Past impeachments show us that presidential impeachment is largely a struggle within the ruling class over the direction of the country, particularly in the economic sphere. In fact, the history of impeachments in America can be read as the political struggle among the ruling class to clear away impediments to the advance of U.S. global economic and geopolitical power.
Andrew Johnson was charged with violation of the Tenure of Office Act for firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. He was impeached for policies that undermined the victory of industrial and financial capital in the Civil War over slave capital by returning of the Southern planters to political power. Richard Nixon knew about the Watergate break-in. He was impeached for what came to be called the “Nixon shocks,” which jeopardized the interests of international finance capital. Bill Clinton lied under oath about the affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He was impeached for spearheading U.S. leadership of globalization and facilitating the domination of speculative capital. His impeachment was led by the “America First” crowd, who at that time based themselves in that sector of the economy facing an uncertain future under globalization and were able to skillfully manipulate the diffused spontaneous mass of discontent through their racist, fascist propaganda. This “America First” gang has reappeared once again under different circumstances and in a different form.
The impeachment the Democrats brought against Trump is an expression of the instability and polarization in the world situation, and is part of the capitalists’ struggle to determine the means by which the world economy will advance. As in the past, the ruling class today is not in disagreement about what must be done – the preservation of private property and U.S. global hegemony. They are in bitter and dangerous disagreement over how it should be done. Underneath all the rhetoric and posturing is the darkening reality of a world economy in crisis, wrought by the electronic revolution. It is a crisis that is only being made worse by the economic and geopolitical policies of the “America First” Trump administration.
The problem for the Democratic Party is that it is in agreement with what Trump is attempting to achieve. These are the goals of the ruling class as a whole. They don’t agree with how he is going about it. They stand in the well of the Senate and defend the Constitutional system that has facilitated and protected the capitalist system since the founding of America. But the Democrats have done little to make use of this system to ensure the well-being of the working class. In fact, their leadership attacks anyone who puts forward a program that seeks to address the real problems of the American people, especially within their own party.
Both parties are using the impeachment process to agitate and propagandize the working class to support their positions on impeachment and every other matter. The reality is that neither of these parties and the ruling class that they serve, have any answers for the real problems that we workers face.
Trump should be impeached. For that matter, the whole ruling class should be “impeached.” They have proven they are unfit in their self-appointed capacity to rule over the rest of us.
They don’t have the same morality and values as our class. When they talk about the rule of law, the Constitution, and freedom and liberty, they mean something very different. They mean laws that give them the freedom and the liberty to do whatever they want, regardless of the consequences for the rest of humanity.
Through the fight for the basic necessities of life, we can meet others in the same situation. We can band together around our common interests across the lines that the ruling class has created to divide us. We can form our own understanding of the possibilities based on what the new technologies make possible and begin to fight along the line to a peaceful and abundant future. RC
March/April 2020 Vol30. Ed2
This article originated in Rally, Comrades
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