Recently, a group of six lawmakers, all members of the Democratic Party, all veterans of the military or Intelligence services, each a Member of the House of Representatives or of the Senate, came together to make a statement, in the form of a video. It is clear that this video was produced, at least in part, as a response to the military attacks, ordered by President Trump, in the Caribbean, on boats which Trump says were carrying illegal drugs, to America. As well, he has also been deploying National Guard troops to various American cities, in defiance of federal laws.
This video has created an immediate sensation. I have chosen to transcribe the pertinent parts:
‘’We want to speak directly to members of the military, and the Intelligence community, who take risks each day to keep Americans safe. We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now. Americans trust their military. But that trust is at risk. To protect and defend this Constitution, right now. The threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. YOU CAN REFUSE ILLEGAL ORDERS. YOU CAN REFUSE ILLEGAL ORDERS. YOU MUST REFUSE ILLEGAL ORDERS
‘’No one has to carry out orders that violate the law, or our Constitution. We know this is hard’’ (repetition and capitalization as per the video)
The response of President Trump was immediate, and unequivocal. It left no room for any misunderstanding:
‘’This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOUR FROM TRAITORS. LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOUR, punishable by DEATH! (punctuation and capitalization as per the video)
Here we have the President of the United States, the Commander In Chief of the whole American military, a man who managed to avoid the military draft of the nineteen sixties, due to alleged ‘’bone spurs’’, calling veterans, Members of Congress, traitors, guilty of sedition, and calling for them to be put to death!
Several highly respected politicians responded to this. I have chosen to give the answers of a couple of them:
California governor, Gavin Newsom: ‘’The President of the United States of America just called for the death of Democratic lawmakers. This man is sick in the head.’’
Governor Newsom was rather kind, allowing for the possibility that Trump is mentally ill. The alternative is that he is nothing other than a raging psychopath.
Senator Chuck Shumer was more direct, pointing out the danger of the accusation:
‘’When Donald Trump uses the language of execution and treason, some of his supporters may very well listen. He is lighting a match, in a country soaked with political gasoline.’’
It is entirely possible that some of the most devoted followers of Trump, may take this video as an invitation to commit murder! Of democratically elected politicians! In the interests of patriotism! Of cleansing the government of those who are guilty of sedition!
There are numerous other videos, on the internet, concerning that subject. One of the finest videos, which illustrates the breadth and depth of the revolutionary motion, is titled: ‘’Lying through their teeth: Speaker Johnson, Press Secretary know better’’
I have chosen to transcribe select parts of the video, those which are relevant.
Narrator: ‘’Those who have never served in the military, attacking men and women who have served in Iraq, who have served in Afghanistan, that have lost friends in fighting, that served this country proudly. Saying what they all know, you cannot follow illegal orders!’’
Right to the heart of the matter! Members of the military who target civilians, or abuse prisoners of war, for example, can be charged with various crimes. These can include ‘’crimes against humanity’’, or ‘’war crimes’’, among other things. Even if they were ordered to do so! ‘’Just following orders’’, is not a valid defence! Military personnel have the right, or more accurately the duty, to disobey any and all illegal orders!
The narrator than went on to explain the reason Trump has posted this garbage:
‘’Everybody is talking about Epstein, and record low poll numbers, and all he has to do is go on Truth Social, and just say kill Senators. …You cannot ignore it, …they should be hung, sedition…and boom!- you don’t hear about Epstein, affordability, can’t afford housing or health care insurance, groceries, cannot afford to live, or cars….’’
In an attempt to divert the revolutionary motion, to distract the common people, from the Epstein Scandal, of the part Trump played in the exploitation, the rape of possibly one thousand underage girls, Trump is stooping to the level of calling for the murder of Members of Congress!
The narrator then goes into the response of the supporters of Trump, and the tricks they are using:
‘’Republican critics are leaving out the word illegal… Speaker Mike Johnson said Democrats are encouraging troops to disobey orders…not true…They are literally saying just the opposite of what is true, they are lying to the American people… the White House is saying you do not have to uphold your oath …and lying about the Senators who are saying you have to uphold your oath….White House spokesman says that to defy Trump, is to betray their oath of office…Johnson accuses them of saying that it is ‘wildly inappropriate…to encourage young troops to disobey orders…These people are lying through their teeth…this is all about what military personnel need to do to uphold their sacred oath not to commit illegal actions…’’
Although the preceding was somewhat disjointed, the point they made was valid. The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, as well as the White House Press Secretary, are indeed ‘’lying through their teeth’’! The video, which those six politicians made, is calling for all military personnel, to ‘’uphold their sacred oath’’, that of ‘’preserve, protect and defend the Constitution’’. At no point does any American military person, take an oath of allegiance to Trump, or anyone else!
The narrator went on to give an example of a high ranking Admiral, who resigned in protest, due to the boat strikes, which resulted in the death of numerous civilians. This was followed by an interview with a highly respected, retired General:
‘’No one in the American military swear allegiance to any individual. The oaths are not pledges of loyalty to a party, a personality or a political movement. Loyalty is pledged to the Constitution!’’
Well spoken! To drive home the point that the Trump administration is indeed, ‘’lying through their teeth’’, I have chosen to give the response of the White House Press Secretary:
‘’You have sitting members, of the United States Congress, who conspired together, to orchestrate a video, messaged to members of the United States military, to active duty service members, to members of the national security apparatus, encouraging them to defy the president’s lawful orders.’’
An outright lie! Precisely the opposite is true! These Members of Congress are encouraging military personnel to defy the presidents unlawful orders!
All of this may comes as a surprise to a great many people. Perhaps even more surprising, it was predicted by Marx and Engels, in the Communist Manifesto:
‘’Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, the process of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within the whole range of old society, assumes such a violent, glaring character, that a small section of the ruling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat, and in particular, a portion of the bourgeois ideologists, who have raised themselves to the level of comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole.’’
That which we are now experiencing, is merely an indication of the ‘’process of dissolution going on within the ruling class’’. Very soon, we can expect a ‘’small section of the ruling class’’, that of the bourgeoisie, to ‘’cut itself adrift’’, and join the ‘’revolutionary class’’, the proletariat. Further, this ‘’small section’’ will include the bourgeois ideologists, but only those who are capable of ‘’raising themselves theoretically to the level of comprehending the historical movement as a whole’’.
Those who are not capable of ‘’raising themselves theoretically’’, will become targets of this, the Second American Revolution, and suffer a fate similar to the Tories, their counterparts of the First American Revolution. Their choice.
Concerning the minority of bourgeois ideologists, who are about to join the revolutionary proletariat, may I suggest that it is absolutely necessary to raise the level of awareness of the working class. The best way to do this is by becoming involved in that which most interests those workers. As ‘’defending the Constitution’’ is such a ‘’hot topic’’, feel free to ‘’jump on the bandwagon’’.
The hypocrisy of all elected officials, who ‘’pay lip service’’ to defending the Constitution, can best be exposed by challenging the results of the 2024 Presidential Election, on the grounds that it was fraudulent, as it did not follow the procedure laid out in Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution.
As that Amendment is so important, I have reproduced it here, in its entirety:
‘’The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice- President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as as Vice- President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as Vice- President, and of the number of votes for each, 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 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 a number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such a 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 whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice -President shall act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice- President, shall be the Vice -President, if such a number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vive -President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be elegable to that of Vice President of he United States.’’
Incidentally, on March 20, 1961, the Twenty Third Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. It grants residents of the District of Columbia electoral votes.
As all Americans are well aware, this procedure was not followed, in the 2024 federal election. For that reason, it can be argued, before the Supreme Court, by an attorney, an expert on Constitutional law, that the 2024 federal election was fraudulent! Donald Trump is a fraudulent President, and JD Vance is a fraudulent Vice President!
The arguments can be made, before the Supreme Court, that in the Constitution, there is no mention of any popular vote; no mention of any political party; that the states have no right to meddle in a federal election; that all state laws requiring Electors to vote for certain candidates is Unconstitutional.
Bear in mind that the main purpose of this proposed challenge to the 2024 Presidential Election, is to raise the level of awareness of the working class, to expose the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie. Any possible ruling, by the Supreme Court, to the effect of removing Trump from office, is merely a bonus.
As for those who object, quite reasonably, that the Twelfth Amendment, is a remnant of slavery, and should be abolished, I can only respond that you are absolutely correct. It was signed into law in 1804, with a view to giving more political power, to slave owners. It established the Electoral College, the number of Electors from each state based on the population of that state. Further, sixty percent of the slaves, of each slave holding state, were considered to be people, for the purposes of determining the number of Electors, for that particular state. All the more reason for the slave owners to own as many slaves as possible!
That in no way changes the fact that the Twelfth Amendment is still the ‘’law of the land’’! It has yet to be abolished!
Now that we have the experience of several revolutions, ‘’under our belts’’, we would be fools to not learn from that experience. And in fact, Lenin summed up that experience in Left Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder:
‘’The fundamental law of revolution, which has been confirmed by all revolutions, and especially by all three Russian revolutions in the twentieth century, is as follows: for a revolution to take place, it is not enough for the exploited and oppressed masses to realize the impossibility of living in the old way, and demand changes; for a revolution to take place, it is essential that the exploiters should not be able to live and rule in the old way. It is only when the ‘lower classes’ do not want to live in the old way, and the ‘upper classes’ cannot carry on in the old way, that the revolution can triumph. This truth can be expressed in other words: revolution is impossible without a nation wide crisis (affecting both the exploiters and the exploited). It follows that, for a revolution to take place, it is essential first, that a majority of the workers (or at least a majority of the class conscious, thinking, and politically active workers), should fully realize that revolution is necessary, and that they should be prepared to die for it; second, that the ruling classes should be going through a governmental crisis, which draws even the most backward masses into politics (symptomatic of any genuine revolution is a rapid, tenfold and even hundredfold increase in the size of the working and oppressed masses- hitherto apathetic- who are capable of waging the political struggle), weakens the government, and makes it possible for the revolutionaries to rapidly overthrow it.’’ (italics by Lenin)
In conclusion, we can say that this ‘’popular uprising’’, of the working class, in response to the Epstein Scandal, that which I consider to be nothing other than the beginning of the Second American Revolution, is proof that the ‘’lower classes’’, the workers and family farmers, are no longer prepared to ‘’live in the old way’’. They are demanding changes.
Further, the fact is that various members and supporters of the ruling class of multi billionaires, the bourgeoisie, have now come out openly, in opposition to President Trump and his policies. These policies include military strikes on civilians, as well as calling for the murder of democratically elected Members of Congress. Clearly, the bourgeoisie can no longer rule in the old way.
The Epstein Scandal has indeed created a ‘’governmental crisis’’, so that even the ‘’most backward masses’’- I much prefer the term less advanced- are now involved in politics! Now it is a matter of raising the level of awareness of the most advanced workers, to the point that they are class conscious, aware of the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin, true Communists!
As a ‘’portion of the bourgeois intellectuals’’, break away and join the revolutionary class of proletarians, feel free to focus on raising the level of awareness of the most advanced workers. In this way, and only in this way, can this, the Second American Revolution, be successful.
With Most Sincere Communist Greetings,
Gerald McIsaac