By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Since the white supremacist rebellion on January 6, 2021, at the Capitol building there has been an exerted effort by the mass media, and other apologists, to describe the people who attended as “misled” by Trump’s rhetoric. This narrative is not only hilarious and false but also patently dangerous.

We can see how even the news media tended to lend sympathy for the fanatical Trumpster Ashli Babbitt, who was shot to death by police when she attempted to breach an off-limits area in the Capitol where members of Congress were placed for their safety.

The MAGA loyalists descended upon Washington from every part of the United States days before January 6 in an apparent attempt to overthrow the government on behalf of Donald Trump, who called for a “wild” rally. Each of the participants were committed to a pathetic last stand aimed at illegally extending Trump’s presidency and suppress the voting rights of African Americans and all people of color.

Denying African Americans the right to vote has historically been a symbolic feature of white supremacy in the United States, based on Black oppression.

Since the start of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, when making his infamous announcement at Trump Tower in New York City, his supporters were well aware of his white supremacist stance. They were quite comfortable with his derogatory attacks on Mexican people, calling them rapists and welfare cheats.

Needless to mention the hurtful and racist overtures made when Hurricane Maria claimed the lives of 4,645 Puerto Ricans. Trump was overheard saying that “Puerto Ricans are dirty and poor”. Let us also not forget that he referred to Haiti and African nations as “shithole” countries.

Trump supporters were not offended by the openly racist language spoken with impunity. Implicitly and explicitly, he called for violence against people of color. His followers knew quite well that the rhetoric used were not-so-hidden commands to inflict deadly harm on Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous and Arab people.

Trump supporters were not lured, they have been grounded by racist traditions and history dating back to the days of slavery in this country. Their stubborn loyalty to him is cemented in ideology, that is, white supremacy.

One only needs to examine the absence of empathy among Trump supporters for murdered victims like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and other Black and Brown people similarly killed by police. It was not a coincidence that many who were arrested for breaching the Capitol were either active or retired law enforcement officers and military personnel.

The rage displayed by the January 6 insurrectionists was rooted in a frantic belief of needing to defend their white privileges from encroaching Black and Brown people. These white self-proclaimed “patriots” were driven by deeply embedded customs, habits and traditions fermented in racist hatred.

In every objective sense they are more than just Trump supporters, they are part of a social prop for a menacing fascist movement in this country. Calls for “national healing” by “liberal” and moderate politicians, media commentators and so on, only serve to obscure an inherited cancer within capitalist culture this movement represents.

Traditional bourgeois representatives, in academia, journalism, the clergy and so on, will describe the desires to eliminate Critical Race Theory, the right to vote, a woman’s right to abortion, same sex marriage, etc., as attempts to “harm our democracy”, when in actuality these are symptoms of a much bigger problem.

Mainstream scholars are incapable of fully assessing this political movement because they are systemically forbidden to make critical analysis of capitalism. Fascism has always been an inherited trait of this system.

Historically, the shrewdest elements of the ruling class are never shy to expound their fascist visions and act to chip away the mere semblances of democracy. This is why the January 6 Congressional Hearings were meaningless.

The “investigative” character of these procedures was limited to formalities and legal jargon. Instead of being a vehicle for justice they have become nothing more than an entertaining show depicting a battle among two opposing groups of thieves.

For just a few exceptions, the short sentences given to most January 6 defendants proves the unequal justice that prevails in the legal system in the United States, one for whites and the affluent, and another for the rest of us who experience various forms of persecution.

Imagine if the January 6 insurrectionists were Black and Brown militants, the likelihood would have been bloodshed with many dead bodies on the steps of the Capitol building.

It would have been a qualitatively different scenario if Donald Trump and all the January 6 defendants were investigated, tried and sentenced by a people’s revolutionary tribunal.

The fascist attempted coup on January 6, 2021, was carried out by forces who also work to defend the capitalist system just as much as those opposing Trump.

The billionaire class is nervous about mass uprisings erupting due to the uncertainties of the capitalist economy. Fascist forms are always kept in reserve and ready to be unleashed for unforeseen threats to this system. It’s not a coincidence that Trump and other far-right figures became more vocal as a tremor of political crisis developed with the Covid pandemic and Black Lives Matter demonstrations taking place across the country.

And now, that Trump won the 2024 presidential race against Kamala Harris, we can expect the country to shift further to the right. We can also expect representatives of both political parties to compete vigorously against each other not in the service of working-class people but to win the top-ranking title of caretaker for the billionaire class.

No one should be surprised when both Democrats and Republicans seek ways to sell working people upgraded versions of the same-old-lies. Their trickery with words are designed to make us accept policies that sink us further into poverty while having our civil liberties stripped away.

The solution to this rising fascist momentum begins with not falling into the trap of relying on another group of villains, better known as the “lesser of two evils”. History has shown us repeatedly that in the end all factions of the ruling class will unite to preserve the life of this system, they only differ in how to go about it.

Unity among those with a vital interest for fundamental change in our world is the key. That is, those who are exploited daily with low wages and are victims of racism, police terror, victimized due to immigrant status, standing up for a woman’s right to choose, LGBTQ+ rights, etc. How else can we strike fear in the minds of cowards if not by focusing on their main area of vulnerability?

THE PEOPLE UNITED CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED!!