“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
For decades, the United States has presented itself to the world as a beacon of stability, a guarantor of the international order, and a land where dreams are made. During the prolonged period of upswing that followed the Second World War, the U.S. appeared to live up to those vaunted promises, while much of the world seemed consumed by civil conflict, economic disorder and war—in a word, violent instability.
However, to borrow Hemingway’s words, gradually and then suddenly, the U.S. has found itself beset by that same affliction which its arrogant leaders believed it was uniquely immune. Instability has made its return to the United States—and in rapid fashion.
…and then suddenly
Lenin once wrote that there are decades where nothing happens, but also weeks where decades happen. These words could be perfectly applied to the situation in the U.S. today.
The 2024 U.S. presidential contest is still far from over. However, it is already the most turbulent in modern U.S. history. The most obvious proof is the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. In its wake, Trump’s supporters have been emboldened in their beliefs, however exaggerated, that the U.S. is sliding into civil war and that his opponents are prepared to use violence to halt his rise. In a recent Marist National poll, 47 per cent of Americans said a civil war was likely to erupt in their lifetime—13 per cent saying it was “very likely.”
Prior to this, the world’s attention was focused on the excruciating mental decline of Joe Biden—a decline made patently obvious after his humiliating presidential debate performance. The U.S. public, including many Democrats, were forced to reckon with the fact that their commander-in-chief is a senile, corpse-adjacent halfwit.
If that wasn’t enough, U.S. audiences have been treated to a spectacle of senior Democrat officials plotting to remove yesterday’s beloved leader, “the only man that can beat Trump,” in time for the Democratic Convention in August. In the end, they got what they wanted. Biden has been unceremoniously laid to rest by his party, after suffering a fatal stab in the back from his former chief Obama.
Democrats are now falling in line behind Kamala Harris as their only hope, with only 4 months left to mount a campaign.
Gradually…
In his Oval Office address the day following Trump’s near-assasination, Biden spoke in defense of “American democracy, where arguments are made in good faith… American democracy, where the rule of law is respected, American democracy where decency, dignity, fair play aren’t just quaint notions, but living, breathing realities.”
The problem is that these hallowed principles of U.S. democracy no longer exist—if they ever really existed.
U.S. politicians could once boast of campaigns conducted in “good faith” and with stately decorum. Today, candidates of both parties trade in increasingly deranged barbs, from tales of Russian election interference to fake ballots on election day. The rule of law is respected when it comes to protecting the interests of large corporations, but is promptly ignored when it concerns the rights of students to protest against a genocide in Gaza. U.S. business, at one time the progenitors of a thriving economy, now stand idly by as America’s streets fall victim to drug abuse, homelessness and a grossly undignified and indecent form of existence.
58 per cent of Americans are not satisfied with how well their democracy is working, according to a Pew Research poll. In the same poll, 66 per cent say that their economic system needs to undergo a major change. On the political front, Trump and Biden are the two most hated presidential candidates in living memory. Things are no better with Biden’s favoured replacement Kamala Harris, herself almost as unpopular as he is.
The growing instability inside the U.S. is not the product of one or two individuals, but the result of a prolonged decline of U.S. capitalism—and with it, all of its institutions, culture and public figures. If monumental events seem to have erupted out of nowhere, this is not because everything was fine before, but because the U.S. establishment was too blind or ignorant to detect the buildup of pressure beneath their own feet.
This might come as a surprise to men like Joe Biden (though, it is difficult to tell, since he always looks like a deer caught in the headlights). However, it comes as no surprise to millions of U.S. workers and youth, who have spent years living out an American nightmare that sees no end and no escape. The next period in the U.S. will be one of sharp shifts, sudden changes and explosions at every level.
The task of U.S. communists is to replace despair with optimism, organize the millions into a combat ready party, and prepare for the next American Revolution that will bring the nightmare to an end.
