USA elections: a political blow to Trump’s government

The mid-term elections in the US represented a  political blow to the reactionary Trump. government.The Republicans lost the majority in the House, where the Democrats channelled the anger against  Trump. It was a punishment vote of social sectors against his hated, machist, misogynist and racist  outbursts when the region is in crisis due to the migrant caravan.The government is weakened and the American imperialist domination crisis deepens, in an international context of inter-bourgeois frictions with China and the European Union, while capitalism cannot overcome the world economic crisis. 

By Mercedes Beauvoir (Socialist Left in the IWU-FI)

Last Tuesday, the election results in US were a true referendum of the two years of Trump government. The Democrats got the majority in Congress and the Republicans retained the Senate.At the end of the election, Trump tweeted that it “was an outstanding success and thanks to everybody!”. He was greeted by the neo fascist Salvini from the North Italian League.But Republicans have nothing to celebrate.

They lost Kansas, Wisconsin and Michigan, three key states which were part of his victory in 2016.Though it is not mandatory for the Americans to vote and the election was held on a working day, it was the biggest election in the country for many years. Trump lost a sector of the electorate that had voted for him in 2016, particularly among workers from the manufacturing companies and the suburbs.

This can be the result of a combination between the threats of attacking the fragile Medicare and an economy that does not improve.Besides, his far right and racist position towards migrants and his sending troops to the border led 69 % of “latinos” to vote for the Democrats, and it reached 90 % in the Afroamerican communities.

Internationally, this result will be equivalent of a referendum to his office.

In other words, his position as the boss of world imperialism begins to weaken.The  results can have repercusions on the “economic war” with China and the the management of the migrant caravan

Above all, this is a warning to the reactionary and neo fascist  Bolsonaro, who will come to power in Brazill and will try to impose a plan of major exploitation of the masses and limits to the democratic freedoms, but who will have to face resistance in the #EleÑao movement and the workers and popular sectors.

Trump’s reactionary project weakens

Since he came to power, important debates started in the left at a world level about whether Trump’s electoral triumph was part of a “conservative wave” and there is a turn to the left of the masses in the world. Those questions appeared after the electoral victory of a far right in the government of the United States.

It is a country where social mobilisation is low, the Republicans have a right social base made up of a white, traditional, reactionary male vote.But many of the ones who voted for Trump had strong contradictions combined with disasatisfaction at the failure of eight years of Obama government.We should not forget that Obama salvaged banks and big business in the 2008 crisis, and not the masses.

Trump was the most unpopular president in US, with historical demonstrations of the women movement.In the first demo in 2017 known as the “Woman’s March”, thousand of people took to the streets in the main cities across the country against machist, misogynist and racist Trump’s policy.

The following year, another demo was called and it added the denunciation of the cuts on health care services and the threat of advancing in limiting the right to legal and safe abortion. The women’s movement took to the streets again against Trump’s migration policy that severed children from their migrant families.

In this mid term elections, Trump lost the popular vote by a broad margin of over 8 percent at national level.He lost the manufacturing areas, the suburbs and the great cities. He lost among the youth and the women.The results show the social polarisation: while the Southern conservative vote, in rural areas and among white males went to Trump, middle class suburban and white women went to the Democrats.

The Democrats channelled a progressive look over the country’s perspectives, it was a vote against cuts in health care, against the attacks to women and dissident identities, the migrants and cultural diversity.

There is a space for the independent left

The most striking  event of these elections was the election of people from dissident identities, women and migrants.Not only were a record number of  women candidates elected but also for the first time Muslim and indigenous representatives were elected.Jared Polis will be the first openly gay governor of the country for Colorado, Rashida Tlaib for Michigan will be the first Muslim woman elected.And the election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for New York, a 29 years old Puerto Rican woman will be the youngest women to enter Congress and she says she is a “socialist”.This vote reflects the growing leftist wing in the Democrat Party, manifested in the presidential election with the vote to Bernie Sanders.That “leftist” vote shows that there still exists a space to build an alternative of the left, independent from the two imperialist parties (Republicans and Democrats), that alternate in power. Sanders did not step forward in that direction, so the left and socialist groups should do it.

To sum up, this result lays down a challenge to Trump’s racist, xenophobic and anti immigration policy.The dispute between Republicans and Democrats will have new episodes in Congress.But the most important fact is that the election was a political blow to Trump, though it is not the downfall of the government, this critical vote goes to the Democrats, expressing an opposition movement to this ultra-reactionary project. Trump and American imperialism are deeper in crisis.

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