The Fight Against Trump Is Not A Class War
We need crystal clarity on this so we don't squander yet another chance to sweep fascism into the dustbin.
Most readers of this newsletter will be familiar with the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, led by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Some of you might even have attended one or two of their rallies.
What you may not know is that, as the tour has drawn more attention, mainline and frontline Democrats have started rolling their eyes—perhaps a sign of nervousness.
Freshman Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin, who has thoughts of her own about saving American democracy, scoffed recently at the very idea of using the term “oligarchy” to describe the party’s right-wing billionaire foils.
Generously, Slotkin is policing fellow Democrats for indicia of elitism in their language. She prefers the word “kings” to “oligarchs” and has railed repeatedly against progressives who sound as if they spend too much time in the “faculty lounge.”
I don’t think saying the word oligarchy is elitist, or that it’s elitist per se to use niche language. Donald Trump and his movement use exceptionally strange, internet-addled idioms all the time, and they won the election. It may be a greater indication of elitism to assume the hoi polloi can’t learn big words.
But the less generous interpretation is that Slotkin doesn’t want to offend rich donors. That’s how AOC reads it, at least, judging by this—whatever we call subtweets now.
I don’t know if AOC is right about Slotkin’s intentions or not. But I do detect something off about this read on what’s driving mass politics in 2025.
AOC has been criss-crossing the country rallying crowds of thousands and tens-of-thousands, and I have not. But I do watch politicians closely, and try to take careful note of what they feel threatened by, what they respond to, and I don’t believe it’s this.
I take no position on whether class consciousness is rising or falling, or even on the definition of class consciousness. One could easily argue it both ways. The working class drift away from the party with a much more pro-labor policy agenda cuts against the idea that class consciousness is on the rise; by contrast, the ubiquity of social media by and about the super rich makes it hard to believe people are less aware of the classes than they were in the past.
There may also be a selection effect at work here. AOC has a huge fan base; her co-headliner, Sanders, has if anything a bigger one. And these supporters are self-consciously of the left. Class consciousness is very important to them and they make themselves known to progressive Democrats.
But what’s happening right now to threaten politicians on the left and right has less to do with class than people with left-wing tutelage might like to imagine. Many of them default to the assumption that all popular movements and political upheavals are products of class and economic structures. That is not what I see happening in the United States.
What threatens Republican politicians today is right-wing rebellion. They’re scared for their jobs, their social status within right-wing communities, and, in many cases, their lives. They feel this way because a fascist movement has overtaken their party and its leaders have embraced menace as a tool of political control.
And what threatens Democratic politicians is something like the inverse of this. It isn’t typically directed at politicians like AOC or Sanders or other rank-and-file members who show their willingness to fight. But the real avatars of the Democratic establishment feel it all the time now: It’s grassroots anger at their tepid resistance to fascism and oligarchy.
Senator Chris Van Hollen is no man’s class warrior, but he’s unthreatened by the resistance because he did something courageous in the fight against Donald Trump. Senator Brian Schatz, by contrast, was fairly well trusted by progressives and the pro-democracy bloc until he cast a vote with leadership to fund Trump’s government. His views on class and economics had nothing to do with the backlash he faced.
It’s important to be clear-eyed about these dynamics, because it is through them that we might find a roadmap out of danger.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ‘GARCHS
I hope this rising against Trump continues to grow until it sweeps every last MAGA creep out of office. I hope on the other side of it, the public punishes the GOP by giving Democrats the presidency, along with whopping majorities in Congress. And if, with those whopping majorities, Democrats pass bills that make huge strides toward reducing inequality, I would applaud them for it.
But that alone would not solve America’s fascism and oligarchy problems. It would not be insurance against a fascist resurgence. If that’s all Democrats do when they return from the wilderness—or if they cash in so much political capital redistributing wealth and income that they can’t confront the right-wing menace more directly—it’ll be another huge blunder. The left-wing equivalent of looking forward not backward, and pivoting to kitchen-table issues.
I distinguish between the oligarchy problem and the fascism problem, because they need to be addressed in distinct ways, though they’re obviously bound together.