While politicians from the centre of the Democratic Party wore T-shirts with the inscription “Resist” during Trump’s address to Congress, 83-year-old Bernie Sanders did not settle for empty symbolism and published a powerful twenty-minute speech against the Trump administration, clearly and without pathos explaining why Trump’s government is acting against the interests of American citizens. It is significant that the only adequate reactions to Trump’s governance and his incredible approach to Zelensky and Ukraine are coming from the left wing of the Democratic Party - not only from Sanders, but also from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In contrast, the statements of the party’s main figures, such as Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, are being mocked even by popular presenter Jon Stewart. The reaction of most Democratic Party politicians is, in a word, desperate.

America for the Richest Five Percent

In the aforementioned speech, Bernie Sanders says that the Trump administration is “a government of the billionaire class for the billionaire class”, which is not at all interested in the problems of ordinary Americans. According to him, this is also evidenced by Trump’s Tuesday speech to Congress, in which the president did not address any of the issues that working people in the United States are facing today. After six weeks, Trump has simply not introduced a single legislative change, a single presidential decree that would in any way improve the lives of the poorer part of American society. According to Bernie Sanders, it makes no sense to discuss whether the United States might be heading towards an oligarchy government, because it has long been a government of oligarchy and “communism for the rich”.

Anti-fascist economic policy today must not even be overshadowed by the European debate on armament. European security and economic stability are closely linked.

Sanders mentions that sixty percent of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck in uncertainty about whether they will pay rent, whether they will have money for a doctor or car repair if it happens to break down. Housing and healthcare present the same problem. “Mr. President, do you really want to make America great again? Then ensure that every American, regardless of their income, can go to a doctor or hospital and not have to worry about whether they will be able to pay for it at all,” says Sanders, pointing out that Trump did not say a word about healthcare in his ninety-minute address to Congress.

The three billionaires who stood behind Trump during his January inauguration (Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg) own as much wealth as the poorer half of American society, that is, 170 million people, combined. Sanders even cites research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which claims that after the implementation of Trump’s economic reforms, taxes will increase for 95 percent of American society and will significantly decrease for the richest five percent. This is the world that Trump’s administration offers to American society - and apart from one old man from Vermont, none of the Democratic politicians can name it.

The Answer is Anti-Fascist Economic Policy

In 2016, Donald Trump won the presidential election against Hillary Clinton partly because he embodied a populist attack on the corporate and economic elites of American society who are getting rich at the expense of poorer Americans. However, his rule fulfilled almost none of this promise. Corporations and the wealthiest Americans thrived under his rule, thanks in part to massive tax breaks and cuts. In the 2024 election campaign, Trump offered vague economic populism again, talking about how people are not doing well because of rising inflation. Millions of people believed his story that economic problems are caused by illegal migrants and also the rest of the world that exploits the United States, not by the extremely unfair and unequal American society. But if Trump doesn’t do anything concrete for his poorer voters even now and continues to implement a policy of the rich, with the rich and for the rich, he will certainly lose support. This is why Bernie Sanders’ current political appeal is very important.

If Europe and the United States are looking for a political programme that can stop the rise of the far right, they have had it before their eyes for at least fifteen years. And this programme is also applicable to the Czech reality, in which the percentage of the wealthiest own proportionally more wealth than in other post-communist countries - perhaps only except Russia. German economist Isabella Weber recently described this policy in her article for The Nation magazine as “anti-fascist economic policy”. She speaks about how the anger of ordinary working people stems from the fact that although they work honestly, due to inflation and wage stagnation, they are beginning to have problems living on their incomes and paying all expenses. According to her, anti-fascist economic policy must push for lower prices of things absolutely essential for everyday life, such as food, rent, energy, and at the same time focus on increasing wages. According to Weber, this is the policy that can stop the growth of far-right parties, especially because they themselves do not offer any answer to this problem.

And this anti-fascist economic policy must not be overshadowed by the European debate on armament today. European security and economic stability are closely linked. If we do not address economic inequalities and the economic problems of ordinary people, and instead large resources go only to armament, it will inevitably lead to the growth of the far right in Europe. The far right is currently a political ally of Russia and the Trump administration, and the rule of the far right in most European countries or even in the European institutions themselves will mean the certain end of an independent Ukraine and the demise of liberal and social European values.

However, addressing economic inequalities in Europe certainly must not lead to stopping arms supplies and boycotting military support for Ukraine in its legitimate resistance against the Russian Federation. Economic justice must be part of our thinking about European security and must also be part of a thoughtful fight against the far right, whether Russian, American or European. Unfortunately, the necessity of this stance has not yet fully occurred to American or European politicians, which could have fundamental political consequences.

Jan Bělíček

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