EDITORIAL
Impeach the SYSTEM!

Jul 31, 2017

The level of disruption and dysfunction in the Trump White House is unprecedented. Just six months into the new term, the number of firings and resignations, the infighting and information leaks, have reached new records. Many positions remain open—Trump has only appointed one-fifth of the positions that normally are staffed by the president.

This is normally the period where a new administration is at its most powerful. No one could have imagined that a new administration, with majorities in both houses of Congress, would be able to get nothing done. But Trump can’t put together a simple majority to get any significant legislation passed in Congress, even with a clear majority of Republicans in both houses.

Trump’s administration may be a train wreck. His poll numbers may have plunged. But the specter of impeachment is not being raised because of that.

No, what drives the talk of impeachment is another hornet’s nest that Trump himself has ripped open: what started with a simple investigation into Russia’s role in the election has broadened into something much bigger—because Trump can’t leave it alone.

When he urged then-FBI director Comey to let the investigation go; when he fired Comey to stop the investigation; when he bristles about the appointment of a special investigator and threatens to fire his own attorney general and get rid of the investigator; when he continues to refuse to release his tax returns, he has made it clear he fears disclosure of financial corruption. He has guaranteed that a small investigation that didn’t even involve him at first now has spread, like a cancer, to his family’s financial dealings with Russian oligarchs, quite possibly including money-laundering for Russian gangsters. Because he just can’t keep his mouth shut, he threatens to take a good many other people down with him.

The ruling class is okay with corruption. But they’re not okay with the president flaunting that corruption in full public view.

With every crazy tweet and proclamation and firing Trump makes, he only helps to reinforce the possibilities that impeachment proceedings will push on, making even his own party seek a way to remove him.

So, what does all this mean for the working class? Not much.

To the extent that Trump can actually get his act together to carry out policies, these policies are fundamentally the same as those carried out by presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton (and Bush and Reagan) before him. Wars in the Middle East—check. Tax breaks for the rich, bailouts for banks and corporations—check. Crackdowns on immigration, deportations, tearing apart families—check. The shredding of the social safety net—check. They were representatives of U.S. corporate interests here and abroad, as were Congress and Senate members who helped carry out these attacks.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will put an end to the policies of exploitation put forward by the current government no matter who may replace Trump.

For the working class, what needs to be impeached is the capitalist SYSTEM, a system based on hoarding profits for the few at the increasing expense of the many. This system is what has created the corruption and this monstrosity of a government today. It is a system that has grown so parasitic in its ongoing economic crisis that neither party can even begin to pretend to offer something for working people.

This system needs to be replaced, by a system that truly works to meet the needs of human beings. And that can only be a socialist system, built by the working class.