The two days since Trump proclaimed a “ceasefire” have been characterized by continued violence in the Middle East, above all, through Israel’s massive bombardment of Lebanon, and a deepening political crisis in the United States. Trump has paired his ceasefire announcement with open threats of renewed war against Iran, declaring Wednesday night that the US military is “Loading Up and Resting” for its “next Conquest.”
Under these conditions, the publication Jacobin, semi-official house organ of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Democratic Party, has responded with a series of articles whose central theme is: There is nothing to worry about, and nothing needs to be done.
The complacency of Ben Burgis’s article is summed up in its headline: “On Iran, Trump and the American Empire Blinked.” Burgis writes: “Trump backed down. In doing so, he showed something that it’s going to be important to remember next time hawks tell us some new war is going to be an easy victory: even global military and economic juggernauts have their limits.”
Gotta agree with the bad boys at WSWS on this one. Jacobin, some related editorial outlets, and probably the thruline DSA seems to think the system will hold and they will replace MSNBC as the voice of a new left Democratic party or at least an influential element within it finally.
That does strike me as unserious, not grounded in advancing socialism, and really misreads what’s happening right now. Yeah, it can be a socialist moment but not when socialist magazines are saying it’s actually the long last moment of Ned Lamont, that guy who beat Joe Lieberman to his left in the 2006 Democratic primary just to lose the general when he ran independent. Basically to Jacobin all that’s changed in 20 years is that Lamont would now win the primary and the general and then you know, Senate stuff I guess.
Jacobin is the "semi-official house organ of ... the Democratic Party"??? Lol fuck off.