The US midterm elections are fast approaching and the media is abuzz with the implications, whether its US tariffs on Canadian products or the US war of aggression against Iran which has never truly ended since the US and Israel launched their unprovoked attack on that country back in February. Let’s be clear, regardless of whether Trump and his allies win or lose, all indications are that an escalation with Iran is going to happen right after the mid-terms, there’s a massive US military build-up going on in West Asia, over 80 military cargo flights going from the US to Israel alone in the last few days. Nor are the electoral results likely to affect tariffs on Canada to any real degree. The Empire and US Imperialism will remain. What the results will effect are the lives of working class Americans, the people living in the belly of the beast and who must suffer the effects of rising housing costs, gas prices, grocery prices, and a rising cost of living in general. Class struggle is intensifying as the gulf between rich and poor increases – the gulf between the proletarians who must work for a living and the capitalists who own everything and have more money than they know what to do with. The same is true for Canada, as much as the powers that be try to pretend otherwise. Europe, of course, is on fire right now from France to Italy to Albania as the working class and youth take to the streets against governments that have effectively thrown them to the wolves. Class struggle is the essence of democracy and regardless of the outcome of any election you’re going to see that struggle play out from the ballot box to the factory floor to the checkout line. Dr Michael Parenti certainly understood this reality and it informs his talk, Voting in the USA.
