By A. Shaw
Soon after Sandra O’Connor stepped down from her seat on the US Supreme Court, she gave a speech at Georgetown University School of Law in which she said “US democracy is degenerating into a dictatorship.”
About the same time, former Vice President Al Gore gave a speech titled “US Democracy In Grave Danger.”
The capitalist press suppressed the O’Connor speech and ignored Gore’s speech.
Both speeches try to express the contemporary essence of US politics.
Today, the essence of US politics is a struggle of forces led by the reactionary bourgeoisie aiming to destroy democracy against opposing forces led by the liberal bourgeoisie aiming to preserve democracy.
The forces led by the reactionary bourgeoisie aiming to destroy democracy in USAÂ are winning. They will soon control all three branches of the central government and 40 out of 50 state governments.
The election of Donald Trump is a shocking victory for the reactionary sector of the US bourgeoisie which seeks to
destroy democracy and thereby to nullify the Constitution.
A DEFINITION OF THE BOURGEOISIE
A millionaire is somebody with a net worth of at least one million dollars.
Net worth refers to the difference between assets and liabilities.
Under this definition, there are in the USA between 8 and 10 million millionaires.
So, roughly speaking, the bourgeoisie varies around 3% of the US population.
The number of US millionaires varies between 8 and 10 million with the ups and downs of the capitalist economy.
Politically, about 70% of the US bourgeoisie is reactionary, about 20% liberal, and the remaining 10% is divided among centrists and other fringe types.
 
CONSTITUTION AND THE STATE
1.What is a state?
A state is an institution that exclusively exercises supreme power over its territory and
people.
2. What is the form of a state?
The form reveals HOW state power is exercised — e.g., elected representatives or appointees, number houses in legislature, separation of powers into number of branches, jurisdiction of the supreme court, terms of office, so on and so forth with hundreds of other questions dealing with How government power is exercised.
Democracy, autocracy, monarchy, and oligarchy are the most common forms of state
Under bourgeois ideology, all non-democracies are dictatorships.
3. What is the content of the state?
Content reveals WHO chiefly exercises state power.
“WHO” refers to which social class or classes chiefly exercise state power.
The working class, middle class, lumpen, small farmers, and the bourgeoisie are the most common social classes.
A constitution is a document that prescribes and describes the form of state.
A constitution prescribes HOW state power ought to be exercised.
A constitution is a picture of the state. A state that conforms to its constitution is lawful.
If the state is a democracy, the constitution prescribes and describes the kind of democracy it is.
In accordance with the provisions of the US Constitution, the bourgeois state in the USA is a democracy as long as the regime abides by the provisions of the US Constitution.
A US president-elect must take an oath before he or she can assume office.
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Art. II, Sec. 1, US Constitution
When Donald Trump “solemnly swears or affirms,” he will add another big lie to his list of lies.
Trump will “”faithlessly execute” his office and attempt to turn his office into a dictatorship.
Instead of “preserving, protecting, and defending” the Constitution, Trump, to the best of his ability, will trash the Constitution and the democracy that reflects the Constitution.
George W. Bush, Trump’s most recent GOP White House predecessor, shouted in early 2003 at four timid GOP congressmen that the “US Constitution is nothing but a Goddamn piece of paper.”
 
Trump speaks and acts as if the US Constitution is already less than a Goddamn piece of paper.
Trump intends to wipe his ass with the Goddamn piece of paper.
Indeed, Trump has already wiped his ass with the Constitution and the democracy based on it.
In violation of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, Trump says he will not recognize the US citizenship of persons born in the  USA if their parents entered the USA illegally.
In violation of the 1st Amendment, Trump threatens to bar people from entering the USA based on their religious beliefs.
In violation of the 14th Amendment, Trump threatens to qualify and disqualify judges based on their race  and/or national origin.
In violation of the 5th amendment, Trump hints he will revive George W. Bush’s  executive privileges of kidnapping and throwing people into concentration camps if he suspects they are terrorists.
In violation of the 5th and 8th Amendments and Geneva Conventions, Trumps hints he will resume George W. Bush’s privileges of torturing and murdering people whom he kidnaps and throws into concentration camps.
The reactionary sector of the US bourgeoisie believes that if their sector renames and re-defines a criminal act, the act is no longer criminal.
Accordingly, kidnapping is now called rendering.
Concentration camps are now black sites.
Torture is interrogation.
Murder is extra-judicial disposal.
Reactionaries argue that the Constitution doesn’t apply to these crimes once they’re redefined and renamed.
Reactionary judges in federal courts enthusiastically approve this reactionary nonsense.
Under Trump, the masses can expect a tremendous acceleration of renamed criminal acts.
DEMOCRACY
 
The bourgeois, middle class, and working class reactionaries want to destroy democracy in the USA.
Let’s look at the conventional concept of representative democracy.
Democracy is a form of state in which:
(1) supreme power resides with the body of citizens entitled to vote or who vote …  (the sovereignty principle)
(2) these citizens elect representatives who exercise state power … (the electoral principle)
(3) the elected representatives are accountable to these citizens … (the accountability principle)
(4) the elected representatives exercise state power in accordance with the rule of law… (the rule of law principle)
These four principles are said to express the essence of democracy.
Reactionaries seek to exclude non-reactionary voters from the ” body of citizens entitled to vote.”
Reactionaries seek to elect candidates who will discreetly or flagrantly exercise state power in a way that is contrary to the rule of law.
So, the principal targets of the reactionary political offensive are (2), the electoral principle and (4), the rule of law principle.
The US regime is a bourgeois democracy. Whether it remains a democracy depends on the political will and spirit of working class, middle class and bourgeois liberals.
At this moment, the reactionaries are winning but the liberals are putting up a good fight.