A racist far right figure with a history of extreme sexism will sit at the top of the world’s most powerful country, after Donald Trump regained the US Presidency.
Trump won the popular vote as the Republicans took a clean sweep, also winning control of the US House of Representatives and the Senate.
His win is a product of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s pro-corporate policies and support for genocide, and shows the disillusionment with the US political system.
After a disastrous pandemic, workers in the US have suffered the biggest fall in living standards since the 1930s.
More than half of Americans told a Gallup poll they are worse off today than four years ago, with prices up 20 per cent.
Kamala Harris and the Democrats had no solutions to the cost of living crisis, while many Americans remember Trump’s term in office as a time when the economy was better.
But life has been getting harder for decades as a result of the neoliberal offensive.
Inequality is the US is already extreme and getting worse. The top 1 per cent take 21 per cent of income, more than double that of the bottom half of the country.
Large numbers of people are locked out of the housing market and struggle to afford essentials.
An AP poll showed that eight in ten voters wanted at least a “substantial change” in how the country is run—with one quarter saying they want “total upheaval”.
Democrats’ failure
Kamala Harris, Vice-President for the last three years, was seen as representing the continuation of Joe Biden’s policies and the status quo.
Asked what she would have done differently to Biden, she said she couldn’t think of anything—apart from wanting to put a Republican in her cabinet.
Instead of promising to deliver change, the Democrats chose to chase well-off Republican voters in the suburbs of major cities.
Harris avoided laying out any major policies to address the cost of living or take back wealth from the rich. Instead she paraded her endorsement by Republicans like Liz Cheney as well as former generals and national security figures, and declared her support for anti-migrant border policies.
Harris was the candidate of war hawks and the Pentagon. She attacked Trump from the right over support for the war in Ukraine and US imperialism, allowing him to posture as a peace candidate.
She lost thousands of votes from Arab-Americans and supporters of Palestine over her backing for the Gaza genocide.
In Dearborn, an Arab-American majority suburb in the key swing state of Michigan, the Democrats’ vote fell from 74 to 28 per cent.
But the result is not a sign that most Americans have embraced Trump’s reactionary ideas—or that it’s impossible to fight for change.
Some Arab-American voters backed Trump out of disgust at the Democrats or belief he couldn’t be any worse. In Dearborn, Trump’s vote climbed from 24 to 47 per cent. Another 21 per cent there backed Greens candidate Jill Stein, in an indication of how disaffection can also push people to the left.
The teamsters union declined to endorse the Democrats this time because many of their members were voting for Trump. But union members can be drawn into struggles to fight the priorities of corporations and the rich.
Racism
Trump sought to channel the anger over the cost of living and blame it on immigrants and “liberal elites”—instead of the billionaires and bosses really responsible.
He promised to bring back jobs and “the American Dream”, while linking his aim to “rescue our economy” to plans to “restore our borders” and deport immigrants.
His win will encourage racists and the far right everywhere.
But Trump is a billionaire backed by sections of big business who supports tax cuts for corporations and the rich and will deliver nothing for workers.
Trump’s control of the US military makes the world even more dangerous.
It is even more reason to abandon the AUKUS nuclear submarines and the US alliance.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may feel even less restrained, after doing everything he could to help Trump get elected.
There needs to be a wave of resistance to everything Trump stands for. The Democrats’ failure shows that the political mainstream is no block to racism and the far right. The alternative is building opposition from the grassroots through mass protest movements.
Recent strikes by wharfies on the east coast and a seven-week strike at Boeing are the latest signs of a new labour movement emerging in recent years.
These, together with the movement for Palestine, can be the beginnings of the fightback that is needed.
By James Supple
