In my mother’s declining years one of the few things that gave her comfort was when the Blessed Virgin Mary used to have conversations with her in the living room. Mary Mother of God couldn’t be seen or heard by anyone else, but as far as my mother was concerned, she was definitely there. Was this a genuine heavenly visitation or the effects of vascular dementia? We may never know, but it seemed to cheer her up.

It isn’t just people with a deep religious faith and the final stages of a degenerative illness who can believe all sorts of things which seem slightly improbable. There is a strand in Marxism which produces this type of thing:

“Given the bankruptcy of the Democrats, the failure of Trumpism will push layers of his working-class supporters to look for a new revolutionary way out.

These forces, in turn, will help form the ranks of the coming American revolution: a revolution against the billionaire class and their system.”

We seek comfort where we can, but can anyone living in the real world conclude that Trump’s electoral victory has opened the path to the American revolution? The only thing that distinguishes Harris’ defeat from that of Clinton was the Democrats’ support for the genocide in Gaza, yet 2016 Trumpism clearly didn’t fail in the eyes of much of the American electorate and rather than take the road of revolution they have again voted for an authoritarian who is supported by the most reactionary people domestically and internationally.

It is not necessary to support either the Democrats or Republicans to see that there are very distinct differences between them on issues that are of fundamental importance to the American working class and the rest of humanity.

Climate, abortion, migration, workers’ rights

Trump describes climate change as “one of the great scams of all time” and a “hoax”. In his last term he removed the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to keep global warming no higher than 1.5 degrees above pre industrial levels. Everyone who voted for him can be considered a climate change denier and his victory is a disaster for the billions of people who are living with a heating planet. His policy on that will have a significant impact in the real world very soon. The state which is now responsible for 12-15% of global emissions plans to increase that, thus giving the green light for other fossil fuel dependent economies to do the same. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) would have resulted in a 43% drop in carbon emissions by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. This may be imperfect, but it is real.

Trump’s allies at state level will now feel able to impose absolute bans on abortion in regions where the fightback is not sufficiently strong. Again, it is absurd to pretend that this is not a meaningful real world difference for tens of millions of American women which can be wished away by pseudo-Leninist posturing.

The coming four years of Trump and Vance will see a major attack on workers’ rights. It looks like he is planning to use Elon Musk to pulverise the public sector workforce. He has said of Musk’s approach to workers “They go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. Every one of you is gone.” That is a promise of what is to come.

By contrast, according to NPR “Under the Biden-Harris administration, the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that hears labor disputes, has taken an aggressive approach to protecting workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain.”

Racism against migrants was perhaps the dominant element in Trump’s campaign. The Republicans are now the heirs to lynch mobs, the Ku Klux Klan and the Confederacy. That primal streak of American racism has been legitimised and energised. Dog whistle racism seems to belong to a happier simpler time. Trump’s is the racism of armed gangs patrolling borders and pointing guns in the faces of people who aren’t speaking English. The Democrats, just like British Labour in its own way, tried to face in two directions by asserting anti-racism and yielding to all the anti-migrant ideas.

There is a longstanding discussion about lesser-evilism in the American system and the need for an independent party of the working class. However, any thinking on the subject which doesn’t accurately set out the differences between the two parties of American imperialism is cutting itself off from reality. And it is that concrete analysis of a concrete situation that should distinguish Marxism from Catholic delirium.