Reprinted with permission from The Screeching Kettle at Substack.
The year is 2026. The US under Donald Trump kidnapped the president of Venezuela after bombing the country and killing a hundred people on the ground. This follows a year of airstrikes on Venezuelan boats, supposedly carrying drugs, with passengers treated as guilty until proven dead and evidence of their alleged crimes never provided. The US claims it will temporarily “run” Venezuela during a so-called transition – positioning itself to seize the country’s vast oil reserves.
For decades, the US has rampaged around the world with impunity – invading Iraq in 2003, bombing Libya in 2011, running unaccountable torture programs, and openly assassinating high-ranking generals. Free from the international laws it expects others to obey, the US now has its sights set on Greenland. And who knows what else after that, so long as it serves US “national security”.
Such a level of dystopian overreach doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Trump embodies US imperialism without disguise, but he is not a king. These actions require more than desire – they require complicity: the votes to fund them, the confirmations to staff them, and the procedural cover to let them proceed unchallenged. Not just from Republicans, but from Democrats – the so-called opposition party that could stop him yet so often chooses not to, especially when it comes to imperialism.
This pattern became especially visible with the January 2025 nomination of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Rubio – a lifelong neoconservative hawk who has backed just about every US war since 9/11 – could have been resisted. Instead, Democrats in the Senate joined Republicans to confirm him 99–0.
In June 2025, Trump launched unilateral airstrikes against Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities, and some Democrats took issue – not with him openly bombing Iran, but with his failure to seek out Congressional approval first. Impeachment measures were proposed, but then overwhelmingly tabled, after a bipartisan majority – including 128 Democrats – voted against them.
In early January 2026, the Senate allowed debate on a war powers resolution to check President Trump’s military activities in Venezuela – a procedural gesture that looked impressive in headlines but did nothing to constrain him. When it came time for a binding vote to actually restrict Trump’s powers, the measure failed.
Then, on January 22nd, every present House Democrat voted to support a resolution that would have barred President Trump from conducting military actions in Venezuela without congressional authorization – largely irrelevant given that the coup is now complete. The resolution also called for US forces to exit the country – again pointless, since none were there – somewhat akin to passing a resolution to remove troops from the Moon. The vote was 215–215 and, per House rules, a tie counts as a defeat. Still, a win for Democrats as a show of pseudo-resistance.
Meanwhile, hours before this charade took place, 149 House Democrats joined with 192 Republicans to approve $828.7 billion in military spending – based on a framework established months earlier with the support of Senate Democrats – that would further embolden imperialism around the world: funding for Israeli missile defense, hundreds of millions for Ukraine, troop restrictions in Europe, and billions for ships, hypersonic weapons, and munitions.
Such unchecked funding is no surprise – it’s the lifeblood of a cross-party project that has defined US imperialism for decades, with Venezuela simply serving as the latest chapter. In 2002, George W. Bush backed a failed coup there. Later, Obama labeled Venezuela a national security threat and imposed sanctions. Trump’s first term was marked by a humiliating coup attempt in the country, additional sanctions, and a bounty placed upon the head of Nicolás Maduro. Biden continued the sanctions and upped the bounty reward. Trump’s second term has included airstrikes on Venezuelan boats, the bombing of its capital, and the kidnapping of Maduro.
And yet, if Venezuela illustrates how the US empire operates in moments of escalation, Israel shows how it functions as a permanent fixture of US foreign policy. Both parties pledge unwavering allegiance – no one reaches the Oval Office without being thoroughly invested. Under Bush, Obama, and Trump’s first term, Israel received a constant flow of weapons and diplomatic cover to harass, detain, and kill Palestinians. Under Biden – and throughout Trump’s second term – this support hasn’t wavered. Both administrations have backed Israel as it targets hospitals, schools, and bakeries, flattening Gaza and wiping out entire families with impunity.
Biden represented what might be described as “mask on” imperialism: publicly calling Israel’s actions in Gaza “over the top”, while privately continuing to fund the bloodbath, shielding Israel at the United Nations, and calling the International Criminal Court “outrageous” for pursuing charges against Israeli leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump, by contrast, dispenses with this performance entirely – openly financing Israeli atrocities while boasting about “leveling” Gaza and building casinos and resorts to whitewash the smoldering remains of a bipartisan genocide. Like Biden, he too has threatened the ICC for investigating Israeli war crimes.
Still, Democratic complicity predates the Trump era.
In 2003, Democrats – including Joe Biden – voted with Republicans to authorize the costly and disastrous US invasion of Iraq. Year after year, they funded the occupation, shoveling billions into it long after the lies were fully exposed.
During Obama’s first term, Democrats briefly held a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate – alongside a strong majority in the House – which they used to pass a watered-down Affordable Care Act – a plan that was hollowed out by the removal of the public option, prioritizing private insurers. At the same time, Democrats continued Bush-era bailouts, funneling taxpayer dollars to financial giants like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, who just so happened to be major Obama donors. Not once did Democrats use their power to dismantle the war machine – tools they would inevitably pass on to future administrations. In fact, Obama did the opposite: he expanded Bush-era surveillance programs, chose to “look forward” instead of prosecuting gruesome CIA torture, set precedents for drone-murdering US citizens without due process, and broadened bombing campaigns across seven countries.
When Joe Biden took office, Democrats scraped together a razor-thin majority – a 50-50 Senate split, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaker. Yet they still trotted out excuses to dodge popular policies, from “moderate” Democrats threatening to fracture their hold, to the Senate Parliamentarian’s roadblocks.
Conveniently, whenever it’s time to pass policies actually beneficial to constituents, Democrats have a litany of excuses – even when they hold a majority – to not pass them. And when they have a minority in the House and Senate – well, their hands are tied. War is the only time the excuses seem to go away. Imperialism is always on the table. It’s always a priority.
Democrats can act shocked by Trump’s brand of imperialism, but they can’t pretend as though they aren’t structurally invested in maintaining it. Democrats – like Republicans – take hundreds of thousands of dollars each election cycle from defense companies. Both parties are heavily reliant on industries that profit from war.
The wars might not be popular with the public, but that doesn’t matter. Whether driven by Trump’s undisguised imperialism – open admissions that America is invading a country for its oil – or by Democratic imperialism cloaked in “humanitarian” language and polite expressions of concern, defense industry donors just want the wars to start. The means to get there are irrelevant.
Jon Reynolds is a freelance journalist covering a wide range of topics with a primary focus on the labor movement and collapsing US empire. He writes at The Screeching Kettle at Substack.
