After midterm elections, Democrats call for bipartisan unity with Trump
8 November 2018
Following an election campaign dominated by President Donald Trump’s use of anti-immigrant racism to whip up fascistic elements and justify the domestic deployment of troops and attacks on the Bill of Rights, the Democratic Party regained control of the House of Representatives and the Republicans increased their control over the Senate.
Under conditions of massive popular opposition to the Trump administration, the Democrats conducted a right-wing campaign that virtually excluded the issues of central concern to the working class: social inequality, war and authoritarianism. They responded to the election by appealing to Trump for bipartisan collaboration.
During the campaign, the Democrats refused to even speak about Trump’s witch hunt against Central American asylum seekers, the erection of immigrant detention camps or the attack on birthright citizenship. In the midst of new moves by the administration in the direction of war with Russia, Iran and China—the withdrawal from the intermediate nuclear missile treaty, the imposition of savage sanctions against Iran and the escalation of trade war against China—they said nothing about the mounting war danger. They dropped their token opposition to Trump’s tax cuts for the rich.
The result, hardly the much-vaunted “blue wave,” was what the Democratic Party wanted: An election that would allow Trump to consolidate his control while giving the Democrats more input. As the Democratic leader of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said in the run-up to the vote, control of the House would give the Democrats “leverage.” They intend to use that influence to pressure Trump to pursue a more aggressive confrontation with Russia and a wider war in…