Why can Trump just rule through while the Democrats seem paralyzed? USA expert Stefan Liebich explains why a left-wing populism could now be the key to the political change.
Bastian Brauns reports from Denver
The Democrats are in a crisis – surprised by the election defeat against Donald Trump and paralyzed by internal directional fights. While the new government in the White House is overrun of the opposition with an avalanche of measures, resistance is now formed for the first time.
83-year-old Senator Bernie Sanders mobilizes tens of thousands of people with his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, and left-wing democrats such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are increasingly heard with their message to return to the working class.
For Stefan Liebich, the head of the USA office of the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation in New York, this way is the right one to successfully counter Trump’s right-wing populist politics. In an interview with T-Online, he explains why the Democrats have no choice.
T-online: Mr. Liebich, how do you judge the political situation in the USA-two months after Donald Trump’s inauguration?
Stefan Liebich: The strategy of the Trump administration is successful: We are bombarded here with decisions at a speed that this can no longer be followed. It is difficult to react or focus on the media, the opposition here in the country, as well as everyone who is affected by it. This is tiring and frustrating. Also for us as a political foundation.
The principle of “flooding the zone”, that is, to flood everything and overwhelm everyone, is not new. Wouldn’t you have had to prepare for it better?
Yes. You do exactly what you have announced. Many people in the United States, but also abroad, did not want to believe that this would happen. The implementation of the “Project 2025” (read more about the “Project 2025”) is in full swing. The goal is to destroy the state, as we know it, and to bring even more money to those who already have enough – namely the billionaires. While those who need the state are to be looted. The political opposition in the USA was obviously not prepared for this. She faces the challenge of finding dealing with it.
The booming silence of the Democrats has been an issue for weeks – in the USA, but also abroad. Can’t that be thematic overwhelming?
First, I believe that many Democrats were too confident. They assumed that Kamala would narrowly win Harris. In this case, they were set and prepared – but that didn’t happen. Many who believed in it were surprised. Second, the Democrats are not a party like in Germany. One speaks here of a large tent in which there are very different answers. The Democrats are currently very busy arguing about what was the cause of the election defeat in order to derive a strategy from it.
Stefan Liebich52, heads the North America office of the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation in New York. From 2009 to 2021, the German political expert was a member of the German Bundestag for the Left, where he belonged to the Federal Foreign Committee, among other things, and acted as a spokesman for foreign policy. Previously, he was the group leader of the PDS/Die Linke in the Berlin House of Representatives. In the United States, he analyzes American domestic politics with special focus on progressive movements and the dynamics between the two major parties.
Some Democrats say behind the scenes that the American people now have to feel what it has chosen. Then everything will turn back towards the Democrats. Do you think that’s clever?
No. It is true that there are some who say that wait is a good strategy-that dissatisfaction with the Trump government will be so great that the intermediate elections can be won again in 2026. After that you will find any moderate, central governor and a governor and then wins the next presidential elections. I think that’s wrong – and many left -wing Democrats believe that. At the moment, the party is not the address for the existing annoyance of many Americans. Many Democrats have not understood why too few Americans chose the Democrats.
Can you explain that more precisely?
There are still voices that claim that they have concentrated too much on the topic of the rights of trans people. This is nonsense because this did not matter at all in the campaign of Kamala Harris. Others say that the voters of Trump are racists, sexists or just stupid. Anyone who is doing this will also lose the next elections. But there are also voices that see it differently.
