The Socialist Equality Party replies to Trump’s fascist address to Congress
The Socialist Equality Party replies to Trump’s fascist address to Congress
The Socialist Equality Party replies to Trump’s fascist address to Congress
In the United States, where the capitalist two-party system has been in place for 150 years, all those genuinely opposed to the policies and interests of the ruling class are denied the right to addre...
Good evening. The Socialist Equality Party welcomes this rare opportunity to present our assessment of the State of the Union.
Speaking as a representative of the SEP, I am addressing these remarks not only to workers and youth in the United States but to our class brothers and sisters throughout the world. You are not our enemies. American working people are opposed to and want no part of any war launched by the power-mad oligarchy in a desperate attempt to solve the crisis of the capitalist system.
What you have watched—if you could stomach it—has been a grotesque and degrading spectacle. There was Trump himself, spewing hate, threats and resentments for nearly two hours. In Spielberg’s cinematic biography of Lincoln, there is a scene in which the great radical leader, Thaddeus Stevens, berates a contemptible reactionary congressman. He is, proclaimes Stevens, “a moral carcass … more reptile than man.” As I watched Trump bobbing his head up and down, licking his lizard-like lips and mouthing his idiocies, the words of Stevens came to mind.
And then there were the congressmen and congresswomen. With few exceptions, they vindicate the words of another great American, Mark Twain, who observed: “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
On one side of the aisle sat a pack of Republican fascists, leaping to their feet to grunt “USA, USA!”—the American equivalent of “Sieg Heil”—every time their Führer paused for breath.
On the other side sat the cowardly representatives of the fake opposition Democratic Party, hands folded in their laps, enduring nearly two hours of open insults, abuse and incitement from a man who called them “sick people,” “crazy,” “cheaters” who are “destroying our country.” And when it was over, they shuffled out of the chamber and handed the microphone to a former CIA officer, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, who delivered a sleep-inducing rebuttal about “affordability” and “competent management.”
This is the state of American democracy in 2026. A fascist president and a compliant opposition. A ruling class united in its essentials—the defense of profit, the prosecution of war, the suppression of the working class—and divided only over which faction gets to manage the looting.
No one in that chamber spoke for you last night.