By Richard Mellor in California
One is the Michigan Conservative Coalition (MCC) which describes itself on its website as: “Trump-loving Americans who are sick and tired of the political establishment and the political machine that is solely focused on tearing down our President and his agenda. The establishment focuses on everything BUT hard-working taxpayers and voters.”
The MCC and anti-worker groups like them are tapping into the anger, despair and inequality in the US and the disgust at the US government and body-politic that exists. “sick and tired of the political establishment and the political machine”, describes how millions of workers do actually feel.
One of the members of the MCC is Meshawn Maddock. She is the wife of Matt Maddock, Republican member of the Michigan state House of Representatives, who is involved with the group. And what do these hard-working folks do for a living? Just regular working people trying to keep their heads above water? Not quite. “For three decades, Meshawn Maddock and her family have run A-1 Bail Bonds in Milford, Michigan” (ABC News).
Moneylenders to the most desperate
There’s a nice job for you. Moneylenders to the most desperate and oppressed sections of society. They are what are traditionally referred to by those of us on the left as the reactionary petit bourgeois. Maddock claims she is upset because she had to lay off three employees; these are folks that hunt down those who skip bail or their relatives who put up the collateral, I assume. The lockdown has had a negative effect on her parasitic lifestyle, “…due to courts being shuttered and jails being emptied to blunt the spread of coronavirus in the hard-hit state.”
Islamophobia is another favoured topic for the MCC. “They recently hosted an event featuring Michelle Malkin, a far-right pundit who has defended white nationalists and holocaust deniers.” Source.
‘Freedom loving’ Americans
Then there is the Michigan Freedom Fund (MFF). Well, here’s nice bunch of freedom-loving Americans. The MFF is run by Greg McNeilly, an employee of Dick DeVos and his investment company. DeVos is the husband of Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos who wants to privatize public education. Her brother, Eric Prince, was the founder of the US Military organization Blackwater that trains mercenaries for foreign (and if needed, domestic) ventures aimed at protecting US capitalism’s profits. Four Blackwater mercenaries (they were not US troops) were killed by Iraqis in Fallujah in 2004. Iraqis hung their bodies from a bridge. The US taxpayer came to the rescue and had the US Marines attack Fallujah, with devastating results. Most people would have not even considered that they were mercenaries. Children are still being born with deformities and cancers today due to the use of white phosphorous and other chemicals used in Fallujah.
The Michigan Freedom Fund is also waging a major campaign to pass Right to Work laws in Michigan. Every worker knows what that means – the right to work for less. Naturally, the DeVos family comes from a long line of devout God-fearing Christians. Honest folk.
Michiganders against quarantine
The successful Facebook Page Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine was started by a right-wing Christian Chiropractor, Garrett Soldano, another business person. Garrett Soldano pushes his book, God’s True Law: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Successful Children. In God’s True Law, he describes a definite science to being a successful parent. The Facebook page is here. These people do not believe in the separation of church and state and, like all believers, believe their god is the correct one and all others man-made. Their view is for a Christian United States just like an Islamic Republic of Iran.
To underestimate this current and accept the mass media’s description of them as “conservative” or simply crazy is a dangerous mistake. Dick DeVos is a major US capitalist. Betsy Devos and the whole family are a prominent family of the US ruling class. Betsy is also a prominent member of the apparatus of the state government. She is a member of Trump’s Cabinet.
These and others like them are the force behind these protests and the reactionary elements that dominate them. Some desperate and disgruntled workers will also be drawn to them although they’ll be a minority. With the absence of a real alternative and seeing no way out through the established parties, it is natural that would be the case, I reckon.
But when the clashes between the classes arrive, and I am convinced we’re going to see some major clashes after this crisis cools down, I think these Trump supporters, spurred on by the president, and the groups and individuals dragged along with them, will be driven on to the background. I hope I’m close to being right.
April 22, 2020
