American Herald Tribune|Daniel Haiphong: The two-party corporate duopoly remains mired in crisis in the closing days of the 2016 Presidential elections. Donald Trump's virtual hijacking of the Republican Party has stripped the competition between the two dominant sections of the ruling class down to its most naked form. The corporate media's non-stop coverage of Trump was supposed to legitimize the candidacy of Hillary Clinton and rake in enormous profits for the monopoly outlets. The eyes of the rich have been on Hillary Clinton to rescue the two-party system from the danger of Donald Trump. However, thanks to WikiLeaks, Hillary Clinton appears poised to take the Democratic Party down its own path of destruction. 

The FBI announcement that it will reopen the investigation of Clinton's private email server has significantly eroded the momentum of the Democratic Party campaign. Trump appeared finished by the end of the third Presidential debate. His campaign was mired in sexual assault allegations and media inquiries into possible tax evasion. The billionaire white nationalist has suddenly found himself within one point of Hillary Clinton in recent polls. No matter how many traps Trump falls into or how vile his campaign rhetoric, Clinton has proven that no amount of Trump debauchery can save her from her political record.

Unfortunately, the email scandal has been subject to the limitations of corporate media coverage. The threat to "national security" has been cited as the number one issue with Clinton's breach of State Department privacy. Indeed, Clinton did break the law and from this framework it is no doubt appropriate that she face the consequences. But under imperialism, where billions of people are exploited for the profits of monopoly corporations, the legitimacy of ruling class law is of little worth to the vast majority of humanity. What matters is the content of the emails themselves. The emails reveal that the current conditions of the imperialist system have thrown the two-party system into a permanent crisis of legitimacy.

The first batch of emails dumped by WikiLeaks exposed how US imperialism serves the masters of war and capital. The initial emails proved that Clinton destabilized Libya in 2011 in order to stop the Gaddafi-led government from instituting an independent gold currency across the African continent. The emails also exposed that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) spent copious amounts of time deriding the Sanders campaign. Another batch of emails further damaged the Clinton cache with contents from her speeches to the big banks. It was in these speeches where she told Wall Street that she takes a different position in public than she does in private. In private, Clinton serenaded the ears of the rich with her desires to privatize Social Security and create a "hemispheric common market."

The emails have not been the only development that has soured Clinton's election campaign. The Obama Administration announced in late October that premiums for the Affordable Care Act market-based exchanges are set to increase by 25 percent next year. Bill Clinton also made negative headlines through a leaked memo that revealed the former President utilized the Clinton Foundation to make profitable deals with private corporations. In other words, the Democratic Party has been unable to avoid looking like the corporate servant and imperialist party it always has been. With less than a month left until voting day, a Clinton victory is anything but secure.

There are some in the US who believe that the demise of the Democratic Party will be a bad thing. Clinton has fewer staunch supporters among working people than she does individuals who are willing to hold their nose for Clinton in order to avoid a Trump Presidency. However, the stench emanating from the Clinton camp is becoming unbearable. Her campaign's reliance on anti-Putin Russophobia threatens World War.  Her policy record is equally, if not more deplorable, than Donald Trump's capitalist, racist, and misogynistic machinations. The new email investigation could be the first nail of many to come in the Democratic Party coffin.

However, the fear of Trump is deeply embedded into the psyche of a large section of American voters. The corporate media has constantly fed many of her lies and suspicions to the masses. One of these myths is the alleged WikiLeaks-Russia-Trump alliance. No such alliance exists. Neither Putin nor WikiLeaks has announced any sort of allegiance to Trump. Putin has simply commented on Trump's advocacy of a US-Russian partnership was a "smart" thing to say. Furthermore, Julian Assange has denied publicly that Trump would somehow present a better option than Hillary Clinton. But the truth matters little in a political environment that equates opposition to Clinton with support for Trump.

Clinton has turned the Russian blame game toward the FBI. In a campaign speech, Clinton insinuated that the FBI is hiding information regarding the Putin-Trump alliance. Her claims were promptly proved false. Such remarks may cause more damage to an already unpopular campaign. US intelligence agencies are powerful institutions that current and future Presidents must curry the favor of to achieve the objectives of US imperialism. When President John F. Kennedy signaled that he wanted to break the CIA into a "thousand pieces," he was assassinated shortly thereafter. It was revealed last year that the CIA was heavily involved in the cover-up of its involvement in his murder. US intelligence is thus the wrong crowd for a future US President to anger, especially given the vast surveillance apparatus now at its disposal.

Speculation aside, the Clinton campaign emails present useful information on the depth of US imperialism’s crisis. US imperialism has been mired in a period of stagnant economic growth and endless war for decades. It was only a matter of time before this crisis would express itself through its electoral system. Never has it been clearer that the two corporate parties in front of US imperial policy work solely for the ruling class. The task now is to utilize the developments of this election cycle in service of the people. That means shedding all fear of what the results of the election will be and basing our action on principles instead.