First Thoughts on Trump

by | 9 Nov 2016

920x920

Just woke up in Beirut to US Brexit surprise. Retitling my lecture this afternoon to WTF?? First thoughts: There are at least 4 big things going on–class, race, global context and gender.

1) Class: The neoliberal governing consensus is collapsing and the elites can not believe it. The polls, pundits and media were wrong all through primary season, underestimating both Sanders and Trump. The big money donors could not believe that Sanders could almost win the nomination, that JEB Bush could fail. In the US, this collapse could cut either left or right. Sanders pulled it left, Trump pulled it right. Meanwhile no elite institution in the country could read the tea leaves–because the interests of Wall St, MSM, global traders, Dem and Repub establishment really believe they have an unshakeable lock on governing. They no longer do. These dynamics are why I thought Sanders could beat Trump, but Clinton might not be able to–she personifies the dying elite consensus.

2) Race: The US history of settler colonialism and expansionist empire gives whiteness a super toxic cast here. Threatened by both sides of globalization–the “free trade” based erosion of workers access to a middle class life, and the migration based erosion of white worker claims to superior numbers and conditions–white nationalism has energized and expanded into the alt right base fueling the Trump racial threat. Police, legislative, corporate and popular violence against black people, Muslims and Native protestors all manifest the energy and visibility of persistent racist assertions of power in the face of challenge and change.

3) Global context: Greece, Britain, Brazil, so many indicators that shit is happening with broad implications for US governance. We coulda hadda a Syriza moment with Bernie–the emergence of a moderate social democratic governing coalition. Instead we went down, not to the forces of zombie neoliberalism (as Syriza did, and what Clinton represented) but to the forces of racist nationalist reaction (like Brexit). The US left is SO insular, for the most part. Our best hope is to follow the global connections that Occupy reflected and BLM is expanding (via alliances with Palestinians and others), and that the DAPL protestors represent, fundamentally via water protection and opposition to unchallenged US sovereignty claims. The Sanders campaign was not especially good on global politics. We all need to follow the global left model and shed the insularity and provincialism of too much US left thinking and organizing.

4) Gender: White people have elected Trump, across class and gender lines. It’s not all working class men. It’s prosperous whites and women too, in large proportions. But the element of misogyny and anti feminist reaction is prominent. Clinton was indeed attacked in overtly and covertly sexist ways at every point, including by Sanders supporters. The level of pure misogyny has shocked me all along (even though, I hope I don’t need to add, I was a *strong* Bernie supporter, and an aggressive Clinton critic on policy grounds).

2 Comments

  1. If this post is arguing that Democratic Party/Clintonite elitism created a massive backlash against multi-culti/feminist/neo-liberal attempts to promote crypto-progressive policy agendas without the support (or even consent) of the white lower middle classes and inner city minorities, thereby fueling angry white male support for Trump and disgruntlement with Clinton among the minorities, I’d agree. There’s also discontent with the Clinton Foundation domination of the Democratic Party, which made Hillary the candidate without serious challenges, and dissatisfaction with the Obama administration’s arrogant disregard for anybody but white upper middle class lobbies, and, overall, the failure to create significant change, despite the campaign promises. (And should I mention the Obama/Clinton foreign policy disasters?) But I’d also add that the whole pressure of the super-politically correct, highly educated classes and the so-called liberal media, which presumed that HC would win, before the election had even begun, and pulled no punches demonizing Trump, only succeeded in making Trump look like the underdog and lost the election for Clinton. It’s still necessary to say, though, that this election is a disaster for politically progressive parties everywhere, even if that disaster was created by the politically progressive classes themselves. Just hope that the Democratic Party and what’s left of the Left learn the lesson not to act like a super-political elitist vanguard, foisting their agenda on the public and displaying contempt for those who don’t follow their agenda, which, I’m afraid, is what lost this election for everybody.

    Reply
    • You are high.

      Trump/Farage/ Upper Class twit Buffoon Johnson as “anti-elite” would have to one of the silliest, wish-fulfilment fantasies that rightist lotus-eaters ever got sucked in.

      You are in for a sharp, rude shock.

      BTW. Most of what a sociopath like would call “PC” also happens to have been the LAW. For several decades. Which means that it *already* constitutes in significant respects what Hegel described as the “ethical substance”. Notwithstanding the atavistic disease of the pitiable culture warrior philistines of the “alt-right”.

      Which means that we can concentrate on the more substantive matters of socio-economic class and the injustices of the Capitalist World-System. Anti-GOP/DEM

      Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POSTS BY EMAIL

Join 4,642 other subscribers

We respect your privacy.

FAIR ACCESS* PUBLISHER
IN LAW AND THE HUMANITIES

*fair access = access according to ability to pay
on a sliding scale down to zero.

JUST PUBLISHED

PUBLISH ON CLT

Publish your article with us and get read by the largest community of critical legal scholars, with over 4500 subscribers.