Primary elections were held in a number of states on Tuesday. Attention is focused above all on how candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are faring. They have already scored several remarkable victories. If their momentum continues, they could come to shape the Democratic Party in the run-up to the midterm elections. So far, however, the results have been mixed.
The radical Cori Bush lost in Missouri. A more moderate candidate prevailed in Washington State, while the radical William Lawrence defeated two more establishment-oriented Democrats in Michigan. Lawrence is the founder of the Sunrise Movement.
The dividing line is between radicals and the establishment rather than between radicals and moderates. The establishment Democrats have also become radicalised and appear to have no other mission than to destroy Trump. If the United States is dragged down in the process, so be it.
The DSA has presented a programme that would dismantle the United States as we know it: abolishing the Electoral College, which ensures that all states have a voice; expanding the Supreme Court to thirteen justices; and, among the most radical proposals, drastically reducing the President’s powers and concentrating them in Congress. That would create a system of majority rule resembling European parliamentarianism. But that is not the United States. The United States is not a parliamentary democracy. It is a vast country of fifty states within a federal system, where the states enjoy self-government and where numerous safeguards have been built in to prevent one party from riding roughshod over the other.
This system of checks and balances has, according to the author, been undermined by the Democrats for a long time. We hear little about it because the media side with the progressives and do not want Europeans to understand what is taking place in the United States. They pretend that the Democratic Party is still the party of Obama and Hillary.
Obama has played a destructive role ever since 2016. He is the first President not to have left Washington after leaving office. Many believe he secured a third term through Joe Biden. It was Obama who pulled the strings behind the scenes.
What is certain, according to the author, is that Obama both overlooked and approved attempts to discredit Trump during the 2016 election campaign, when a story originating from Hillary Clinton’s campaign alleging that Trump’s campaign was under Putin’s influence was circulated and endorsed by the White House, which then deployed the FBI and the CIA. This operation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, is well documented but has received little coverage in the Norwegian media. As a result, there is a major gap in Norwegian – and European – understanding of what the author describes as Obama’s outright coup against first a presidential candidate and then an elected President.
Obama did not respect the outcome of the 2016 election. Hillary publicly stated that he could thank Putin for his victory. Obama received intelligence reports stating that this was not the case. He then ordered the report to be scrapped and replaced with one reaching the conclusion he wanted. Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has documented this, according to the author.
Trump’s victory was intolerable for the Democrats. They launched two impeachment proceedings and used institutional power to its fullest extent. This caused many Americans to turn away from politics. Voters were not persuaded by the impeachment proceedings or by the media’s constant complaints about “Russia collusion”, especially after Special Counsel Bob Mueller failed to produce any evidence that Trump had been influenced by Russia.
Nevertheless, the Democrats continued to play what the author calls the “Putin card”, thereby creating the paranoia that came to drive both the party and a hard-core faction within it. The Democrats became driven first by hostility towards Trump and later by hostility towards Israel. This has created an entirely new division. Many leading Democrats are Jewish. When candidates emerge who prefer Hamas to Israel, they encounter difficulties.
According to the author, this is now the case with two prominent Muslim Democrats: Hasan Piker and Abdul El-Sayed. Hasan Piker stated in 2019 that the United States deserved 9/11, later revising his remarks to say that the country had brought it upon itself. They are supported by long-serving figures such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Sanders himself was squeezed out by Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Democratic nomination contest.
When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar entered Congress in 2019, they represented a faction within the party that attracted attention, but the old guard still held power. Now Nancy Pelosi has departed and Chuck Schumer is struggling. Establishment figures are suffering defeats.
Those now coming to prominence are not afraid to speak openly about socialism. They argue that capitalism no longer works.
The first major shock for the Democratic establishment was Zhoran Mamdani’s victory over Cuomo in New York City’s mayoral election. Thirty per cent of Jewish voters supported him, despite his being unmistakably anti-Israel and pro-Islam.
New York had acquired one million Muslim residents. The Democrats had pursued a policy that encouraged immigration from the Third World, and under Biden it exploded. Every gate stood wide open.
Trump’s victory in ’24 was, to a large extent, a reaction to the wave of immigration.
The DSA and the Democrats portray Trump as a battle against fascism. According to the author, this is a crude form of populism that appeals to emotions.
What is striking, the author argues, is that Europe finds itself in a similar confrontation between a grassroots movement opposed to immigration and an establishment that applies the label “fascist” to anything resembling serious opposition.
There is therefore a parallel situation that the media do not want voters to recognise, the author concludes, because if they knew the truth about Hasan Piker and Abdul El-Sayed, they would understand that they were heading into the lion’s den.