Harry Targ
Trump
Adventures in Foreign Policy
There has been much reason for optimism in 2018 as
political movements grow, more young people identify with socialism, greater
numbers of activists embrace an intersectional lens (linking class, race,
gender, and sexual identity), and progressive and socialist candidates for
public office win victories in state and national campaigns.
However, the massive increase in activism is being
derailed by mainstream media narratives and positions taken by centrist
politicians of both political parties suggesting that the real issues the
United States face have to do with the interference of Russia in the US
political system and Trump’s foreign policy conduct over tension-reduction on
the Korean Peninsula and negotiations between himself and Vladimir Putin.
A common media frame is being articulated virtually
everywhere that the intelligence agencies, such as the FBI and the CIA, are
unassailable in their claims that the Russians interfered with the US
elections. After all, it is argued, these agencies were created to protect the
integrity and viability of American democracy.
Further, pundits and politicians argue that Trump’s
meetings with the leaders of North Korea and Russia are illegitimate and by
implication their avowed goal to reduce tensions and the likelihood of war, are
illegitimate. The narrative adds that contrary to prior presidents, Trump is
particularly enamored of dictators.
In the case of his meeting with Putin, the media says,
the Russians “won.” And they won, the story suggests, because Russia alone was
responsible for undermining Ukraine, creating the Syrian humanitarian crisis,
and stimulating the rise of the right in Eastern Europe. How could a President
of the United States meet with a man like Putin they ask? (They forget
candidate Barack Obama’s 2008 wise campaign claim that diplomacy is precisely
to be used in interactions with adversaries). And one day after the Putin/Trump
meeting the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) sent an “urgent”
electronic petition calling for 100,000 signatures to “Condemn Trump for
meeting with Putin, denying Russian interference, and threatening our
democracy!”
This campaign was launched three weeks after
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won a stunning primary victory in New York’s 14th
Congressional District, on a platform that she called democratic socialism. She
stood against the Democratic Party establishment articulating a vibrant reform
agenda that defends the gains workers have made over the last 70 years and
calls for advances in access to health care, fair wages, environmental justice,
immigration reform, and a green jobs agenda. She also criticized the Israeli
Defense Forces for their violence against Palestinians.
Threat
to the Broad Left
There is no question that President Trump is a
narcissistic, ignorant, and racist man who had done and will do enormous damage
to the lives of workers, women, people of color, immigrants, and the
environment. He has the power to launch wars and already has committed to new
generations of weapons and authorized covert operations against regimes in
Latin America.
However, if Trump, for whatever reason, participates
in dialogue with the Korean people in ways that reduce tensions, denuclearize
the peninsula, lead to the withdrawal of US troops, and end the war in Korea,
these should not be opposed because Trump was a participant. And, if Trump and
Putin could agree to dismantle their nuclear weapons, withdraw troops from Central
Europe, and join in talks to end the violence in Syria these also should be
supported.
Finally, and most importantly, the Broad Left must
continue to work for social and economic justice. It must organize to dismantle
the stranglehold of the US economy by Wall Street, and small numbers of banks
and corporations and to create a green jobs agenda that puts people to work for
a livable wage at the same time as the environment is revitalized. It must
demand accessible health care, affordable housing, free education and safety
from police violence.
If
the Broad Left adopts the media and centrist Democrat and Republican narrative
that is solely based on the damnation of Donald Trump it will have lost the
opportunity for fundamental change that growing mass movements have been
working to achieve.
