. It was not Hitler but von Papen who was dismissed from this government, which was very quickly dominated by the Nazis.

As we can see, the so-called liberal bourgeoisie in the United States is making the same mistakes as its German ancestors in the 1930s. If it were the only force standing up to Trump, we could be very pessimistic about the future. But fortunately, there is another America, one that takes to the streets against Trump, confronts his forces of repression, goes on strike, shows solidarity with the Palestinians, defends migrants, and is inspired by the example of Zohran Mamdani, [2] the young former migrant, socialist, and Muslim who will be the next mayor of New York in November, unless, of course, he is assassinated, imprisoned, or deported from the country as promised by Trump. With this other America increasingly mobilized and determined to defend its rights tooth and nail, we can be optimistic that we will soon see the emergence of this mass movement of those from below, the only one capable of standing up to this obscene and vulgar, racist and misogynistic, obscurantist, fascist and apprentice dictator Trump, whose radical and delusional climate denialism would be enough to make him the greatest criminal in the history of humanity...