Re: <nettime> Trump Rising - "the post office has been stolen and the mailbox

[Molly Hankwitz <mollyhankwitz@gmail.com>]

hello allan,

thank you for writing this long summary of your perceptions anyway
even if it is not a completely thought out analysis. it is true and a
good point to bring to the surface that the dems knocked back sanders
and undermined his campaign because, probably, my hunch, they are too
tied into wall street. the vision he resented, afterall, in much of
his rhetoric, was one which utilized occupy's rhetoric - 99%. and 1%
-- and he was a socialist! let's face it. let's shriek it aloud.

consider the time live in that there was such a hardcore socialist
running for president in the states - yes, then corralled by the dnc
and then the election itself stuffed into the two-party straight
jacket. there were 8 people running on the ballot i submitted. and in
almost every state, more than two candidates, but we know the dominant
parties.

i want to address a couple of points you make in the very last
paragraph, though, because i am frustrated.

--The ascendance of Trump, and his form of populism, is fundamentally
ahistorical in that it speaks to a perceived 'crisis of the moment'
unhinged from all that has preceded it. ---

i would argue that there is a "history" that he appealed to very much
and which for his followers is very seriously considered history
and that is the view of America essentially created for and about
white men in power, which is a safe, nice christian feeling for
many; and a hard-nosed business-like feeling for others seeking
security...this is the powerful, powerful master narrative that
post-colonial studies professors and african-american studies and
womens studies and all that great multicultural "alternative" history
has taught generations of students to see around...never the less for
evangelicals and low-income white people across the states were trump
one, and where history books may not have been as radically altered
as they are in progressive towns, this view of history is paramount
and clearly appealing and desired when casting a vote for DT. ---
the pristine version of america's heartland - white guys are good
- general simplistic melodramatic stuff that overlooks the bracing
horrors and genocide and cultures which alternative history and
multicultural history engenders.

---And, delivered to us via the media fog and spectacle so presciently
described by the Situationists. To counter this tsunami of 'false
consciousness' necessitates a political agenda and organizational
forms not clothed in leftist clichés but in a truly radical
vision of what = is possible and also achievable.---

I am going to press for "radical action" as opposed to "radical
vision" because the idea of "vision" is a terminology imho too closely
aligned with the visionary and the saving heroic type of tactic
- whereas - what the democratic socialist left really needs and
requires is to look at what parts of existing processes work...what
actions produce change...what arguments are superior to others...what
organizations do the most good on the least money...Sander's
impressive campaign on so little money...piecing together progress
is imho the way forward...this is where we forge the best bonds and
gain the most traction - not from "vision" but from recognizing and
respecting action that is already working!

we throw out too much when we limit ourselves to infighting over
details. so many issues are as you suggest terrifyingly threatened
under trump. there is a need for progressive people to forge what
is valuable out of the shambles and i would argue to do this in
recognition of each other and each other's importance - good moves
for instance - the recount by Stein's people - the NAACP opening
themselves up to the public in Berkeley recently - Sanders going to
Standing Rock, Cornel West going to standing rock, 2000 scientists
writing pleas for the environment to Trump...young people leaving high
schools and getting into the streets...

Wasserman said is so well...that we should be recounting all the votes
nationally, not just two states and that trump should get involved. a
fair and accurate election where the code tied up in the electronic
machines is publically accessible not privately owned...this is the
bedrock of democracy, right - fair and accurate election? he pointed
out that in the last 3 elections we've had issues with counting,
corruption, long lines, people not being in the register...this is the
critical place where democracy can flourish...like a weed...correcting
this problem...recounting, publishing the numbers, swaying opinion
for voters to see that they've been involved in something unfair and
corrupt...this critique in all its progressive manifestations so
important...as action.

thnx
molly




On Thu, Dec 1, 2016 at 3:32 AM, allan siegel <allan@allansiegel.info> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Starting from Javier's recent post: he makes a very basic point
> regarding the racism intrinsic to US political reality. It is not simply
> about how it enervates Trump supporters but about how it defines the
> narrow parameters of political discourse buttressed by a two party
> system controlled by a virtually monolithic power structure. Thus, in
> the US, a democratic ethos that should govern political processes is
> simply a veneer that protects the oligarchs (or plutocrats, depending)
> who wield the levers of power. The only times this stranglehold has been
> even marginally threatened is when the structural racism of political
> and economic institutions has been exposed and confronted. It was both
> the resistance to the war in Vietnam AND the civil rights movement that
> exposed some of the basic inequities in the political system and
> provoked a short-lived crisis in the two-party system,


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