by the Editorial Board
A shooter opened fire at a Trump rally this Saturday, resulting in the death of the shooter and an attendee, along with serious injury to others in attendance and minor injury to Donald Trump. The imperialist ruling class representatives at the top of the Democratic Party rushed to denounce “political violence.”
President and head gangster Joe Biden told the public about an hour after the shooting that “there is no place in America for this kind of violence, its sick.” He promised to use the full repressive power of the imperialist state to investigate the matter and further said that “I’m praying for [Trump] and his family and for all those who were at the rally.” Biden has previously referred to his opponent as an existential threat to US democracy and a rapist among other things. Vice President Kamala Harris told media she was “relieved” Trump was not seriously injured.
“This kind of violence”—which has increased as the electoral farce around the world becomes increasingly peppered with electoral violence as a symptom of deepening political crisis—apparently has no place in America, but has a place everywhere Biden ships weapons, technology and staff to conduct political violence, including the assassination of public officials and the resumption of 500 pound bombs to Israel to be used against civilians.
Former President Barack Obama wrote on social media, “there is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy” before expressing relief that his successor was not seriously harmed. Obama dropped more bombs and deported more people than the ultra-reactionary Trump who replaced him as president.
Bill Clinton was even more general: “violence has no place in America” he said, forgetting that his administration carried out the violent policies of mass incarceration and the so-called drug war. Former Vice President Al Gore used the attack as a call for unity, saying that the country “must join together to wholeheartedly and unequivocally condemn political violence.”
Republican opportunists seized the kindly words of the Democrats. Republican Senator from Utah, Mike Lee, called on Biden to “immediately order that all federal criminal charges against President Trump be dropped, and to ask the governors of New York and Georgia to do the same. Such a gesture would help heal wounds and allow all Americans to take a deep breath.”
When one representative of the ruling class is attacked, they consolidate without giving up on their different agendas. Both parties have proven that they will continue bringing political violence on a mass scale to the most impoverished parts of the world as well as the protesters and poor at home. The shell casings left scattered between the bodies of children in Gaza are bought and paid for by the USA. More than 186,000 dead Palestinian people is the result of sick political violence, and it is not them but Donald Trump, the “existential threat to democracy”, who gets thoughts and prayers. This is the state of the worsening political crisis in the US corresponding to the deepening economic crisis of imperialism, for which the US imperialist ruling class is the main culprit.
So much remains unclear, but what is certain is that the increasing and extreme spectacle of US elections will likely deteriorate into an unforeseen political crisis as the imperialists prove in every way that they are unfit to rule. The Worker suggests reading here for political coverage of what transpired this Saturday, and here for an analysis on the bourgeois electoral farce.
