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Trumpism as capitalism’s default option
Although he represents the growth of ‘anti-elite’ feeling in the masses, the US president is a ruling-class response to a ruling-class crisis, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
Although personally ridiculous and incompetent, Trump represents a section of the ruling class’s alternative to the now nearly 30-year reign of ‘hands-off’ economics

Happily, many on the US left are beginning to see the intense, ongoing battle between Trump and his defenders and the self-described “resistance” as reflective of a “split in the ruling class.”

This is a welcome development because it removes some of the confusions fostered by the Democratic Party leadership and the childish sensationalism and witless simplicity of the capitalist media. With little more than Russians-under-every-bed to rouse the electorate, the Democrats sell a narrative of Trump-as-Traitor, Trump-as-Defiler-in-Chief and Trump-as-Fascist.

Nancy Pelosi, the billionaire face of the Democratic Party parliamentary contingent, declared three priorities, should the Democrats win the interim election, three pieces of battered, rusty liberal boilerplate: lowering health costs and med prices (always promised, never delivered nor deliverable under a private system), higher wages and improved infrastructure (unrealised for nearly half a century and a teaser to the labour movement), and “cleaning up corruption” (which means continuing the bizarre Mueller witch hunt). No mention of overturning the Trump administration’s tax cuts for the rich.

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