A year ago, former President Donald Trump (the guy that LOST the election by 7 million votes) screamed and cried about a stolen election. At a giant rally on the Washington D.C. mall on January 6th, Trump encouraged the crowds to join a pre-organized attack on the Capital and try to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election.
Listen in: https://apple.co/3JQwesS
You’ve seen the images of Trump supporters attacking Capital and DC police, trashing the building and hunting Vice-President Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, AOC and others. Five people (including a cop) were killed and millions of dollars of damage were incurred to the building.
More importantly, it was a shock to the ruling class. CEOs across the business sector denounced the attack and Trump. The Wall Street Journal called for the 25th amendment be enacted against Trump. Fox News hosts and Donald Trump Jr. privately tried to get Mark Meadows and Trump to stop the violence. Scores of corporations announced that they’d stop political donations to Republicans that voted against Biden’s certification (this was short-lived).
We thought it might be the end of corporate neo-liberalism and be politically devastating for the GOP.
This has turned out not to be the case on both counts.
We note the passage of this anniversary with a conversation about, in historian Arno Mayer’s words, “the persistence of the old regime.” And how the forces of order (the ruling class) are fighting to maintain the status quo. And what the forces of movement (all of us) need to think about next.
