Any reader not living off the grid knows about the Trump insurrection on January 6 (and second impeachment). Trump supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol. And they did so with a bit of help from some police officers and violent conflict with others. The Trump insurrection involved a conflict between QAnon conspiracy theorists, other Trumpists, and the police. Insofar as that’s true, I’m inclined to grab and modify Trump’s ‘very fine people on both sides’ remark.
In the Trump insurrection there were, indeed, very bad people on both sides, i.e., Trumpism and policing. We might say a great deal about how the left should respond. But I’m inclined to say the left shouldn’t directly involve itself in a fight between a Trump insurrection and police officers. Because that’s not really our fight.
Trump Insurrection Statement: Iowa City DSA
As an officer of the Iowa City DSA, I wrote a statement on behalf of our local chapter. Here’s that statement (slightly edited for clarity):
With the rest of the country, we watched as far-right elements attempted to invade the U.S. Capitol. This invasion put many of our country’s problems on full display in the same place. These problems include: racist conspiracy theorists encouraged by Donald Trump, a police force harboring full members of the white nationalist coalition, and Congressional leaders without popular ideas or plans beyond once again expanding the national security state while calling for ‘civility’ and ‘reconciliation,’ among others.
As socialists, we believe the best way to defeat the far right is to come together as working-class Americans of all genders and races to build power. Why? Because this is the only coalition that can address today’s rising far right. Without that coalition, U.S. politics will continue to degenerate into a debate between white grievance and resentment, on the one hand, and pro-corporate respectability, on the other. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Trumpism will continue its game of preying on the racialized fears of white Americans. They do this in order to do the same thing their corporate executive friends do at the workplace: enrich themselves by squeezing as much wealth as they can from working-class Americans of every race and gender.
