Tuesday’s impeachment of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House of Representatives coincides with and reflects a series of interconnected crises in the United States. An economic crisis is brewing, with growing concerns about the dollar’s precarious position globally. The political system is very unstable and increasingly dysfunctional as the 2024 elections approach. The extreme growth of social inequalities has created the conditions for the largest strike movement since the 1970s, which the union apparatus is attempting desperate to control.
However, what brought everything to a head was the escalation of the war between the United States and NATO against Russia over Ukraine, following the failure of the “offensive of spring “.
This becomes clear after an examination of the context of the incomparable events that unfolded on Tuesday, when Kevin McCarthy was ousted as Speaker of the House with a voting result of 216 to 210 on the “motion to gut.” [‹motion to vacate›] The office of Speaker of the House – this is the first time a Speaker of the House of Representatives has been ousted in this manner.
Late on Saturday night, September 30, Biden signed the bipartisan House and Senate adoption of a continuing resolution, continuous resolution (CR), to finance the government and avoid a shutdown for the next 47 days. McCarthy proposed the measure after behind-the-scenes discussions with the White House and congressional Democrats. But it is important to note that this CR decision did not include any additional funding for Ukraine.
This was seen by the Biden administration and dominant parts of the military and political establishment, including the majority of top Republicans, notably in the Senate, as a significant setback and humiliation. Biden said over the weekend that he had reached a deal with McCarthy that would guarantee passage of additional money for the war. McCarthy, who for his part has said he favors massive military spending, rejected suggestions that a final deal had been reached with the White House.
The Pentagon then issued a statement Tuesday afternoon, ahead of the vote to oust McCarthy, in which the Defense Department said: “We need Congress to act to ensure there is no disruption of our support, especially as the ministry seeks to replenish our reserves. .”
On the same day, also before the vote, Biden held an extraordinary conference call attended by top NATO leaders, the European Commission, the European Council, and the heads of state of Canada, Germany, Poland, Romania, Great Britain and France. to assure them that the United States remains engaged in a massive escalation of the conflict.
According to John Kirby, White House national security spokesman, Biden “made that clear.” [under telefonkonferansen] that under no circumstances can we allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted. » This includes not only the financing that was excluded from the adoption of a CR, but also tens of billions of additional military equipment, in connection with which the United States is now intensifying the conflict with Russia with deliveries long-range missiles, tanks and combat aircraft.
Alongside this development, the press became increasingly concerned about the impact of the political crisis on American war plans. Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense under Bush and Obama, expressed concern, to cite just one example, under the headline “The Dysfunctional Superpower: Can a Divided America Deter China and Russia?” In Foreign Affairs. In particular, there are bitter divisions within the Republican Party over Ukraine – of course not over support for imperialism, but over priorities.
Then came the events of Tuesday evening. The “gut proposal” was filed Monday by fascist Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, a close Trump ally. He used a rule change initiated when McCarthy was first elected president nine months ago that allowed any individual representative to force a vote to impeach the president. However, he only received the support of seven other Republican representatives, three of whom supported Trump.
The remaining 208 votes were provided by Democrats, who voted as a bloc in favor of the proposed proposal. Democrats could have prevented McCarthy’s impeachment by either allowing some of their members of Congress to vote against the resolution or allowing them to abstain from the vote. In the days leading up to Tuesday afternoon’s session, Democrats had given mixed signals about their intentions, if and when Gaetz would advance his proposal.
The decision to vote to leave the presidency was not motivated by opposition to McCarthy and the right-wing agenda of Republican leaders. Rather, Democrats hoped, to the extent that they could now influence the process of replacing McCarthy, that this would create an opportunity to restructure the political arrangements in the House, so that they could ensure that nothing delayed or prevented the funding of the House. war.
New York Times made this clear in the newspaper’s editorial on Wednesday, under the headline: “Why are public affairs at the mercy of a few extremists?” Times wrote that any new president “must…commit to fair play with fellow Democrats and may need to do so to prevent another coup.”
As soon as a new President is in place, continued Times, there will be less than 40 days until the adoption of the continuing resolution (CR) expires, and there will be yet another duel over government funding. At this point, “members of goodwill from both parties will have to again demonstrate that they are willing and able to compromise; Democrats can authorize additional spending on border security, while Republicans should continue the large flow of aid to Ukraine.”
Democrats, where they speak Times, in other words, promises to cooperate with Republicans on their domestic agenda in exchange for guarantees that Ukraine’s financing is untouchable. Democrats have no problem collaborating with the fascists in the Republican Party; after all, they are allied with the fascists of Ukraine. Times added, for good measure, that bipartisan agreement is needed to address “social safety net sustainability” — that is, implementing massive cuts to federal social programs.
Reinforcing the absolute centrality of the war in Ukraine to all of the administration’s policy calculations, Biden announced Wednesday that he would soon deliver a “major” speech on the war, aimed at convincing the American people that “it is critically important to the United States and our allies that we maintain our involvement. Beyond the massive increase in funding and arms shipments to Ukraine, the administration plans much more direct involvement in the war, including the direct deployment of its own and NATO troops. .
The conflict within the state apparatus is not a battle between the “left” and the “right.” All factions of the ruling class are pursuing an absolutely reactionary agenda. The Republican Party is transforming itself into a fascist party, openly defending the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, while advocating massive social cuts and militarism. The Democratic Party has made the war against Russia its central concern, a war that increasingly poses the risk of a nuclear World War III.
The struggles of the working class must be directed against all factions of the ruling elite and against all political orientations of imperialism. This means building a socialist leadership in the working class, to merge what is clearly a massive social movement, encompassing an ever-widening layer of the working class, with opposition to war, dictatorship and the system of capitalist profit.
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