Andy Levine’s column on the Dastardly Dems elicits comment by senior editor Steve Jonas

As for Trump, he is the current outcome of what I have called for quite some time “The Republican Rightward Imperative.”  That is, even with the same bedrock platform: tax cuts for the wealthy/massive deregulation/poverty and even a few steps above it are the fault of the poor; in order to get the Republican nomination at any level in primary elections, for the most part using “dog whistles,” candidates had to go to what appeared to be further and further to the Right.  And thus, we got Trump, who taking the hood off the racism that has underlaid the Repubs. since Nixon announced the “Southern Strategy,” just lays it all out there.

For all of the Democrats’ faults, which Mr. Levine has summarized very well, if the U.S. is to avoid becoming  a “21^st Century Fascist country,” under Trump and his minions in the Administration and the Congress, they must take control of at least one House of the Congress in November, 2108.  As for what the Democrats should do about Trump and the Trumpites in those oncoming mid-term elections, first of all they should realize that given the massive voter-suppression campaign that the Repubs. already have well underway, the “Blue Wave” is no sure thing.  Second of all, they must recognize that if they are to win, the DLC-wing must be crushed, once and for all, but gently, by winning on policy, not by having screaming matches.  They do need to mobilize their wing of the ruling class, which does not want fascism, at least not now, against the Trump wing, which is moving fairly quickly in that direction. 

They need to run on Trump’s terrible policies, not the terrible Trump (which characterization only mobilizes his base).  They need to stay away from running on impeachment (which issue only mobilizes his base).  They need to run on a positive program: expanded health service, a massive infrastructure program, protecting workers’ rights, upgrading education to meet the needs of the modern workplace, supporting the redevelopment of the trade union movement, support of pro-choice and the protection/expansion of civil and LGBTQ rights, the development of a humane immigration/immigrants policy, and so on and so forth (this section is not intended as a complete guide for progressive Democrats).  It’s what I have characterized Bernie Sanders’ domestic program as: the New Deal on Steroids.  Is it a capitalist program?  Of course it is.  But for the near term, it is a heck of a lot better than the imminent fascist future the U.S. faces under Trump and the major ruling class sector he represents.

In my view, the foreign policy should be to gradually reduce the U.S. military’s involvement around the world, to be accompanied by the shifting of resources from the military to the civil side of the ledger.  As for Russia, it has to be recognized that what is going on is at its center is what I have characterized as “Clash of Capitalisms” and dealt with accordingly.  As for the Mueller investigation, getting into the wees has to be avoided, but any attempts by the Trumpites to torpedo it must be opposed (whether or not one agrees with every one of its jots and tittles).  In my view, and we will not argue it here, Trump and his closest associates are up to their eyeballs in a variety of crimes, but again, that has to be left to the Mueller investigation.

Finally, the primary danger that the U.S. faces under Trump is the possible onset of what I have characterized as “21^st Century Trumpite Fascism.”  When a center-rightist like Madeline Albright uses the term, when a center-leftist like Paul Krugman uses the term, when a Democratic leftist like Robert Reich talks about the dangers, it can be concluded that it is real enough.  Philip Roth was certainly afraid of its possible onset, which he predicted in a way in “The Plot Against America.”  (My one criticism of that book was that Roth couldn’t figure out how to end it.  So, he had Lindberg fly off in 1942, solo, across the Atlantic, for a meeting with Hitler.  He disappeared along the way [and the story sort of petered out]).  In my own book about a future fascist U.S., “The 15% Solution,” (published by Patrice Greanville’s Punto Press), I have it conclude with “the triumph of the Good Guys” at the end of the Second Civil War.  That is an event, by the way, currently being predicted as a possibility by Robert Reich, himself a leading Democrat apparatchik.

Mr. Levine has obviously written a very stimulating column.  Obviously, it has certainly stimulated me!  But I am going to stop here.