Trump and ‘the Greatest Threat’ By: Paul Shepard

3/26/2023

Trump and ‘the Greatest Threat’ By: Paul Shepard

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It is said that even “a broken clock is right twice a day,” meaning that even a buffoon or a criminal (e.g. somebody like former US President Trump, who is both in equal measure) is capable of a correct opinion or cogent utterance.

This has never been truer than with a recent foreign policy speech Trump gave wherein he spoke with refreshing clarity about the real threat to the American people, arguing that it comes not from abroad but from within.

“The greatest threat to Western civilization today is not Russia, it’s probably more than anything else ourselves,” he declared, specifically condemning the “horrible, USA-hating people that represent us.”

“These globalists want to squander all of America’s strength, blood and treasure, chasing monsters and phantoms overseas while keeping us distracted from the havoc they’re creating here at home,” Trump said.

He slammed the “entire globalist neocon establishment,” “defense bureaucracy” and NATO, as it is currently organized and funded – viz. the tools of the US empire.

He pointed to a “sick and corrupt establishment” in need of eviction, asserting that “these forces are doing more damage to America than Russia and China could ever have dreamed.”

He argued that “the abolition of our national borders,” a rising crime rate, and “the collapsing of the nuclear family and fertility rates” threatened the country more than any foreign power. He also alluded to the gutting of America’s manufacturing base, condemning “the globalist class that has made us totally dependent on China and other foreign countries that basically hate us.’

Not Up to the Task

In a time of rampant warmongering from Democrats and Republicans alike, Trump’s speech came as a breath of fresh air. But he still gets it wrong most of the time, and no one should suppose that a second stint in the White House would be any less disastrous than his first.

Recall that as much as Trump may have wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq, the same neocon establishment he rails against now prevented his doing so. It’s also impossible to overlook his role in the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Suliamani, his deployment of the MOAB (Mother of All Bombs) in Afghanistan, and his continuing coziness with the Israel Lobby, at the expense of the Palestinians and American security.

So Trump was, and would again become, either a liar and hypocrite, or too weak as president to effectively take on the despised deep state.

However, it’s just as undeniable that his calling out US aggression presents an opportunity for leftists to recruit from the Trump fandom, finding common ground in opposition to the empire.

Who are you calling ‘Marxist?’

Alongside crime and fertility rates, the “globalist class,” and the rest of Trump’s litany of internal threats to the US, we find his assertion that “the Marxists” are also part of the problem, who he says “would have us become a godless nation, worshiping at the altar of race and gender and environment.”
On the one hand, this is a kind of political hangover on his part; an instance of embarrassing Boomer paranoia.

But more significantly, it’s also an indictment of the synthetic left of the present generation; of professed “Marxists” who care more about feminism, gender ideology or racial grievance than they do about the liberation of working people, all of whom (regardless of color or gender) deserve to partake in the country’s prosperity and a voice in its destiny; this means, at minimum, a living wage, guaranteed education, housing and healthcare, ample free time and family leave.

One look at the way that social justice issues of equity and inclusion are co-opted time after time by the corporate elite and billionaire class should tell anyone how much real “Marxism” can be found in them.

And it is not “the Marxists” who would transform the US into a godless nation: The capitalists have already accomplished this. Neither are Marxists to blame for the “collapse of the nuclear family and fertility rates,” when the fault is rather with the capitalist elite, to whom you and I appear more like livestock than like fellow human beings, worthy of happy families and dignified, prosperous lives.

There is so much to applaud in Trump’s anti-imperialist message, and while we may dare hope to overthrow the entrenched US establishment and its endless global entanglements, it does not follow that he is the one for the job. Our task is to take what’s correct and valuable in that message and to transplant it; to see it take root in the anti-capitalism that American workers so desperately need. The sooner, the better!

Author

Paul Shepard

This article was republished from The Revolution Report.