Abolish the Electoral College

As the journalists phrase it, ”the dust has now settled”, in the not so little matter of the impeachment and trial of Donald Trump. He has been acquitted, and will continue to serve as president. The journalists are careful not to say that there is a reasonable chance that he will soon be re-elected and serve another four years. That is a nightmare scenario they cannot bring themselves to face.

Instead, they are seeking solace in speculation that Trump may have learned his lesson. No doubt he has learned his lesson, just not the lesson the journalists have in mind. He is reported to have stated, years ago, words to the effect that he was so popular, he could kill a man in broad daylight on Park Avenue and get away with it. Now he has learned that there is some truth to this. The only elected body in the country which has the authority to keep the president in line, the Senate, has just given Trump a blank check. Now he can do whatever he wants.

This is not to say that the people responsible for his impeachment are taking this lying down. On the contrary, they are already taking action. The House of Representatives, the Congress, is preparing further articles of impeachment. It did not work the first time, and in fact the trial by the Senate was an abject failure, so of course they are determined to try it again and keep trying until it works.

The fact is that such a course of action has not worked in the past and is therefore not about to work in the future. Any medical expert can swear to the fact that the expectation of a different outcome, while doing the same thing, is the very definition of insanity. It is also the definition of the bourgeois mentality.

Of course if Trump is once again impeached, then the Senate will once again find him not guilty. That is a foregone conclusion, one which the bourgeois members of Congress cannot seem to grasp. It is also most emphatically clear that the only reason he is president in the first place is because of the Electoral College. After all, Trump lost the popular vote, but was still elected!

America is the only country in the world with an Electoral College. It is a remnant of slavery. It was originally set up to allow slave owners to occupy the White House. Historians are agreed that it was the Electoral College which allowed Thomas Jefferson to become president.

At the time of Jefferson, the number of electoral votes of each state was determined by the population of eligible voters of that particular state, and by a percentage of slaves within that state. The more slaves within a state, the more electoral votes. It was to the advantage of the slave owners to own as many slaves as possible. The more slaves they had, the more political power. Accordingly, the slave owners in charge of each slave state made it very difficult for any slave to gain his or her freedom.

The American Congress abolished slavery in 1865, with the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. That was absolutely the correct thing to do, but it did not go far enough. That amendment to the Constitution did not abolish the Electoral College. Now it is time for Americans to follow in the footsteps of their revolutionary forefathers and carry on the work of those courageous individuals. It is time to abolish the Electoral College, to add to the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, to honour their ancestors by finishing the work they started.

There is no point in focusing on removing Trump from office through the impeachment process, if for no other reason than that recent events have proven this to be a lost cause. The only value of the process lies in raising the level of awareness of the working class. To remove Trump from office would merely result in the replacement of someone just like him. The current Vice President, Mike Pence, is living proof of that.

This in no way changes the fact that the American public is very interested in political developments. The American working class is in motion, as well as many current or former members of the middle class, the petty bourgeois. This revolutionary motion is being led by women, many of whom are middle class, including numerous victims of physical and sexual abuse. They deserve our heartfelt gratitude and support.

That being said, the best way to support those people is to make clear our position that no change of face in Washington will change the fact that the bourgeoisie is in charge. Nothing of substance will change until that class is overthrown. That change will only take place when the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is replaced by the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. There is no middle ground.

With that in mind, the American people can demand that their elected leaders in Washington demand a change to the Constitution, in the interests of establishing a more democratic republic. Such an Amendment to the Constitution requires a vote of two thirds of both houses of Congress, which is to say that both the House of Representatives and the Senate must vote for the change. The other way to secure the Amendment is by having two thirds of the state legislatures call for a constitutional convention. I am suggesting that Americans adopt both approaches.

In this manner, ever more Americans will become involved in the political process, on a state level as well as on a federal level. In is reasonable to expect that only the more advanced workers will assume leadership roles, which is precisely what we want. We can think of this as valuable training for the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat, because that is precisely what it is.

After the revolution, a new socialist society will be established. The current state apparatus, which has been set up to protect the bourgeoisie, will be abolished. A new state apparatus will be established to crush the bourgeoisie, in the form of the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. The bourgeoisie must be thoroughly crushed, in any and all walks of life. After the revolution, their resistance will be increased ten fold, as their hatred and fury grow, and they will make every effort to regain their ”paradise lost”. This happened in Russia and it happened in China. Now it is up to us to make sure it does not happen here in North America. Soon, the North American bourgeoisie will be crushed, but with more enthusiasm. We must avoid the mistakes of previous revolutions.

The key thing now is to prepare for the approaching Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. After the revolution, workers with very little training, or even no training whatsoever, will be placed in positions of authority. The more training they receive now, the smoother will be the transition to the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat, the fewer mistakes they will make, and the more thoroughly the bourgeoisie will be crushed.

It is perhaps best to think of a revolution as a force of nature, an Act of God, because that is precisely what it is. As such, it is not about to wait for people to become prepared. It will happen when it happens, and it is clear that the revolutionary motion is becoming ever more intense. The country is a powder keg, prepared to explode. There is no telling what spark will ignite it. This is all the more reason for conscious people, Marxists, to become more active, to raise the level of awareness of the working class. All Americans must be encouraged to study the most essential works of Marx and Lenin, to become card carrying members of the two parties, to become politically active, to attempt to take control of their lives. In short, they must prepare for the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat.

We will know we are succeeding when the banners and posters read:

Workers of the World, Unite!

Scientific Socialism!

Dictatorship Of the Proletariat!