This is a somewhat interesting analysis from a left-communist/an-com/Bordigist perspective. Listen here.

I thought this podcast was pretty good in that they were striving for some in-depth analysis. It’s certainly obvious they are communists. Unlike the left-anarchists/antifascists who are more fixated on race and nebulous “fascism,” these guys were more into an economic/class analysis, complete with a lot of communist terms like “running dog.”

I didn’t hear anything I thought was factually wrong or logically incoherent. But like most “far-left” types, I think they overemphasize the importance of the right-wing of the ruling class, and underestimate the dominance of the centrist wing. They’re better than many leftists (for instance, their total rejection of the Democratic Party). But their reference to Trump’s billionaire supporters makes it sound like Trump has more support among the capitalist class than he does.

At the top level, the Republicans are merely the arms merchants party. Anything else they do is a scam or an afterthought. That’s why the Republicans are so closely connected to Israel and Saudi Arabia. Those countries are guaranteed export markets underwritten by US taxpayers for the arms industry

There are some other right-wing plutocrats that put all their eggs in the Republican basket. The Kochs are one because as oil magnates they are zealously opposed to “green energy.” Sheldon Adelson is a fanatical Zionist. But most corporations, particularly the larger international ones, fund both parties. Although there are some corporations that only or mostly fund the Democrats (like Bain Capital or 21st Century Fox) and there are even social democratic billionaires like Tom Steyer and Nick Hanauer.

Within the power elite, Trump is considered to be an interloper and loose cannon. Among the capitalist class, he’s known as a cheat and a con man. His beef with Esper is that Esper is Raytheon’s point man in the administration and has tried to obstruct Trump’s troop drawdown efforts in Afghanistan (which Trump hoped would help his electoral chances) and also resisted using the military in putting down the riots (which Trump hoped would make him look like a tough guy). The idea that any of these people are going to risk instability to the point of helping Trump carry out a coup is ridiculous. They’re not going to risk that kind of uncertainty to help some guy they hate stroke his own ego.

Far more interesting is what is actually going on within the ruling class generally. Biden is a “ruling class unity” president and has lots of warmed-over Bush Republicans behind him. The guys in the podcast were saying that capitalism is on its way out (Marxists have been saying that for 150 years). But I totally disagree. Capitalism is now evolving into a newer, more sophisticated stage where digital capitalism is replacing mid-20th century managerial capitalism which replaced classical 19th/early 20th-century bourgeois capitalism. Meanwhile, class divisions are starting to widen again as they did during the industrial revolution. And the rising form of capitalism embraces multiculturalism, feminism, cultural liberalism/leftism simply for the purpose of meeting its human resources and other material and technological needs. FOX News types who think the Democrats are “socialists” are as off the mark as leftists who think the ruling class is still dominated by top-hatted 19th-century industrialists or that the prevailing cultural paradigm is still dominated by white supremacists.

The most important thing that is happening right now is that political, economic, military, technological, cultural, and legal power is increasingly being concentrated on an international scale in a way that is historically unprecedented. The digital revolution, globalization, and unipolarity are collective bringing about the Industrial Revolution, Roman Empire, and Will Smith’s “Enemy of the State” film all rolled into one. Unfortunately, most leftists, including anarchists, don’t really seem to grasp this.