Trump Destroying Two Party System

Several years ago, Trump surprised himself by winning the presidency. Now that he is president, he has found that he loves the power and has no intention of relinquishing it. Perhaps he was even more surprised by the fact that the key to remaining in power lies in abiding by the law. As someone who came to power by breaking every law which he found to be inconvenient, the idea of using the law probably never occurred to him. But then, there is a reason for the existence of lawyers. As Trump is not entirely stupid, he hired a small army of lawyers to work for him, at tax payer expense, of course.

His lawyers have advised him that the current method of rule, that of the two party system, is something other than legal. Even though it is simple and convenient, and has served the bourgeoisie well, since the days of the civil war, it is strictly unconstitutional. Not that Trump or any other members of his class are terribly concerned with such little details, unless it serves their purpose. Now it serves the purpose of Trump, and he is paying strict attention. In order to stay in power, the only thing he has to do is destroy the two party system. His team has been working on this for the last few months.

As countless people are closely watching the presidential election, it is the duty of Conscious people, Marxists, Communists, to use the election as an opportunity to raise the level of awareness of the working class.

With that in mind, we can explain to working people that under the current ”democratic” system, the people do not have the right to elect the President, or the Vice President. Those two are elected by the chosen few, the Electors, the members of the Electoral College.

The capitalists refer to this as the ”Electoral College” system. Each Elector is appointed by a state legislature, and there are very few of them, a grand total of only 538. A simple majority of two hundred seventy is sufficient to determine both the President and the Vice President. This is spelled out in the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, and we can expect to hear a great deal more, concerning this Amendment, very soon, immediately after the ”election”, the popular vote of November 3.

Without doubt, many millions of people will be ”glued to the tube” on that evening, as after the polls close, the votes cast in each state will be counted, starting with the East Coast states. The political pundits for the major television networks will be reporting the vote count for each state, and the percentage of votes for each candidate, and at some point the offscreen network executives will announce the candidate who ”won” each state, along with the Electoral Votes for that state. At some point, the Electoral Votes for one candidate, either Trump or Biden, will reach the magic number of 270, and the networks will report a winner.

If Trump is reported to be the winner, and Biden concedes, that will be the end of it. But if Biden is reported to be the winner, then Trump can be expected to challenge the election results in the Supreme Court. It is very likely that the Supreme Court will agree with Trump that the popular election is meaningless, effectively abolishing the two party system.

This requires a little explanation. Under the current system, each state has a certain number of ”Electoral Votes”, as that is the technical term, which is to say the number of people who can be appointed as Electors. The more people in the state, the more Electors, the more Electoral Votes. The state of California, with perhaps forty million people, has the most Electoral Votes at 55, while the states with the fewest people have a mere 3 Electoral Votes, each. All states require their respective Electors, those who are appointed by the state legislatures, to vote for the candidates of either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. Almost all states have a ”winner take all” policy, in that the candidate who wins a majority of votes in the state, receives all of the Electoral Votes of that particular state. The lawyers who work for Trump are convinced that all of these state laws have one thing in common: they are unconstitutional.

In previous federal elections, numerous Electors have violated state laws and chosen to vote for a candidate of their choice, not the candidate chosen by the state they represent. None of these Electors has ever been charged, probably because the state prosecutors are aware that the law cannot be enforced.

The lawyers for Trump have been busy, earning their pay. For the last several months, they have been approaching the various state legislatures, encouraging them to appoint Electors who will vote for Trump, or at least vote for someone other than Biden! If Trump cannot secure 270 Electoral Votes, then he is at least determined to stop Biden from securing that many votes. If no candidate receives a majority of Electoral Votes, then the next step in the process, as spelled out in the Constitution, is to send the election to the House of Representatives, in which case each state has but one vote.

As so many people are focused on the election, it is important to let people know what is happening. With that in mind, I have decided to include the Twelfth Amendment:

”The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice President; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President, one of whom at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President when ever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice President shall act as President.”

There are numerous experts on Constitutional law, and there are as many opinions on the meaning of this Amendment as there are experts. There are also other parts of the Constitution which deal with the federal election. The only opinion which really matters is that of the Supreme Court, and we can expect to hear from them soon.

If the vote of November 3, ”election day”, goes in the favour of Trump, then he will have no reason to challenge the results in court. It is only if Biden declares victory that we can expect Trump to ”stand on principle” (Ha!) and challenge the election in court.

As concerns the democratic right of the citizens to vote, it is significant that the Amendment makes no mention of the popular vote! It is entirely possible that the Supreme court will soon rule that the popular vote is a mere formality.

The point to be driven home to the working class is that the ruling class, the capitalists, the bourgeois, have established two mainstream political parties, Democrats and Republicans, and that these two parties have ”hijacked” the presidential election process. The Supreme Court will very likely rule, and soon, that the states have no right to interfere in such elections, that the Electors have the right to vote for the qualified candidate of their choice, for the offices of both President and Vice President.

Under the current bourgeois democratic method of rule, each of the two mainstream political parties selects a candidate for the office of President. This candidate in turn selects a ”running mate”, a Vice President. Voters are then allowed to choose between the two pairs, in a ”general election”. The candidates which receive the majority of ”popular votes” in such an election, in each state, usually receives all, or at least most, of the Electoral Votes for that state. That is almost certainly about to change, as that is not spelled out in the Constitution.

That anticipated change will no doubt lead to a state of mass confusion, generally referred to as ”throwing a monkey wrench”, in the middle of a revolutionary uprising. In that case, it is up to Marxists to explain to the working class that democracy is not majority rule! It is a method of class rule! It is a state apparatus, an organization for the systematic use of violence by one class, against another class. In this case, under capitalism, it is the capitalists, the tiny minority, the bourgeoisie, who use the state apparatus to crush the working class, the vast majority, the proletariat.

After the revolution, after the proletariat seizes political power, the ”shoe will be on the other foot”. Then the proletariat, the vast majority of people, will be in power. Yet the tiny minority of capitalists, the bourgeois, will not resign themselves to their fate. In fact, they will fight ”tooth and nail” to recover their ”paradise lost”. They will stoop to any level, resort to any subterfuge, as their hatred and fury rise to a red hot frenzy. We can expect them to send their agents into the Communist Party and try to subvert it from within.

For the benefit of the Marxists, it should be mentioned that we can expect the distortion of Marxism to be ever more subtle. As an example, there are ”Marxists” who refer to our democratic rights under capitalism, under the bourgeois democratic republic, as ”bourgeois democratic rights”, rights which are ”granted by the bourgeoisie”.

This is incorrect, as our democratic rights are not bourgeois, just as they are not proletarian. They are democratic, pure and simple. Under capitalism, our democratic rights are ”restricted, cramped, curtailed, mutilated by all the conditions of wage slavery”, as Lenin phrased it. Further, they most certainly are not ”granted” by the bourgeoisie, as the monopoly capitalists, the imperialists, are completely reactionary. To suggest that they ”grant” the proletariat some democratic rights, is to imply that there is something progressive about the imperialists, the bourgeoisie. Such is hardly the case.

It is such subtle distortions of revolutionary Marxist theories, which we can expect. This is nothing other than revisionist, an attempt to subvert Marxism. It is up to Marxists to oppose these revisionist theories, especially within the Communist Party.

Without doubt, after the revolution, the bourgeois class will have to be crushed, and that will require a state apparatus, but a different sort of state apparatus, one set up to deal with their desperate and determined resistance. That state apparatus will be in the form of a different sort of democracy, a democracy of the vast majority, of the working class, referred to as the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat.

In preparation for the revolution and the subsequent Dictatorship Of the Proletariat, in the interest of raising the level of awareness of the proletariat, a few slogans are perhaps appropriate. With that in mind, may I suggest signs and banners which read: Capitalism is not Democracy; Down With Democracy For the Capitalists; Democracy For the Proletariat.

No doubt many middle class people will consider such slogans to be too basic. We are concerned with raising the level of awareness of countless millions of working class people, and we have to start somewhere. The less advanced workers (I prefer to avoid the word ”backward” as it may be considered derogatory) must not be neglected, just as I try to avoid the use of the word ”masses”, as it seems much too impersonal. Such terms as ”common people” or ”members of the public” are preferred, as working people refer to themselves in those terms.

The fact is that many working class people are now expressing an interest in politics, if only at the level of being determined to vote. Of course many others are active on a higher level, such as taking part in marches and demonstrations, and in opposition to violent repression, especially of minorities. This is indeed class consciousness, but only in an embryonic form! It is, as yet, not true Marxist, or Communist, consciousness, nor can it be.

The working people are doing their part, and can go no further. The conditions of life among the working class does not lead to the awareness of itself as a class. This consciousness can come only from an outside source, and that source is middle class intellectuals, members of the bourgeois intelligentsia. The ”good news” is that there is now no shortage of middle class intellectuals within the working class, through no ”fault” of their own. The current crises in capitalism has led to the decimation of the middle class. The remaining members of the middle class are ”living on borrowed time”. Their ”days are numbered”, as ever more members are becoming impoverished, forced into the ranks of the proletariat. These ”newly minted” proletarians are bringing with them the awareness of classes, as well as the awareness of the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin. As well, many of them are highly skilled as organizers, and that is precisely the skills which are so desperately needed at present.

It may be objected that the revolutionary motion is now very strong, with no less than three distinct republics in the process of formation. No doubt others will soon take shape. The American empire is collapsing, and the idea that it could break into a number of republics which could embrace capitalism, may sound absurd, but it could happen. Socialism will not happen by itself. It has to be created.

The fact of the matter is that it is up to Conscious people, Marxists, Communists, to imbue the proletariat with the consciousness of its position, and of its tasks. That task now is to create a socialist society, as opposed to a capitalist society. The trouble being that working people have lived all their lives under capitalism, and are saturated with the bourgeois ideology. This is referred to as the ”ideological enslavement” of the workers, to the bourgeoisie. It is up to Communists to ”break the invisible chains” of enslavement, as otherwise the revolution could merely give rise to smaller, capitalist republics. This is referred to as going ”from the frying pan, into the fire”.

As Lenin phrased it, ”The fact that the working class participates in the political struggle and even in political revolution does not in itself make its politics Social Democratic (Marxist) politics.” Without doubt, the political revolution is approaching. The only question is whether it will lead to socialism, under the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat, or to a continuation of capitalism.

The fact of the matter is that, as a result of the revolutionary motion, tens of millions of people are now in motion, determined to enact change. From among these huge crowds, leaders will emerge, the more advanced members of the proletariat. It is up to Marxists to bring to these people the class awareness, to bring their level of consciousness to that of Marxists, at least in regards to Party business. They have to become working class intellectuals, dedicated to the revolution and the subsequent Dictatorship Of the Proletariat.

Such workers can be counted upon to raise the level of awareness of other workers, as such advanced workers are highly respected, and they ”speak the same language” as the less advanced workers. They are able to speak and even write articles in a manner which the less advanced can understand, concerning current events which have caught the attention of those workers, using metaphors which workers understand.

This is not to say that middle class intellectuals are incapable of communicating with such workers. It is to say that many of them are simply not up to the task, for whatever reason. No doubt they are capable of learning, given the time and motivation. Old habits are so hard to break.

As I write this, there are a mere ten days left before the ”election”. Almost everyone is agreed that the country is a ”powder keg”, in that tensions are very high, and any ”spark” could cause an explosion. The political pundits are also agreed that Biden is heavily favoured to ”win” the election. By this they mean that he is expected to win the majority of Electoral Votes, to be determined on ”election night”. That is not about to happen.

Assuming Biden ”wins” the election, then the lawyers for Trump will challenge the election in the Supreme Court. They will argue that the Electors have to vote for President and Vice President ”on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December”, as per the Constitution, that all state laws restricting the votes of the Electors are unconstitutional, and that the popular vote is a mere formality.

Do not be surprised if the Supreme Court agrees with that argument. That could be the ”spark” which sets off the uprising, the revolution.

If nothing else, it would give the Electors the right to vote for the people of their choice, so it is still possible that Senator Bernie Sanders could be elected as President. Or Senator Kamala Harris, or anyone else whom the Electors decide.

Now is not the time to ”rest on our laurels”, to ”let nature take its course”, as that course leads straight to capitalism. Now is the time to make a supreme effort, to redouble our efforts, to create a proper non revisionist Communist Party, to raise the level of awareness of the working class, to guide the approaching revolution onto a path of scientific socialism, in the form of the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat.