Democrats retake Congress, but the imperial state does not change hands

According to Courrier international, the French weekly, Democrats have retaken Congress following the midterm elections. They promise "drastic change", an end to the war in Iran and investigations into corruption. The magazine also notes that they will have to confront the powers of Donald Trump and their own divisions. That is what we know. The rest of the dispatch says nothing about timing, means, or the precise balance of forces within the Democratic camp. What follows is therefore our reading, not an established fact.

Let us ask the question early: cui bono, who benefits from this war? Not the Ohio worker who funds it through his taxes. The beneficiaries are those who live off arms orders, the security of energy routes, and positions won in a contested region. From a Leninist perspective, the wars of great powers do not fall from the sky of diplomacy. They extend the competition between blocs of capital for raw materials, markets and spheres of influence. Sanctions, alliances, arms contracts: the political dressing of an economic rivalry (translation of the logic, not a quotation).

And herein lies the Democrats' problem. Congress holds the purse strings, certainly. But the executive keeps its grip on the military apparatus, intelligence and diplomacy. Courrier international, moreover, names Trump's powers as the first obstacle. The state is not a neutral counter that one reclaims by winning an election. It is, as Lenin wrote, an instrument of class domination, and its gears do not change logic because the majority changes colour.

The internal divisions matter too. A party that depends on private funding, including from industry and finance, will hesitate to cut off the supplies of those sectors that keep the machine running. We do not yet know which faction of elected officials will vote for real limits on the war. That is precisely what must be watched: a budget cut vote, not a statement of principle. Speeches about the "end of the war" cost nothing. A refusal to fund it costs dearly, politically.

As for the corruption investigations, they risk being the ideal consolation prize. Virtue is staged in Washington, a man and his circle are targeted, and the machinery that produces war profits is left intact. It is comfortable: moral outrage replaces the question of interests. It reassures the voter without touching the contracts.

So how far will they go? Our bet: as far as the interests the American state protects abroad will allow. Perhaps far enough to embarrass Trump. Probably not far enough to abandon the rivalry that underpins the war. If the Democrats want to prove us wrong, they know where to find the defence budget. We await the vote.