By way of a conclusion

The centre of the cyclone of decomposing capitalism is today the central country of the bourgeois system: the United States. The electoral triumph of a president who embodies the populist wave has already demonstrated how much this upsurge is antagonistic to the “rational” interests of the national capital and those factions of the bourgeoisie (security, military, diplomatic and political) who have the strongest sense of the “needs of state”.The tendency there at present is clearly one towards an intensification of  tensions and even an authentic impasse within the ruling class,. But precisely because the USA is so central to world capitalism, the pressure is daily increasing on the American bourgeoisie to try to resolve their present predicament. But how? Just at the moment it does not look as if the Trump Administration will be able to impose its politics – the resistance to this within the ruling class appears to be too strong. Another possibility is that the Trumpists give in and tacitly adopt the politics of their opponents (or at least show more readiness to compromise). Although there are signs in this direction, there are signals in the opposite direction too. The option most under discussion in public at present is that of the impeachment of the president. The drawback of this method of removing Trump from the Oval Office is that it threatens to become a protracted and complicated legal and political procedure. Other options, promising a more rapid resolution of the problem, are undoubtedly on the table too, even if they are not so freely discussed: one of them is to have president declared insane. It is also possible that Trump (or someone else) will try to break out of the existing deadlock through military adventures abroad. One of the advantages of the “war against terrorism” led by George W. Bush was that it enabled his government, at least temporarily, to unite the ruling class behind him, and to impose large parts of their “neo-conservative” programme. Today, countries such as North Korea or Iran offer tempting targets for such operations, since they are closely linked not only to Russia but also to China. If there is one thing the US bourgeoisie still agrees on, it is that Peking is its main challenger today.

Steinklopfer. First written 23.08.2017 but subsequently updated