Democratic Hypocrites, Republican Bigots

Capitalist Parties Spar Over Supreme Court

Millions watched the second set of sordid hearings over Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s ultra-reactionary pick for the Supreme Court. Dripping with contempt, the Republican white old boys on the Senate Judiciary Committee went to bat in defense of Kavanaugh’s “virtue” against allegations of attempted rape and other sexual abuse in his younger years. The Democrats, who had initially given their due deference—albeit critically—to Kavanaugh, now oozed with concern over his moral fitness to serve on the high court of racist American capitalism. With consummate hypocrisy, Democrats seized on the allegations to have their #MeToo moment, grandstanding as defenders of women’s rights without having to deal with such “divisive” issues as abortion on the eve of the midterm elections.

Disappeared from the media spotlight were the crimes and crimes-to-be of Kavanaugh, an avowed enemy of abortion rights, who is dedicated to rolling back black voting rights and other such gains as remain from the civil rights movement. His curriculum vitae includes advocating torture and indefinite detention for “enemy combatants” abroad and the racist death penalty and mass surveillance of the population at home. At bottom, the Democrats agree with their Republican counterparts, including Kavanaugh, on issues like the death penalty even if they are not as vocal in supporting them. Notwithstanding the Democrats’ posturing against torture, earlier this year six Democratic Senators provided the margin of victory to approve Trump’s nominee to run the CIA, Gina Haspel, who was an architect of the Bush/Cheney torture program. As for mass surveillance, the Obama administration was second to none.

The policy differences between the Democrats and Republicans represent different factions within a single capitalist ruling class. The capitalist class—the owners of industry and the banks—runs the Republican and Democratic parties, whose main distinction is not what they do but how they do it. The Democrats offer up the same anti-working-class program with a bit of bread and/or circuses, as the Roman emperors sometimes gave the plebeians.

Every capitalist politician lies for a living—and the biggest lie of all is that “the people” have any control over the government. The working class and the oppressed masses have no side in the donkey and elephant show about which bourgeois candidate wears the black robes. The Supreme Court is and always will be a reactionary institution that is part of the core of the capitalist state, which also includes the police, prisons and military. The purpose of this state is to defend the rule and profitability of American capitalism against the working class and oppressed through repression and subjugation. The rulers also rely on indoctrination and co-optation to maintain their reign. (read on)