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As the Trumpian state officially embraces extra-judicial murder of political enemies + the deputization of far-Right groups in the lead up to the 2020 election, the Center moves to the Right, while pushing the narrative that continuing protests are alienating voters. A thread.
Fundamentally, as Trump pushes to take the 2020 election by any means necessary, his election campaign is centered around demonizing the Left: proclaiming that the Democratic party is "socialist," while also promoting fear of the ongoing Black led rebellion in the streets.
Meanwhile, in a move to the Right, the neoliberal Centrist press, allied with the DNC, is pushing the narrative that the continued protests are hurting Joe Biden's presidency, as both parties argue over who could better put down the protests. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/us/politics/biden-ads-trump.html
This reality shows that both parties are fundamentally opposed to addressing the broad demand for basic, structural change - despite the fact that those under 40 are quickly becoming the largest demographic of the electorate. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/03/millennials-approach-baby-boomers-as-largest-generation-in-u-s-electorate/
Studies have also shown that younger generations are more open and in favor of broader calls to drastically change the system, especially when around questions of the police, prisons, and economics. https://news.gallup.com/poll/315962/americans-say-policing-needs-major-changes.aspx
We point this out simply to show that this election is in many ways a competition between two 'Boomer' political positions of Biden's neoliberalism and Trump's corporatist fascism.
Just like in 2016, there is widespread rejection of the entire process. "Roughly four-in-ten voters (41%) say it is difficult to choose between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton because neither would make a good president." https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/07/07/2016-campaign-strong-interest-widespread-dissatisfaction/
The 2016 election itself also saw such a low-voter turnout that the amount of votes not cast was greatly larger than those for Trump or Hillary. https://brilliantmaps.com/did-not-vote/
There is a also a strong class dynamic of those who do not vote, with a large majority of non-voters making less and often not having a college degree. Non-voters also tend to skew more to the Left. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on-validated-voters/
Ironically, this is the same demographic that has flooded into protest movements, strike waves, mutual aid organizing in the face of #COVID19, and pushing back against the rise of the far-Right.
Thus, when the mainstream media scolds the exploding autonomous movements in the streets of not settling down - it takes on a clear racial and class dynamic. The upper classes can't stand that those below aren't shutting-up. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/us/politics/trump-biden-protests-polling.html
Thus, while the media accuses the rabble in the streets for 'pushing voters to the Right' by not shutting up + excepting our lot of poverty, disease, + social death - it's the neoliberal order itself which has shifted to the Right in order to maintain the Center.
Ironically however, there is a broad consensus, even among many of the elites, that Trump will attempt to contest the election: calling on sections of the far-Right to defend him and also throwing the US into a constitutional crisis. https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/07/28/election-war-games-trump-scenario
For instance, Rosa Brooks, professor at Georgetown + co-founder of the Transition Integrity Project, which mapped possible 2020 scenarios, stated on @iamsambee that people should "prepared" to get into the streets + "face really bad stuff" for a long time.
In the face of this, "Joe Biden’s campaign is recruiting lawyers, not organizers, and Biden himself has expressed misplaced confidence that the military “will escort [Trump] from the White House with great dispatch” on Inauguration Day."
"DNC operatives, an army of constitutional lawyers, and other self-appointed experts will urge us not to “politicize” the process, to wait patiently for the “rule of law" - to trust the process and the courts, to stay home and let the smart boys in D.C. work things out."
"We need to ignore such advice and take the streets. We have been through four horrendous years in which our institutions have failed to hold Trump to account — most notably with the failure to convict him in the Senate after the House impeached him." https://theintercept.com/2020/08/11/trump-november-2020-election/
"The professional communicators, technocrats, and lawyers in much of the mainstream Democratic Party and some in the media will be horrified by this call for a mass uprising in response to the theft of an election." Fuck em. What have these people done for us?
"Culturally, the professional, middle-class people in these roles believe that expertise - not mass protest, deliver the goods. They have learned that rational debate + conflict avoidance help them...Unfortunately, these traits and behaviors don’t work against autocrats."
"Protests will need...to put profits at risk. We should plan for and encourage forms of mass action...that target the corporate class. The only thing that would compel corporate titans to abandon Trump would be a crisis — not a crisis of conscience but of profitability."
Thus, while both parties continue to attack the ongoing mass rebellion in the streets, the Democrats included, it is such mass disruption and mobilization which may be the only hope in keeping Trump from stealing the election. https://itsgoingdown.org/message-in-a-molotov-election-trump/
