Arnold August speaks at an event for his book Cuba-US Relations: Obama and Beyond. Photo:Jon Flanders.
A Canadian expert on American internal affairs, Arnold August, says the Democrats’ opposition to the “right-wing fascism” is not genuine.
“The interest of the Democrats and its media, such as CNN, is not to oppose right-wing fascism but rather to build a straw man for political gain in order to cover their own traces,” August, a member of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), tells the Tehran Times.
August also says people in Europe and the United States know that “the US/NATO war against Russia” is cause of the recent inflation, unprecedented in decades.
Following is the text of the interview:
Q: Inflation and economic challenges have become the first concern of the American people in the recent election. “How did the Democrats fail to protect the economy during the last six months?”
A: Let us take the first sentence: “Inflation and economic challenges have become the first concern of the American people in the recent election.” The problem is that the sentence is biased because it takes for granted that the concerns of the people can actually be translated through voting. The question seems to assume, as does the international mainstream media, that the people are actually involved in the elections. But are they? In the US, a felony is the most serious charge leading to incarceration. The United States is the only country in the world in which those who have served a prison sentence on felony-related offenses are barred from voting for life once they have served their sentence. (The Sentencing Project) An estimated 4.6 million people (2% of the total US population eligible to vote) are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction. The figure has declined by 24% since 2016, as more states enacted policies to curtail this practice and state prison populations modestly declined. (Locked Out 2022: Estimates of People Denied Voting Rights, Christopher Uggen, Ryan Larson, Sarah Shannon, and Robert Stewart, October 25, 2022).
Let us now turn to voter turnout, or the percentage of the voting-age population that actually votes, to assess whether the people’s concerns can be translated into actual policies. More than 50% of the population who are of voting age say no. In the US midterm elections, including this one in 2022 (even though all statistics are not yet in), less than 50% actually vote. (Washington Post, Kati Perry, Luis Melgar, Kate Rabinowitz, and Dan Keating, November 9, 2022)
Let us look at the second part: “How did the Democrats fail to protect the economy during the last six months?” The most serious concern regarding the economy is inflation. Everyone knows that the cause is the US/NATO war against Russia. In fact, in Europe, millions of people are demonstrating against the European Union’s involvement in the war and want out of NATO, the end of sanctions, and thus access to Russian gas and oil. However, the anti-Russia, anti-Putin US narrative is so strong in the US that people cannot and do not want to make the connection that Europeans are already making at the grassroots level. The progressive anti-imperialist left forces in the US are fighting to relate the US and NATO to economic woes such as inflation. However, I have never witnessed such an airtight bipartisan narrative, in this case the NATO anti-Russian narrative, dictating to the electorate.It is a current feature of the US political system, without which no serious analysis can take place. Thus, on election night, at a White House press conference, Biden could extol the election results in this way: “It was a good day for democracy,” he said. “I believe it was a good day for America…”Our democracy has been tested in recent years, but with their votes, the American people have spoken and proven once again that democracy is who we are.” Not one journalist asked him about the fact that less than half of the voting-age population voted.
Q: Some Republicans insist on voting-machine irregularities. How do they support their claim? What was the evidence of electoral fraud by Republicans?
A: This is the Republican claim: dozens of electronic vote-counting machines in the battleground state of Arizona were seized by former Republican President Donald Trump and his followers, who falsely claimed it was evidence of electoral fraud by Democrats. “The problem was that ballots were not lining up properly inside the machines and were not being read,” said Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, adding that “despite the problems, all votes would be counted.” Richer called the malfunctions “disappointing” and correctly predicted that election deniers such as Trump would “exploit” the issue. Just a few hours into Election Day, Stephen Richer told reporters that about 20% of the electronic vote tabulation machines in the state’s most populous county were malfunctioning, and technicians were being deployed to fix them. (Voting machine problems in Arizona seized on by Trump and election deniers, by Tim Reid) Reuters, November 9, 2022.) So, no fraud there by the Democrats.
However, the Democratic Party is as bad at electoral fraud and machinations as the Republicans. For example, Democratic activists fretting about potential Republican strength in North Carolina, a state considered to be leaning red for the midterms, have mounted an aggressive campaign to keep the left-leaning Green Party off the ballot there to avoid diluting Democratic turnout. Green Party activists claim Democrats from the national party apparatus are spearheading a number of challenges to the legitimacy of Green Party petitions and trying to get people who signed those petitions to remove their signatures after the fact. (Democrats maneuver to keep Green Party candidates off the midterm ballot in swing states like North Carolina and New York, The Sun, Russell Payne, July 14, 2022.)
Q: Many right-wing groups like the Proud Boys became active during the last month. How serious is the threat posed by extremists to US national security?
A: I have always found that the terms “extremist” and “right-wing groups” in US politics are misleading. It purposely nourishes the myth that in US politics there are “right-wing extremists” linked to the Republicans as opposed to the “left-wing” Democrats. If one takes the time, as I do, to watch the US mainstream media, including the political satire shows that are influential in the US and the West, there is a virtual continuous emission of buzz words about the “right” Republicans and the “left” Democrats. Is there such a thing as a right-wing extremist phenomenon? Yes. Since its inception in 1776, the United States has evolved into a right-wing extremist white supremacist colonial/imperialist state based on genocide against Native Americans and slavery. In fact, the current state is a relic of slavery, with the ongoing war on Blacks in the United States and abroad, increasingly against Africa, while being the primary supporter of the fascist terrorist Zionist entity.
Q: Many analysts say the US is on the edge of a civil war. “How close do you perceive it?”
Once again, taken at face value, the notion of “civil war” at this time feeds into the left-wing Democrat mantra of pointing the finger at the right-wing Republicans as the cause of an impending civil war, for example by painting the January 6 Capitol Hill demonstration as an insurrection. The Democrats and their media, such as CNN, are more interested in constructing a straw man for political gain in order to cover their own tracks.For example, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have built a solid reputation, among other reactionary traits, as architects of the mass incarceration of blacks. Thus, how convenient is January 6, 2021?
None of us in the West can forget how we were virtually lynched for opposing the narrative behind Biden’s bid in the 2020 US presidential election, consisting of a so-called anti-fascist united front vote against Trump.
Now, this brings me to your last question:
Q: How do you see the 2024 presidential election from a general point of view?
The same way I saw the presidential elections in 2020, 2016, 2012, and 2008. In a chapter entitled Democracy in the U.S. in my 2003 book, I based myself on the Black radical revolutionary tradition, which argues and organizes against the notion that the people must choose the “lesser of two evils.” In my case study of the Obama 2008 mandate, published in that book, I highlighted this radical tradition to indicate that Obama is not the lesser of two evils but rather the most effective of two evils. Has history proven this thesis, elaborated originally by the late Glenn Ford of Black Agenda Report, to be wrong? (Page 42, Cuba and its Neighbors: Democracy in Motion, Arnold August) No, the lesson is as valid as ever, and that is the need for those of us outside the US to support those forces in the US that prioritize organizing against the two-party system. The current Biden Administration, like Obama, exemplifies how the lesser of two evils mantra is used to maintain the imperial status quo. How is that? Look, Biden has at his disposal the so-called left of the democratic party, such as the fraudulent Bernie Sanders and the AOC scam, to get the people to swallow the pill of Biden’s most dangerous escalation of wars by the US since World War II, literally getting away with murder.
(Tehran Times) by Mohammad Hassan Nikbin
