The socialist response to the conviction of Donald Trump

The conviction of Trump on 34 felony charges, appropriate as it is, does not settle the underlying crisis of American politics.

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Many will welcome this verdict as the long overdue blow to a political monster, who has gotten what he deserved. But it would be a mistake to take the symptom, Trump, for the cause of the crisis of American democracy.

The very fact that a fascist like Trump could rise to the top of American politics expresses a profound degradation of democratic forms of rule, which have been hollowed out by decades of unending war and ever-rising social inequality.

Even if Trump were to be removed as a candidate for president as a result of his conviction, whoever follows him in the Republican Party would be someone no less reactionary.

There can no longer be any “lesser of two evils” argument. Both the Democrats and Republicans represent the corporate and financial oligarchy, which is careening towards dictatorship.

While Trump attempted to overthrow the Constitution on January 6, 2021, Biden is sanctioning and supporting mass murder in Gaza and rushing headlong towards nuclear war with Russia, while carrying out an unprecedented crackdown against peaceful student protesters on college campuses across the US.

This is what is served up by the two parties of big business.

The question is not just a change in personnel, but the most profound social reorganization. Economic and political life in the US and internationally must be rebuilt on socialist foundations, through the intervention of the working class in a mass political struggle against capitalism and imperialist war.

This is the central aim of the Socialist Equality Party’s election campaign, and I urge you to join this struggle for socialism.