The danger of the present moment is that Trump is without any political anchorage other than what goes on in his unstable, narcissistic, and impulsive head. To claim that he is a representative of the capitalist class or the voice of the most reactionary section of finance capital or bound by the strictures of the Republican Party seem inadequate in the moment. Whatever guardrails that might have restrained his behavior in the past seem to have disappeared. Marxism’s concept of “relative autonomy” of the executive branch of government is either finding confirmation or being severely tested. Or both!

Elizabeth Warren had a much tougher go of it last night; she was the target of others on the stage. She still did well, although she will have to do some more thinking about how she explains Medicare for all. One thing she demonstrated last night, as she fended off criticism, is that she can handle the glare of the lights. She’s a fighter and she’s tough.

I hear people on the left complain that the impeachment inquiry is too narrowly framed, not to their taste. I say look at public opinion polls. Millions apparently don’t agree. They’re increasingly ready to impeach Trump on the existing terms. Life doesn’t always fit the ideological scheme of the left.

We should proceed on the assumption that the working class in any undertaking, will require alliances with other social constituencies as a matter of course. The notion of the working class as the singular agent of social revolution or social progress, for that matter, finds no evidence in actual, that is, historical experience. Notwithstanding the lyrics of the Internationale and the dreams of insurrectionary radicals, social change that radically re-configures power and possibilities in favor of democracy, social progress, and socialism, has been (and will be) the handiwork of the socially many and varied, no pristine class affair.

I was thinking that if the strategic necessity of defeating Trump (and the imperative of unity that follows from that) are foremost in the mindset of supporters of Bernie Sanders’ and Elizabeth Warren, then bitterness and acrimony toward on one another should have no place in their interactions.

But here’s the rub: such a mindset, while generally embraced by both sides, still finds a group of Bernie’s supporters who aren’t yet won to this way of thinking. In fact, they are quick to attack Warren for her supposedly less than sterling credentials, while insisting that Bernie is the only “class” candidate worthy of the nomination. Not smart!