THE ORIGINS & CHALLENGES OF THE TERMINAL CRISIS OF THE U.S. DUOPOLY

There's a flagrant asymmetry between the dual collapse of legitimacy and efficacy of both U.S. liberalism, firstly, and subsequently its previous avatar for most of the Cold War - traditional, “moderate” conservatism - tamed enough to play by the bipartisan rules of governance and system of American democracy.

The American duopoly functioned best in the halcyon days of U.S. global hegemony, under the leadership of those inspired social & economic innovators, the New Deal liberals, with their bold social contract to secure domestic prosperity and social tranquility, while audaciously pursuing global supreme leadership - if not outright dominance. This new social consensus required domesticating the previously recalcitrant plutocratic class and also reining in the vast and perennial white supremacist cultural right; and, not insignificantly, it also required purging, coopting, and “containing,” in both the domestic and international arenas, the mighty radical left/national liberation left coming out of WW II. Cold War liberalism became the dominant ideology of the reining duopoly in Washington and throughout the so-called “Free World.” The bipolar world geopolitically, economically, culturally, and scientifically/technologically prospered and became a “world order” under U.S. visionary liberal leadership - all military and covert interventions in the then-called “Third World” aside. Both superpowers - the US & USSR - colluded, despite their ideological animosities,  to sustain and control their respective spheres of influence - the Free World and the Socialist Camp. The world’s right and the world’s left had, by and large, been tamed and the U.S. reined supreme.

Between the 1940s and the appearance of the new antisystemic social movements of the 1960s, the previously combative U.S. labor movement became domesticated, as the capitalist class wisely conceded granting the necessary social rights and welfare for these workers - first the unionized white males, then everyone else - to achieve the "American Dream.” The virulent anti-Communism became normalized, serving to tame or purge the social movements and to secure the compliance of the “scared to hell” American taxpayers with the huge expenditures required by the much expanded military industrial complex that financed U.S. imperialist expansionism, which in turn bolstered profits to plough back and buy social peace via a plethora of social programs. It was the classic superpower virtual cycle for a while.

The dramatic story of the ideological and political crisis of the U.S. duopoly began with the decline of U.S. global hegemony in the 1970s & 80s. It involved the loss of economic supremacy to renewed rivalries in Europe, East Asia, and the oil-producing countries, and through its violent wars and by not resolving or exacerbating domestic and international inequities, it signified the collapse of the previous legitimacy of centrist liberalism, accompanied by the robust rise of increasingly more radical varieties of conservatism.

OPEC, the insubordination of prior allies like Saddam Hussein in Irak and Noriega in Panama, the consolidation and expansion of the Euro Zone, the Pink Tide of anti-neoliberal democratic regimes in Latin America, the Arab Spring and the counterrevolution it brought to Libya and Syria, and the perennial sabotage of any U.S.-sponsored resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the humanitarian catastrophes, failed states, and piracy in the Horn of Africa, the rise of China and its East Asian archipelago, all combined with the spectacular attacks carried out by non-state actors on 9/11/2001 on the U.S.’s main symbols of global power - the World Trade Center & Pentagon - to set the stage for the accelerated closure of the liberal-led U.S.-sponsored world & domestic orders

The 21st-century world’s revolt in the Global South against the U.S.-run “Global North” - both from the right and left - in East Asia led by China, in Central & Eastern Asia (Middle East), in Latin America, and the various regions of chaos in Africa - coincided with the adoption of ever more militaristic and disastrous U.S. interventions, and radicalization of the U.S. right at home. The liberals, from the time of Bill Clinton onwards, became the avatars of these radicalized right forces. The duopoly strained to the limit, remaining decreasingly functional only thanks to the accommodations and capitulations of the liberals - until 2016, that is, when the Republicans decided to do without the charade of a bipartisan compact entirely and opted for the replacement of the duopoly and its corrupt forms of democratic governance with a new, authoritarian, reactionary, unitary and more naked, model of direct plutocratic rule, Maga fascism.

The evermore moderate trend line connecting the ambitious policies of Lyndon Johnson to Jimmy Carter's military and economic restraints, to Bill Clinton's embracing neoliberalism at the behest of Wall Street, to Barack Obama's and Joe Biden's ineffective attempts to manage the liberal’s decline, is unmistakable. Likewise, the evermore radical policies adopted, in sequence, by Ronald Reagan's galloping neoliberalism, to the two Bushs’ militaristic forays, to Trump’s initial proto-fascist, then fully and openly fascist project of Donald Trump, the race to the bottom has been also unmistakable for the right.

Nothing good can come out of either trend, the danger of spiraling of all restrains domestically and internationally are now palpable. And yet, neither wing of the duopoly seems capable or willing to change course on the way to the precipice - which can lead to major world conflagrations and domestic conflict.

The duopoly is cracking-up and collapsing from within with nothing viable or desirable to replace it, given the paralysis of the liberals - who have nothing to offer and wish to just return to the “bipartisanship" of an era they long lost; and given the emboldened, extremist Maga Republicans, who now do not even keep appearances of law abiding and constitutional power sharing in their well-orchestrated efforts to forcefully dismantle, nullify, and reverse all social and institutional progress achieved over the past 100 years - the New Deal, Civil Rights, more inclusive democratic governance, the welfare state, etc.

The missing ingredient in this very asymmetrical ideological & political crisis in the United States is the tragic absence of anything resembling a robust, viable, radical left project willing and able to effectively challenge the status quo in this era of Maga fascism and the defeat of liberalism and traditional conservatism. 

In part, this is a historic legacy, attributable to the ferocity of the purge of radicals in the construction of the New Deal social contract from the 1940s on and through the late 1960s; in part, it is the result of the uneven and varied co-optation of all the new social movements of the 1960s - their economic, political, and cultural absorption and effective subordination to the liberal wing of the duopoly (via the Democratic Party and its donor class); and in part, it is due to the fact that the new social movements of the 21st century - the BLM, #MeToo, Occupy, Immigrant Rights, LGBTQ, Climate Change, Antiwar, and Gun Control movements - have not coalesced fast enough or even deliberately enough around a bold new political project for radical social, economic, and political change, to replace the dying duopoly and block the ascendant Maga fascist project.

The two campaigns of Bernie Sanders (2016 & 2020), as well as the plethora of progressive candidacies, have not reached the scale required to tip the balance of power and challenge and defeat the centrist Democratic Party establishment - let alone confront and defeat the emergent Maga fascist project in power today. The liberals, it must be said, have thoroughly sabotaged these trends every step of the way.

The hard truth activist and progressive folks need to face, consciously address, and urgently resolve is that the reconstitution of a viable radical left alternative - with a bold vision, tested leadership, and organizational vehicles and strategies - has been too feeble, too fragmented, and too unimaginative to date. In the huge vacuum created by its absence, and in the appalling collapse of any resistance capacity from the centrist liberals to the advancing Maga fascist project, it is no wonder that Trump and his plutocrats are tearing the country apart and destroying its institutional democratic life with almost full impunity, so far.

And, as the article below shows, it's no wonder that the Maga project first strongly attracted the disaffected white working and middle classes once in the liberals’ base, but now it is increasingly appealing to those of the other non-white panethnicities - Latinos, Asians, and even Blacks. Disgusted and frustrated with the betrayals and failures of the duopoly - now under siege by the Maga fascist project -, and with seemingly nowhere else to turn to, these folks have tragically and dismally opted to take the plunge into the toxic swamp of Maga Trumpism and acquiesce to its wrecking ball social & political project affecting their own communities. This is what happened in Europe with the rise of fascism a hundred years ago, this is what’s happening to the United States with the rise of fascism today.

The answer to this catastrophic, seemingly unstoppable trend, of course, lies not in vain efforts to resuscitate the comatose liberal project from its death bed, as the Democratic Party establishment insists on, meekly and ineffectively, and are doomed to fail. They have no fight in them, let alone vision. Much less does the answer lie in folks caving-in to one or another aspect of the fascist project, as so many Democrats are pursuing now (e.g.: immigration, DEI, the Gaza genocide, global mercantilism, religion in politics, reassertion of dogmatic patriarchy, etc.).

The answer to our historic conundrum is to forge, out of the cauldron of the emerging radical social struggles and mounted resistance movements battling encroaching Maga fascism, through the courts, the streets, and the ballot boxes, but independent and beyond the coopting reach of the plutocracy and its two parties, a new, truly radical, visionary and uncompromising, militant and organized, alternative left project - with its own bold vision, tested leadership, and a strategy and tactics to win the good but prolonged fight ahead.

Much time and terrain has already been lost. We've allowed ourselves to be misled for too long by the corrupt and compromised leaders of the duopoly, selling us false promises and false hopes. We have been betrayed and we have been duped, and mostly we have indulged in delusions of American exceptionalism. It’s time to change that page of history, from the bottom-up and from the left - desde abajo y a la izquierda - like the Zapatistas like to say.

We find ourselves in quite severe dire straights right now, we must admit; we have been placed on the strategic defensive, we seem to be almost vanquished; and yet, we must regroup and strike back. There is simply no alternative, if we hope to stop and defeat Maga Trumpism, get rid of the dysfunctional duopoly that spun it, and inaugurate a lasting era of truly progressive, peaceful, and desirable social change - not just for us, in our country - the very epicenter of world systemic chaos - but for the world yearning for a new beginning, for a post-capitalist, integrated, viable, peaceful and just future.

Inaction, indulging in nostalgic delusions, or worse, capitulation to the ever more extreme right, have already cost us dearly. Stop that, reconsider, renew your fighting spirit, join a militant and independent social resistance movement, unite with all others, and act collectively! 

What are you waiting for? ¡Desapendéjense, únanse, muévanse, y todos y todas a luchar de verdad por un cambio real, carajo!

#AnotherWorldIsPossible #AnotherNorthAmericaIsNeeded #AnotherVisionIsRequired #Arise #Resist #FightBack 

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ARTICLE:  Inside the Rise of the Multiracial Right