Trump's policy of military expansion and extreme nationalism has the most ominous implications for the democratic rights of the American people. He speaks for a ruthless financial oligarchy that will brook no opposition, foreign or domestic. His call for a Fortress America, mobilized against every country in the world, means the suppression of all domestic dissent.
It is notable that Trump's speech discarded the democratic rhetoric that is traditional for inaugurations. There was no paying tribute to the electoral process, no appealing to the tens of millions who did not vote for him, no reassurance to those opposed to him that their rights will be respected, no pledging to be a president of "all the people." There was not even an acknowledgement that he had received only 44 percent of the vote, trailing his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton by nearly three million votes.
On the contrary, Trump denounced "a small group in our nation's capital," identified as "politicians" and "the establishment," in other words, everyone seated around him on the western face of the Capitol building -- congressmen, senators, former presidents. He declared that they would be deprived of all power because "we are transferring power from Washington, DC and giving it back to you, the people" -- with Trump himself, of course, acting as the stand-in for "the people."
There is only one politically serious conclusion that can be drawn from this inauguration: Trump is seeking to develop an American fascistic movement, offering a false enemy to be held responsible for the crimes and failures of capitalism, demonizing anyone opposed to his policies as disloyal, and presenting himself as the personification of the popular will and the only one who can deliver a solution to the crisis.
Trump has assembled a cabinet of billionaires, right-wing ideologues and former generals. The Trump administration will go much further than anyone imagines in pursuing a program of war, attacks on democratic rights and the destruction of jobs and living standards for working people.
The Democratic Party will do nothing to oppose Trump. The Democratic Party leadership, from Obama on down, sat through Trump's militaristic and anti-democratic diatribe as though listening to a "normal" political address. Obama has spent the transition period spreading complacency about the incoming administration, while the congressional Democrats pledge to work with Trump and embrace his toxic and reactionary economic nationalism.
Working people are in for great shocks. Whatever the initial confusion, whether they voted for Clinton, for Trump, or refused to choose between them, they will learn quickly that this government is their enemy. American capitalism has embarked on the road to disaster and nothing can stop it but a revolutionary movement of the working class.
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