As I sit here in early March, after biden's airstrike in Syria I can't help but wonder what his supporters think. Why do people believe there is a satisfactory difference between political party leaders at the federal level when the difference between actions of two opposing state actors is negligible?
The day president biden won the election I was on a date with a woman in Midtown Manhattan. My date and I sat at a table outside of an Italian restaurant per Covid-19 dining restrictions. I heard honking on the regular not rooted in some sort of driving imperative and I even witnessed a middle-aged man dancing briefly in front of the entry way to the restaurant’s outside dining area. I was not annoyed like I imagine that Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm would be but I imagined what it would be like to travel back to that very moment once biden’s term ends just to play “Frolic,” the show’s theme, on an iPhone 20 and with the image projection technology I can only hope will be available by 2024 I will play a slideshow of all the atrocious things that biden did in the future.
To be clear, the dance itself was charming. And in Covid-19 times finding happiness in the little things is not a negative. But before I endorse the ideology technology of “Let people enjoy things” I will note that it is not the primary emotions of joy and happiness that is of concern – it is their rootedness in enthusiasm for the political status quo. And with that distinction being made, leftists, curb your enthusiasm: The far right is winning.
Just before trump left office a nearly successfully coup attempt occurred. The far right executed it. Gallup, Inc. will not poll people as to whether they believe in the agenda of the people who participated in the coup at the capitol building. The reverberation of that act will none the less change the course of american history forever. The new civil war has begun. And the left needs to win the next battle.
Now, there have been many rebellions throughout the history of the american empire born out of the psychopathy of colonization. There was Bacon’s Rebellion. John brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. But there have been coups too! Yes, the attempt to violently overturn the u.s. presidential election in 2021 is the first coup at the federal level but nothing comes from nothing — there is a disturbing history of supremacist coups at the local and state level in the u.s.
There has never been a leftist or left adjacent coup in the u.s. Leftists from John Brown to the participants of the Wall Street bombing and the aggressive actions of the Weather Underground Organization have indeed fought or engaged violently the state apparatus but no coup attempts have been made. Maybe that reveals the right is winning at a deeper level. They have more control. They can get away with more. Maybe it’s time for the left to have its first coup...
The thing about coups is that they are unpleasant. Trying to get popular support for a coup is like trying to get people to enjoy root canals and spinal taps. The fact of the matter of coups in the u.s. though is that the right has had 5 and the left has had 0. See, many leftists like to exist in their alienation that this is the 21st century — “We don’t behave with such barbarism.” Well, it’s fine to not want to engage but it’s not fine to use the royal “We” and speak for others. The reality is that a left coup requires martyrs. If it were the case that trump won and leftists violently sought the installation of biden they would be killed. The side of the most severe oppression always has advantages. Of course, so does the side of apathy. It’s easy to see oppression and make a wish for it to end. The irony is that the overwhelmingly dominant leftist ideologies beat leftists into submission to a non-violent positionality.
Sever the power of such doxa! Always do what you feel is intuitively right — don’t do something or agree to something simply because a teacher or scholar or lover or parent or family member or priest or leader or influencer tells you to agree with them. Disagree with my position if you feel I’m wrong but never stop thinking about how this world works. Think about how there is always a sickly “Don’t” to much of what can alleviate oppression.
The right is not resting on its victory at the capitol. On Jan. 27 a Zoom call of the Penn State Black Caucus was ambushed by 51 white supremacists. The u.s. representative for Georgia’s 14th congressional district marjorie taylor greene indicated support for executing prominent democrats in 2018 and 2019 before winning her congressional run. Additionally, she became the first person elected to the house of representatives to publicly back qanon, the online community and right-wing propaganda group that some of the most violent of the capitol coup attempters supported and felt at home browsing. And far-right accelerationists carry on their travel down the war path (three men linked to a neo-nazi organization called the base were charged with conspiring to kill members of a militant antifascist group in Georgia in early 2020).
So just what does the right-wing’s sustained effort at advancing their supremacist agenda mean for the left? Well, the mainstream left is just happy biden won the election. The power shift does not seem to mean much to those who only see the u.s. government as the wielders of power. But the coup attempt along with trump’s dog whistle support of it and u.s. politicians like marjorie greene who support right-wing usurping of u.s. state control have made it very clear that the militant right wing, qanon and white supremacists are mad dogs that bite through the remainder of the tender flesh of american neoliberalism.
Neoliberalism is no friend of the working class but if the right goes in for the kill, fascism will be its replacement. Its time to cease the moral high ground façade. There is nothing powerful about remaining stoic in the face of escalating violence from those who are our ideological enemies. It is time to attack the far-right militants and it is time to strike against the state. Increase your anger. Train. Strategize. Know your enemy. Say it loud: the u.s. government is my enemy and right-wing militants and white supremacists are my enemy. It is time to eliminate my enemy!