Is a coup still ‘electoralism’?

  • T_Doug [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    Yep, I don't really see how a Trump coup would contradict Historical Materialism.

    Napoleon III, a man very widely mocked by contemporary French Liberals for being an incompetent failson, managed to coup the French Government to prevent his removal from office.

    A pretty smart guy named Karl wrote about that, and said something pretty interesting:

    History repeats itself "the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce"

    • Mardoniush [she/her]
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      4 years ago

      Marx belabors the point a bit there I think.

      While Nappy 3 wasn't his uncle, he was actually a pretty competent guy as long as you didn't put him near an army and just let him appoint people to execute his ideas. Just because they start as failsons doesn't mean they stay that way. He just had the misfortune of living in a time when Bismarck also lived and where material conditions weakened the French hold on Europe.

      Haussman for instance single handedly made Parisian revolts nearly unviable with his urban renewal strategy. the Commune had a much harder time of it than the Sans-Culottes or the Les Mis crowd.

    • jmichigan_frog [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      IMO It's a bit naive to compare 1848-1849, one of the most revolutionary periods of history, to the present moment. A Trump coup doesn't align with a historical materialist analysis because there's no segment of capital that truly gains anything from installing him over Joe Biden. Napoleon III toppled a fledgling republic where no faction had firmly entrenched itself at the helm. A Trump coup is not impossible, but it would be up against some of the most entrenched nodes of power on the planet.