By now you have surely heard at least one Democratic party representative say that Donald Trump is a threat to Democracy, and it might have crossed your mind that many leftists, including me, are constantly saying that the US is not a democracy, but rather a plutocracy (or a plutocratic anocracy). At the same time, though, many people on the left will tell you that the Democratic party is a better option than the Republicans.
Realistically, the threat Donald Trump represents is not a threat to our democracy but rather the threat of regime change within a plutocracy. Right now, the plutocrats are the very wealthy, with each of those plutocrats having more or less power based on their wealth. A second Trump presidency, which would be accompanied by a systemic replacement of leadership in the entire executive branch, would mean that the new plutocrats would be relatively wealthy white evangelical racists. Under a new Trump regime, the portion of today’s plutocrats that stand on the Democratic party side of things would no longer have significant political power; they would no longer be significantly powerful and might very well lose their wealth. While it is true that there are current plutocrats who are not evangelicals but who support Trump (because they think Trump’s extremism is necessary to maintain their power), those people are idiots (e.g., Musk).
A lot of people (including me) are extremely frustrated at this situation. Essentially, there’s no way to vote against fascism. Both the Democrats and Republicans have made it very clear that they represent unyielding domination from their respective plutocrat groups, including ill treatment of immigrants, violent maintenance of the US empire, and genocide. Neither political group has any intention of doing anything about extreme inequality and the economic problems associated with it (like housing and food becoming less and less affordable); sure, they will pretend they will do something (mostly to disparage the competition) but we should all understand by now that they are insincere.
The difference between these two visions of fascist plutocracy is in the details, but they are details that matter, so potentially worth your time in terms of voting.
Immigration
While both parties are against immigration and are currently engaging in a contest over which of them can offer the most dystopian view of how the southern US border should be managed, the Republicans are more likely to engage in cruelty for the sake of cruelty rather than the simple pragmatic cruelty of the Democrats. The Republicans would likely treat many people of color who are legally living in the US (including actual US citizens) as illegal immigrants and deport them.
LGTBQ+ Rights
While the Democrats are willing to allow LGBTQ+ people to have significant civil rights (i.e., to allow them to fully participate in the capitalist hellscape), Republicans have been clear that they intend to commit genocide against LGBTQ+ people in the US. This policy would not only affect the interior of the US, but would undoubtedly be exported to the rest of the US empire, replacing the liberal policy of attempting to coerce foreign governments into supporting LGBTQ+ people. The genocide would include legalizing discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, illegalizing pro-LGBTQ+ information and symbols, systematic institutionalization of LGBTQ+ people, and (especially) intentionally looking the other way when LGBTQ+ people are brutalized or killed (moreso than is currently the case).
Homeless People
While Democrats pretend to support homeless people, in practice, they do not. The most accurate way to represent the Democratic party perspective (in total) on homeless people is that they tolerate them slightly and oppose murdering them. That’s not good, but under a Trump regime, homeless people would be more actively harmed and killed (i.e., law enforcement would actively look the other way when someone decided to kill them and might even participate). Importantly, the percentage of LGBTQ+ people that would become homeless under a Trump regime would be much greater than the current situation. We would expect to see most programs to assist the homeless become illegal, or effectively illegal, under Trump.
Israel/Palestine
Both the Democrats and Republicans strongly support the genocide of the Palestinian people, including sending huge amounts of weapons and ammunition to Israel. Democrats favor a slow genocide that pauses for significant periods of time so that people tend to forget about it. Trump favors finishing off the Palestinians as quickly as possible. While it is true that both sides support genocide, it is also true that the Trump plan is worse. The Trump plan is also much more likely to start World War 3 as it is likely to cause Israel’s Muslim neighbors to lose their patience and feel that they have a duty to attack Israel.
Empire
Both the Democrats and Republicans support the continued existence of the American empire, including hostility toward leftist states like North Korea, Cuba, China, and Venezuela as well as Iran (and potentially other Muslim states). A second Trump presidency would shift support for Ukraine to Russia, as well increasing hostility toward other Islamic states. It would also shift a significant portion of US military activity from maintaining the US empire to instead occupying the US itself.
Muslims, Leftists, and People of Color
Democrats are willing to tolerate a diversity of viewpoints as long as the individuals holding those viewpoints do not pose a direct threat to capitalism. In contrast, a second Trump regime would engage in a war domestically against any group that they perceive as a threat, including Muslims, Leftists, and people of color (especially Black Lives Matter and any other group asking for equal protection under the law for people of color). This would consist primarily of selective enforcement of the law as well as new laws specifically criminalizing dissent. Such a war would not usually look like open warfare, but rather just an escalation of the kinds of shenanigans the police already participate in and a more aggressive brushing under the rug (by both cops and the media) of assaults and murders against hated groups.
Climate Change
None of this matters if we are all dead. The Democrats are not taking climate change seriously; it’s as if they either don’t understand the extent of the problem or simply do not care. Their support of environmentalism is much like their support of the left — almost entirely performative and even a bit patronizing. For example, US oil production hit an all-time record under Biden. However, the Republicans intend to destroy existing infrastructure that is working well (e.g., solar power farms, electric vehicle charging stations, windmills) and then double or even triple-down on fossil fuels. They will literally burn shit and waste energy just to “own the libs”. While there’s a possibility that a new Trump presidency would damage the US economy enough that US carbon emissions would decline, there’s a better chance of eventually achieving rational environmental policy with the Democrats.
Conclusion
Do what you want with all this. I’m sure you’re aware of all of it, but I thought it might be helpful to make a short summary. I feel like it helped me. I do want to correct myself, though: In the past, I’ve referred to the Democrats as “center-right” many, many times. I was wrong about that. It is clear that they are fully right wing — just not far right. The Republicans are both further to the right and on a different ideological plane from the Democrats.