We hear much about Russia, Ukraine, and an endless cast of characters these days (and for good reason), but at the heart of this political moment and struggle lies the viability and enduring character of our entire constitutional and democratic order. How to convey this message to the broader public is a first class challenge to Democratic leaders and everyone who is concerned about our country’s future.

When I was young my marxism (or Marxism-Leninism) on too many days was dismissive of the constitution and “bourgeois democracy,” seeing them simply as the creation and instrument of an ascending capitalist class to legitimize its rule and advance its interests. But like everyone else, I grew up and my views on these matters matured and gained in complexity. Better late than never!

I love it when the House Republicans say that they want to take of the country’s business — health care, infrastructure tax cuts of the middle class, and more — when bills that do exactly this have been passed in the House, despite their opposition, and then move on to the Senate where they are buried by McConnell. No shame!

It’s never good to have an idiot, whose hands are on the levers of power of the most powerful country in the world, parading around on the world stage. That he’s an object of derision at these meetings comes as no surprise. We better get rid of this guy next fall. If we do, most of the world community will surely breathe a sigh of relief.

A few bad ideas that some peddle, usually in the guise of a class, radical approach:

1. To explain the present impeachment fight as no more than an expression of an inter-imperialist rivalry between Russia and the U.S. over control of Ukraine.

2. To criticize the Democrats for supposedly reducing the stakes of impeachment to simply a national security issue.

3. To argue that a “real” approach to impeachment would throw “everything but the kitchen sink” into the articles of impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee is now drawing up.

The rise of Trump has taught us that the formation of class understanding is a complicated process. It takes place not only at the “point of production, but well beyond it. It’s a political and cultural as well as an economic phenomenon. Years ago, actually decades ago, the writings of the British Marxist historians, and E.P. Thompson especially, helped me to rethink how I understand class formation and consciousness. Lenin’s writings, albeit in my second reading of them in the early 1990s — “What is to be Done” in particular — did too, while nudging me, at the same time, to take a fresh and critical look at Marxism-Leninism.