“Liberalism is the most preferred variant of imperialist ideology of the ruling class.”
After weeks of vacillation from the Trump Administration, the Korean people achieved a significant victory at the “Trump-Kim” summit in Singapore on June 12th. The meeting was first time in history that the head of state of the DPRK negotiated in the same room with a US President and the results did not disappoint. The Trump Administration announced a halt to joint military exercises with South Korea in exchange for the beginning phases of “denuclearization” in the DPRK. In many ways, the discussion marked the first steps toward the decolonization of the Korean Peninsula and a real peace treaty driven by the wishes and desires of the Korean people. This explains why the Democratic Party and its Republican allies, the truest political expression of the ruling class, have condemned Trump so strongly for the mere thought of holding the summit.
Leading Democrats lost their minds over Trump’s willingness to meet with Kim Jong-un. Rachel Maddow claimed that Putin was calling the shots at the summit because the DPRK shares a border with Russia. Democratic lawmakers accused Trump of giving lopsided concessions to the “regime” in North Korea, thus lending the so-called “authoritarian rule” of Kim Jong-un legitimacy. Bernie Sanders called the summit a “positive step”but also spent time on Twitter condemning Trumpfor allegedly building a romance with “strong men” dictators like Putin and Kim Jong-un at the expense of relationships with “democratic” leaders in Canada and Europe. The message from the Democrats is clear: Trump needs to pledge undying loyalty to the War Party or forever be ridiculed by the ruling class as an agent of so-called “despots” abroad.
“Democrats lost their minds over Trump’s willingness to meet with Kim Jong-un.”
Of course, Trump has not disappointed the ruling class on a variety of other issues. Trump has continued Obama’s policy of police-state terror on the U.S.-Mexico border by stripping thousands of migrant childrenfrom their families. The Trump Administration continues to lie about the state of the capitalist economy just as Obama did prior to his departure by celebrating low unemployment numberswithout any mention of the millions of people who have given up the search for work all together. It is Trump’s shaky allegiance to the War Party that has enraged the ruling class most. The thousands of bombs that Trump’s military has dropped in Iraq and the Middle Easthas not satisfied the War Party in the least bit. By threatening to pull US troops out of Syria, pulling out of the “Iran deal,” and now negotiating with Kim Jong-un, Trump has shown himself to be less than reliable when it comes to matters of empire.
It would be silly, however, to attribute such inconsistency to some political heroism on the part of Trump. Trump is mainly concerned with showing strength to the base of so-called “deplorables” who propelled him into office. Ruling class opposition, especially from the unpopular Democrats, feeds his legitimacy.And Trump is certainly not in the driver’s seat when it comes to the international struggle against imperialism. Koreans are sick and tired of over a half century of war with the US, a war that has brought nothing but the indignity of colonial division and the loss of millions of lives. The summit held in Singapore is another indication of the decline of US empire, of which Trump himself is a manifestation.
“It is Trump’s shaky allegiance to the War Party that has enraged the ruling class most.”
Years of long, hard struggle on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) has played the principal role in bringing the imperialists to the table. Many South Koreans want US troops and their weapons out of the country. Sanctions have failed to strangle DPRK’s socialist economyat the level necessary to bring about regime change. Relations between the DPRK and the South Korean government have become significantly less tense since the election of Moon Jae-in last year. In other words, the US imperial war against Korea has failed.
The Democrats are on a mission to arrest the promise of peace in Korea even more than the arch-racist billionaire commander-in-chief. Since Trump has taken office, the Democratic Party has been showing the world why it is in fact the foremost political representative of the military state.The Democrats have led the charge to war against Russia with endless accusations that Trump’s campaign promise to ease relations with the former Soviet Union amounted to nothing less than treason. They have encouraged Trump to escalate war maneuvers in Syria, giving the President praise when he rains missiles down on the Arab nation. Democrats helped best Trump’s original military budget by twenty-four billion per year. In July of 2017, the Senate forced Trump’s hand by unanimously voting to renew sanctions against Russiathat also added new ones against Iran and the DPRK.
“Many South Koreans want US troops and their weapons out of the country.”
It isn’t just Democratic Party politicians that remain loyal to the War Party in the age of Trump. Michelle Wolf’s show, watched mainly by Democrats, recently polled its audience about whether they hoped that peace talks with North Korea would fail so Trump couldn’t take credit. Over seventy percent of viewers answered “yes.”This should tell us all we need to know about liberalism and the Democrats that espouse the ideology. Liberalism is the most preferred variant of imperialist ideology of the ruling class.
The so-called liberalism of the Democrats has become utterly useless for humanity as it seeks a way out of the morass of imperialist degradation. Liberalism is a pledge of loyalty to the vanguard of the War Party, the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party desperately seeks to preserve the illusion of American exceptionalism because the two-party political system is incapable of reform that benefits anyone except the ultra-rich. The Korean people did not wait around for a Democrat to take office to make a move toward peace and self-determination. The people on both sides of the DMZ took full advantage of the chaos that has ensued during the era of Trump and united toward the common aim of peace and an eventual end to US-led hostility and war.
“The two-party political system is incapable of reform that benefits anyone except the ultra-rich.”
Neither Trump nor the state apparatus in Washington can be trusted to fulfill the promises verbally agreed upon at the summit. Just a little more than a week after the summit, Trump renewed sanctions against the DPRK under the pretext that the nation remains an “extraordinary threat” to the United States. This is the first sign that the intense effort of the ruling class to undermine the summit may be working. Still, the mere verbal utterance of a cessation in US military exercises inevitably leads to the complete and total end of the US military occupation of Korea, which consists of nearly 30,000 US troops permanently stationed in the South and crushing sanctions for the North. Such a scenario has struck fear in the eyes of the militarists and capitalists that control the Democratic and Republican Party. Trump has attempted to ride whichever waves possess the most momentum. In the case of Korea, Trump has found himself caught between the intense struggle between the determination of the Korean people and the decline of US imperialism.
The material significance of the summit in Singapore remains to be seen. Firm predictions are difficult in this period of crisis and chaos. What is painstakingly clear, however, is that the Democratic Party is the vanguard of the War Party. This isn’t an endorsement of Trump or his reactionary character. It is a statement of fact.
“The Democratic Party is owned by the Pentagon, military contractors and Wall Street monopolies.”
We can be certain that the Democratic Party will continue to push the Trump Administration into even more dangerous conflicts and wars than what could have been accomplished by the arch racist billionaire on his own. Why? Because the Democratic Party is owned by the Pentagon. It is owned by military contractors and Wall Street monopolies. The Democratic Party is a political subsidiary of the ruling class. Its reaction to the summit in Singapore is case and point. We don’t have to support Trump to realize that the cause of peace is completely imperiled by the corporately-owned and unapologetically racist Democratic Party. If we support peace, then we must ultimately oppose Democrats who have made it clear that they lovewar even more than the arch-racist billionaire in the Oval Office.
Danny Haiphong is an activist and journalist in the New York City area. He and Roberto Sirvent are co-authors of the forthcoming book entitled American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: The Fake News of US Empire (Skyhorse Publishing). He can be reached at [email protected]
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