Trump hailed his rag-tag and bobtail army into action on the 6th of January - only to march them down again. Not a pleasant sight. I'm sure it felt scary at the time and in the place but, besides some baseball bats, no armaments were waved by the would-be revolutionaries. A Trumpite shouted herself to death-by-cop. Some dodgy hearts popped. After a couple of hours the insurrection gently dissolved. Trump told his latest lie that he opposed the attack on the government that he never used the words to set the mob up in the Capitol in the first place - and suggestively, that he (alone) would allow a successful presidential inauguration. A serious hint about who will really decide the next game.
Nobody believes a single word, including Trump's followers, as Trump claims he is now for peace and harmony. Everybody in the US understands that he has to prepare for the Senates' trial for impeachment, which could include his denial for future office. It's touch and go. Trump would lick Biden's feet to block that. First because he insists he is the genuine President and not least because of his personal financial disasters now looming as a private citizen.
Trump intends to carry on pretending he is the genuine President. He'll spend his time building his social base in the next period. But, unlike requiring the domination of the Republican Party inside the Capitol, he will instead emphasise the proper organisation of 'the folks' outside of the Capitol. Trump wants his army. His first military effort was wet and windy. Trump's citizen-military will be organised and lead properly. He believes that the Republican Party or a good part of it, will continue to follow his public and his votes anyway. The implication, for the next political period, is that the main domestic politics in the USA, will happen on the ground, in the streets, following action-led mobilisations and mass movements. So, you could say that a US revolution of sorts is starting now. We will return to this US revolution later.
For now, we can look at a whole lot of self-defined 'revolutions' that are offered on TV or in radio programs, as well as the specific actions and events that expose the need for radical changes, including a footballer forcing a government to feed impoverished kids! Is this the result of Covid? Partly. In fact many of the arguments and discoveries over 'life after Covid' have actually emerged from a long period of unhappiness and dissent, particularly across the West.
The fundamental basis of the crises coming to a head in the West (and in developing countries) is the decades of the constant reduction of the living standards for the great majority of people - coupled with an obscene eruption of vastly increasing wealth among a tiny minority. Now the Covid crisis has begun to offer a clearer view. Covid has happened, in the open, death by death, and it turns out that welfare and health organisations are barely functioning for the old and poor, millions of care workers and health workers are on their knees, millions of children go hungry. Even the multiple minimum wage jobs are sliding away. And this is in the 'rich West.
So, besides the growing movement for climate change, it is many of the more petty 'revolutions' have been examined by the various media. The real crux of the failures in Western society is emerging from time to time, but like an iceberg, with only a tenth in sight. The revolutions that seem to be offered most, stem from big digital based companies whose fans tell us that their revolution has already happened; that the digital revolution has pushed society (in the West?) ten, fifteen even twenty years ahead. We are already in 2041. Big shops are gone. Work from home is sooo much better. Digital conversations between doctors and the ill can be a useful step sometimes - at least to get more time, but is already being used to reduce 'costs' of national health. That's the health revolution!
All of this clutter of 'revolutions' offers little in a desperate future. The essence of change comes from the substance of the economics and politics of society. That has to change. And, so far, it is Trump that is going for it.
Trump (and his egregious presidential followers across the globe) understand that a real revolution is potentially at hand. So they are playing with it. It is a very serious play. The winner in the Trump-type politics is the one who offers to defend the great corporations in their nations, against the simmering revolution. To do that you have appear that you lay down with those most who are in poverty, in desperation, who seek visible enemies, who feel their lives have been broken, and who are in their millions. It's an old record. Hitler and Mussolini played it.
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