So, your point is that it would be easier to do anti-imperialism under Biden than Trump, but if Biden is a much more ruthless imperialist than Trump, wouldn’t the greater ease of anti-imperialist action cancel out the greater ruthlessness of Biden? So functionally, there’s no real difference between Trump (harder to do anti-imperialist work but the chief imperialist is more incompetent) vs Biden (easier to do anti-imperialist work but the chief imperialist is more competent).
Look, your argument is predicated on the assumption that a less competent imperialist is not capable of doing wider damage, especially in domestic terms.
You cannot just say, it’s 10% less imperialism, therefore it’s less bad. It’s not 99% or 100% Hitler. There are qualitative differences.
Just because Trump is less competent, doesn’t mean that in his bungling attempt to implement Project 2025 and emboldening of fascist thugs won’t cause a lot of damage to the minority community, and especially against nascent left wing movements within the US.
And the effects could be immediate - if fascist thugs are openly killing leftists like what the CIA did historically abroad, then you wouldn’t have a left wing movement to begin with. Without a left wing movement, how are you ever going to do anti-imperialism from within?
4 years later, Trump leaves the office. Guess what? Another competent fascist imperialist gets elected, and whatever little you could mitigate from Trump being a “less competent imperialist” against other countries over the past 4 years would be reversed anyway. Nothing gets fundamentally changed, while you get the entire left wing movement killed in its cradle.
Biden is certainly a far more competent imperialist, but it’s not like Trump is going to lessen whatever damage Biden is already committed to anyway, and Biden’s imperialist projects will still take years to implement. If you can buy a few more years of time to organize, then there is still a chance of growing your movement in both strength and numbers, and to be able to exert actual anti-imperialist actions a few years down the road. You give the American left wing movement a chance to survive, and to grow.
And one more important point: Trump is far more unpredictable than Biden. You truly can never predict what you’re going to get from Trump when it comes to foreign policies. That’s why Putin said he prefers Biden to Trump. It makes strategizing around Biden’s imperialism, paradoxically, less of a hurdle.
We need to look at the situation as a broader picture and as a long-term struggle that takes place not only over the next four years, but a decade or two even. Your left wing movement isn’t going to magically appear just because the conditions get worse.
Unless you live in a battleground state, arguing who should be president is an academic discussion. There’s basically zero difference between someone who isn’t a US citizen and someone who doesn’t live in Ohio and Georgia.
The two parties are just a form of domestic counterinsurgency. Arguing that one is worse than the other is like arguing the good cop is better than the bad cop in a good cop-bad cop routine. In the end, neither parties really control what happens anyways. The national security state, as a “nonpartisan” entity, is what actually controls US politics. They are the means in which the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is enforced to use Marxist terms. US electoral politics is just kabuki theatre.
Electoral figures are unable to meaningfully push back against the national security state. Sanders completely capitulated under the slightest of pressure. Someone like AOC is far worse given her incredibly sus background and should be considered as nothing more than an extension of the national security state. It’s very obvious AOC is being groomed to be the next Obama, and if she plays her cards right to the detriment of the rest of us, she’ll secure the presidency.
Since fascist paramilitaries have been thoroughly infiltrated by the feds, they should be considered the covert branch of the national security state. This makes a “united front” with reactionary paramilitaries like the boogaloo boys completely counterproductive.
Given that the national security state is the primary contradiction, if you’re just focused on what’s going on domestically in the US, every political action should understand this. Voting for either Trump or Biden makes little sense. Trump activated the national guard in 2020 while Biden gave massive funding to the police. Voting for who gets to be president is also pretty pointless since the national security state can always push the scale to get the candidate they want to be president. It’s no coincidence that the vast majority of 2-term presidents did what they’re told (the exception Nixon got hit with Watergate which prematurely ended his second term) and most president who are outsiders like JFK and Carter got 1 term.
The way out is that the national security state has to be sufficiently weakened for both socialist and fascist forces to break free and seize political power. Personally, I think it will be sufficiently weakened through external means by foreign state actors. If there’s going to be a socialist revolution in the US, it’s going lean heavily towards without rather than within. Yes, the right way for revolutions is through within, but think of it like this. The path towards socialism for 1941 Germany was 99.99% without (ie the triumphant Red Army defeating the fascist Nazi hordes and marching through what remained of Berlin). Whatever happens once the US balkanizes is pure alt-history fantasy that is pointless to speculate, but I do believe balkanization has to happen before a socialist revolution. There will, of course, be a massive human cost and a risk of nuclear annihilation fro successor states trying to nuke each other, but those are the breaks.
So, your point is that it would be easier to do anti-imperialism under Biden than Trump, but if Biden is a much more ruthless imperialist than Trump, wouldn’t the greater ease of anti-imperialist action cancel out the greater ruthlessness of Biden? So functionally, there’s no real difference between Trump (harder to do anti-imperialist work but the chief imperialist is more incompetent) vs Biden (easier to do anti-imperialist work but the chief imperialist is more competent).
Look, your argument is predicated on the assumption that a less competent imperialist is not capable of doing wider damage, especially in domestic terms.
You cannot just say, it’s 10% less imperialism, therefore it’s less bad. It’s not 99% or 100% Hitler. There are qualitative differences.
Just because Trump is less competent, doesn’t mean that in his bungling attempt to implement Project 2025 and emboldening of fascist thugs won’t cause a lot of damage to the minority community, and especially against nascent left wing movements within the US.
And the effects could be immediate - if fascist thugs are openly killing leftists like what the CIA did historically abroad, then you wouldn’t have a left wing movement to begin with. Without a left wing movement, how are you ever going to do anti-imperialism from within?
4 years later, Trump leaves the office. Guess what? Another competent fascist imperialist gets elected, and whatever little you could mitigate from Trump being a “less competent imperialist” against other countries over the past 4 years would be reversed anyway. Nothing gets fundamentally changed, while you get the entire left wing movement killed in its cradle.
Biden is certainly a far more competent imperialist, but it’s not like Trump is going to lessen whatever damage Biden is already committed to anyway, and Biden’s imperialist projects will still take years to implement. If you can buy a few more years of time to organize, then there is still a chance of growing your movement in both strength and numbers, and to be able to exert actual anti-imperialist actions a few years down the road. You give the American left wing movement a chance to survive, and to grow.
And one more important point: Trump is far more unpredictable than Biden. You truly can never predict what you’re going to get from Trump when it comes to foreign policies. That’s why Putin said he prefers Biden to Trump. It makes strategizing around Biden’s imperialism, paradoxically, less of a hurdle.
We need to look at the situation as a broader picture and as a long-term struggle that takes place not only over the next four years, but a decade or two even. Your left wing movement isn’t going to magically appear just because the conditions get worse.
I see. Here are my takes:
Unless you live in a battleground state, arguing who should be president is an academic discussion. There’s basically zero difference between someone who isn’t a US citizen and someone who doesn’t live in Ohio and Georgia.
The two parties are just a form of domestic counterinsurgency. Arguing that one is worse than the other is like arguing the good cop is better than the bad cop in a good cop-bad cop routine. In the end, neither parties really control what happens anyways. The national security state, as a “nonpartisan” entity, is what actually controls US politics. They are the means in which the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is enforced to use Marxist terms. US electoral politics is just kabuki theatre.
Electoral figures are unable to meaningfully push back against the national security state. Sanders completely capitulated under the slightest of pressure. Someone like AOC is far worse given her incredibly sus background and should be considered as nothing more than an extension of the national security state. It’s very obvious AOC is being groomed to be the next Obama, and if she plays her cards right to the detriment of the rest of us, she’ll secure the presidency.
Since fascist paramilitaries have been thoroughly infiltrated by the feds, they should be considered the covert branch of the national security state. This makes a “united front” with reactionary paramilitaries like the boogaloo boys completely counterproductive.
Given that the national security state is the primary contradiction, if you’re just focused on what’s going on domestically in the US, every political action should understand this. Voting for either Trump or Biden makes little sense. Trump activated the national guard in 2020 while Biden gave massive funding to the police. Voting for who gets to be president is also pretty pointless since the national security state can always push the scale to get the candidate they want to be president. It’s no coincidence that the vast majority of 2-term presidents did what they’re told (the exception Nixon got hit with Watergate which prematurely ended his second term) and most president who are outsiders like JFK and Carter got 1 term.
The way out is that the national security state has to be sufficiently weakened for both socialist and fascist forces to break free and seize political power. Personally, I think it will be sufficiently weakened through external means by foreign state actors. If there’s going to be a socialist revolution in the US, it’s going lean heavily towards without rather than within. Yes, the right way for revolutions is through within, but think of it like this. The path towards socialism for 1941 Germany was 99.99% without (ie the triumphant Red Army defeating the fascist Nazi hordes and marching through what remained of Berlin). Whatever happens once the US balkanizes is pure alt-history fantasy that is pointless to speculate, but I do believe balkanization has to happen before a socialist revolution. There will, of course, be a massive human cost and a risk of nuclear annihilation fro successor states trying to nuke each other, but those are the breaks.
why foreign state actors, rather than just collapsing by itself?