by
Jacobin
29
[...] many of the businesspeople who pushed the neoliberal agenda in the 1970s were neither movement conservatives nor self-made entrepreneurs but career managers. They were often socially liberal. But they objected to the host of new claims along what we’d later call identitarian lines (gender, race, etc.) as well as an explosive growth in social regulations (environment, workplace safety, and the like, as opposed to more narrowly drawn economic regulation of prices and product lines), which they felt were annoying restrictions on the free play of capital. [...]
their solution: forming PACs (legalised by the FEC in 1975) that argued, among other things, that corporations had no social responsibility (in the same vein as Milton Friedman)
[...] many of the businesspeople who pushed the neoliberal agenda in the 1970s were neither movement conservatives nor self-made entrepreneurs but career managers. They were often socially liberal. But they objected to the host of new claims along what we’d later call identitarian lines (gender, race, etc.) as well as an explosive growth in social regulations (environment, workplace safety, and the like, as opposed to more narrowly drawn economic regulation of prices and product lines), which they felt were annoying restrictions on the free play of capital. [...]
their solution: forming PACs (legalised by the FEC in 1975) that argued, among other things, that corporations had no social responsibility (in the same vein as Milton Friedman)
33
[...] polling by its nature is flawed. It does not provide a neutral snapshot of voters’ understandings of politics. Instead, polls reflect the dominant narratives at a moment in a way that naturalizes key controversies.
[...] People don’t exist in a vacuum; polling itself shapes the narratives they adopt to
understand and make decisions about policy.
[...] polling by its nature is flawed. It does not provide a neutral snapshot of voters’ understandings of politics. Instead, polls reflect the dominant narratives at a moment in a way that naturalizes key controversies.
[...] People don’t exist in a vacuum; polling itself shapes the narratives they adopt to
understand and make decisions about policy.
43
What made Trump unacceptable to the Republican establishment and their corporate backers [...] Trump champions an economic nationalism that rejects central tenets of the bipartisan neoliberal agenda that has impoverished segments of the middle and working classes. Capital was uneasy with Trump’s stance on immigration and the federal debt — he floated the idea of trying to persuade creditors to accept less than full payment on loans to the US government.
The corporate elite is even more disturbed by his ideas about foreign policy and global “free trade.” Trump claims to reject the established US alliance system, in particular nato, that has maintained US dominance since World War II. An advocate of “America First” politics that have been rejected by the US corporate elite since the 1940s, Trump is perceived as an unreliable agent of US capital.
What made Trump unacceptable to the Republican establishment and their corporate backers [...] Trump champions an economic nationalism that rejects central tenets of the bipartisan neoliberal agenda that has impoverished segments of the middle and working classes. Capital was uneasy with Trump’s stance on immigration and the federal debt — he floated the idea of trying to persuade creditors to accept less than full payment on loans to the US government.
The corporate elite is even more disturbed by his ideas about foreign policy and global “free trade.” Trump claims to reject the established US alliance system, in particular nato, that has maintained US dominance since World War II. An advocate of “America First” politics that have been rejected by the US corporate elite since the 1940s, Trump is perceived as an unreliable agent of US capital.
46
Trump’s populist nationalism appeals to elements of the older, white middle class who fear sliding downward into the working class. Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land, a study of Southern Tea Party and Trump supporters, reveals people who believe they are “hard workers” who “play by the rules” and never ask for “handouts” but are constantly falling behind socially and economically. They are threatened both by powerful economic and social elites and “line jumpers” — blacks, Latinos, and women who benefit from affirmative action, as well as undocumented immigrants and refugees.
lots to be said on that (flag)
Trump’s populist nationalism appeals to elements of the older, white middle class who fear sliding downward into the working class. Arlie Russell Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land, a study of Southern Tea Party and Trump supporters, reveals people who believe they are “hard workers” who “play by the rules” and never ask for “handouts” but are constantly falling behind socially and economically. They are threatened both by powerful economic and social elites and “line jumpers” — blacks, Latinos, and women who benefit from affirmative action, as well as undocumented immigrants and refugees.
lots to be said on that (flag)
47
Faced with an impotent labor movement that tails after an ever-rightward-moving Democratic Party, it is not surprising that a minority of older, white workers are attracted to politics that place responsibility for their deteriorating social situation on both the corporate “globalists” and more vulnerable workers [...]
[...]
Trump and his nationalist populist ideologues from Breitbart and the “alt-right” added a fourth element to the Right’s narrative — the role of globalizing corporations and free trade. Given a choice between an elitist neoliberal who refused to speak to the realities of their lives (and rejected Bernie Sanders’s social-democratic program as “unrealistic”); and a populist demagogue who offered an
illusory solution to their problems, it is not surprising that some white workers embraced Trump.
Faced with an impotent labor movement that tails after an ever-rightward-moving Democratic Party, it is not surprising that a minority of older, white workers are attracted to politics that place responsibility for their deteriorating social situation on both the corporate “globalists” and more vulnerable workers [...]
[...]
Trump and his nationalist populist ideologues from Breitbart and the “alt-right” added a fourth element to the Right’s narrative — the role of globalizing corporations and free trade. Given a choice between an elitist neoliberal who refused to speak to the realities of their lives (and rejected Bernie Sanders’s social-democratic program as “unrealistic”); and a populist demagogue who offered an
illusory solution to their problems, it is not surprising that some white workers embraced Trump.
68
The main reasons for the collapse are structural: geology (the state’s southern coalfields are increasingly uncompetitive as the easiest-to-mine coal is gone), the increasing use of natural gas for power generation nationally, and a weak market for coal exports. But the drop in coal production and employment coincided with Obama’s presidency, creating an opportunity for the West Virginia Republican Party. Despite the fact that federal environmental regulations have had minimal impact on the decline of the state’s coal industry, the sector’s rapid decline provided the perfect opportunity for Republicans to attack the Obama administration’s “war on coal.”
ruthless
The main reasons for the collapse are structural: geology (the state’s southern coalfields are increasingly uncompetitive as the easiest-to-mine coal is gone), the increasing use of natural gas for power generation nationally, and a weak market for coal exports. But the drop in coal production and employment coincided with Obama’s presidency, creating an opportunity for the West Virginia Republican Party. Despite the fact that federal environmental regulations have had minimal impact on the decline of the state’s coal industry, the sector’s rapid decline provided the perfect opportunity for Republicans to attack the Obama administration’s “war on coal.”
ruthless
73
The West Virginia Democratic Party created an analogous situation by championing dominant extractive industries in the state while also claiming to be the party of labor. The decline of the coal industry laid bare the fact that the state Democratic Party has no real vision for supporting workers, particularly as the tensions between
creating jobs and protecting the environment become increasingly fraught.
The West Virginia Democratic Party created an analogous situation by championing dominant extractive industries in the state while also claiming to be the party of labor. The decline of the coal industry laid bare the fact that the state Democratic Party has no real vision for supporting workers, particularly as the tensions between
creating jobs and protecting the environment become increasingly fraught.
73
[...] Republican governor Henry Hatfield (1913–17) once asked:
Why will not those who have large holdings in our commonwealth assist in the up-building of the state? When will relief come to us? Will it be when these hills and valleys have been exhausted of their bounties of nature and when these great mountains have shed their last stately oak, and when the hills will resound with emptiness because the mineral beds that once reposed within have been exhausted in a market beyond the state borders?
[...] Republican governor Henry Hatfield (1913–17) once asked:
Why will not those who have large holdings in our commonwealth assist in the up-building of the state? When will relief come to us? Will it be when these hills and valleys have been exhausted of their bounties of nature and when these great mountains have shed their last stately oak, and when the hills will resound with emptiness because the mineral beds that once reposed within have been exhausted in a market beyond the state borders?
74
The economic transformation needed to build an economic system in the interest of workers while remaining within natural limits is a long-term transformation. But
we must begin it. The alternative, a continued failure to address underlying economic realities, will continue to drive voters to the Right.
The economic transformation needed to build an economic system in the interest of workers while remaining within natural limits is a long-term transformation. But
we must begin it. The alternative, a continued failure to address underlying economic realities, will continue to drive voters to the Right.
79
The real enemy of all of us who want to make a better world is not capitalism or conservatism, but cynicism — our own feeling that no one cares about this shit, that nothing will ever change, so what’s the point? [...]
on the song "A Sense of Belonging" by Television Personalities
The real enemy of all of us who want to make a better world is not capitalism or conservatism, but cynicism — our own feeling that no one cares about this shit, that nothing will ever change, so what’s the point? [...]
on the song "A Sense of Belonging" by Television Personalities