Democrats seek to channel opposition to Trump behind anti-Russia offensive
16 February 2017
Two distinct processes have emerged in the month since the inauguration of Donald Trump. Millions of people in the United States and internationally have participated in protests against the fascistic policies of the new government. They are motivated by genuine and deeply felt anger over the administration’s attack on immigrants and its cabinet of billionaires and social reactionaries.
At the same time, much of the media and major sections of the political establishment have been carrying out an escalating campaign against Trump that is of a very different character. In close coordination with US intelligence agencies, Trump’s establishment critics are seeking to hijack the opposition of workers and youth to Trump and channel it behind their own imperialist and militarist agenda.
The Washington Post outlined the essential foreign policy concerns of the ruling class in an editorial published Wednesday, following the resignation of Trump’s national security advisor, Michael Flynn. The Post wrote that Trump could “begin to undo the damage” of his first month in office by selecting “a new national security advisor.” While “the past two weeks have seen some welcome corrections by Mr. Trump to what looked like potentially rash departures from previous US policies,” the newspaper continued, Trump still had “some fixes to make.” This meant, above all, improving relations with the European powers and changing his “dangerously appeasing stance toward Mr. Putin.”
The same basic line is repeated in innumerable newspaper editorials, on cable news programs and late night talk shows, and from both Republican and Democratic politicians.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham,…