Protests in U.S. likely to accelerate in scope, unlikely to be blunted by Trump loss
Updated 18:48, 03-Jul-2020
Bradley Blankenship

Editor's note: Bradley Blankenship is a Prague-based American journalist, political analyst and freelance reporter. The article reflects the author's opinions, not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Protests have raged across the United States, and the world, since May 26 after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer. Despite a litany of concessions by local police forces, an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump and corporate campaigns against racism, the protests are likely to move into a new, more protracted direction as the U.S. economy unravels for the average American. A lack of the most basic necessities will only exacerbate the protests further and widen the scope of their demands.

According to a report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment-population ratio plunged to 52.8 percent in May which means that 47.2 percent of Americans are jobless. Tens of millions of jobs would need to be created, and soon, to mitigate the damage to workers. This is obviously unlikely to happen, despite the June numbers for the whole economy showing a boost of 4.8 million jobs and unemployment falling to 11.1 percent. The total joblessness and unemployment rate is still abysmal and social services in the U.S. are woefully unequipped to handle such a situation.

The pace of economic rebound and job growth after the reopening of the U.S. economy – something already reversing or halting in many states due to a surge in COVID-19 cases – is highly unlikely to continue at the same rate. Given this, plus the fact that federal unemployment benefits under the CARES act will cease on July 31 (and earlier in some states), American workers are in serious crisis. Already before the pandemic hit, a vast majority of Americans lived paycheck to paycheck and were in record debt – something only compounded now.

High level Republicans like Director of the United States National Economic Council Larry Kudlow, Senior White House Adviser Kevin Hassett and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have said since late May that they'd like to hit the brakes on another round of relief for workers – for example, the HEROES Act already passed by the House of Representatives.

One of the key provisions of this legislation is 100 billion U.S. dollars earmarked for rent assistance to disadvantaged Americans. Millions, especially minorities, now face eviction as of July 1 as eviction moratoriums across the country are lifted. What was already a housing crisis before the coronavirus will likely spiral into a housing apocalypse, according to experts.

Not only this, but as millions are now left jobless, their employer-sponsored health insurance has been taken away which directly threatens the lives and well-being of working families. To make matters worse on this front, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit on June 25 to the Supreme Court seeking to totally axe the Affordable Care Act (ACA, often called "Obamacare") which would throw millions off health insurance in the middle of a global pandemic.

With so many millions of people already desperate before the pandemic, and many millions more put into a desperate position, the protests largely centered around the Movement for Black Lives are growing in political scope.

Former U.S. vice president Joe Biden speaks during a rally in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 18, 2019. /Xinhua

Former U.S. vice president Joe Biden speaks during a rally in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 18, 2019. /Xinhua

In fact, the official demands of the Movement for Black Lives – a conglomerate network of racial justice groups, including Black Lives Matter – not only call for justice for Black Americans, but also a restructuring of the economy to eliminate the massive inequality endemic to the United States. These are issues growing in popularity across the country as people across the country, including suburban whites, sympathize with the movement and its aims.

This is reflected not only in the streets as protests rage across the country and white supremacist monuments are torn down, but also at the ballot box. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leader in the progressive movement, masterfully beat her establishment-backed primary challenger, proving that her so-called "democratic socialism" ideology is not just a one-off.

Many other progressives across the country won or outperformed early projections – notably progressive Jamaal Bowman, a former Bronx school principal, who beat out establishment darling Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

However, this minimal access to political power by the increasingly politicized working class is too little, too late. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who is expected to take on President Donald Trump has rejected the most radical, and increasingly popular, demands of the Movement for Black Lives. It's for this reason that a likely Democratic win in November, no matter how big, is unlikely to blunt the growing protests as workers are left increasingly desperate. This goes doubly so for corporate campaigns siding with the protests, something very obviously superficial.

The coronavirus has only proven how woefully inefficient and socially corrosive the structure of the American economic and political system truly is. Despite the fact that the beneficiaries of this inequality have gone relatively unchecked for generations, maintaining the status quo at this point is very much impossible and to believe otherwise is hopeless idealism. Nothing will blunt this unprecedented outrage except very serious changes.

As Greater New York Black Lives Matter president Hawk Newsome told Fox News recently: "If this country doesn't give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking... figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It's a matter of interpretation."

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