Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Category: Partisan Politics (Page 10 of 18)

Capitalism’s Heart Surgeon (New eBook!)

February 8, 2021 /

capitalism's heart surgeon

Some exciting news: Today I’ve released a new eBook! It’s called Capitalism’s Heart Surgeon: Elizabeth Warren and the Progressive Movement. And so, click the link to purchase on Kindle for a very accessible and affordable 99 cents.

Capitalism’s Heart Surgeon covers the Elizabeth Warren 2020 campaign and what it means for leftists. In short, I think the Warren campaign revealed differences on the left many of us hadn’t previously noticed. As leftists, it’s our job to put together a broad coalition of workers and tenants. The Warren campaign, by contrast, focused on highly educated progressives. And leftists have a complex relationship with that group that we should think about.

Having both the Warren and Sanders campaigns revealed some big differences on the left. We can and should learn from all this. In this eBook, I build on some of my past posts on Warren.

To read: Capitalism’s Heart Surgeon.

Joe Biden presidency

What Should The Left Expect From a Biden Presidency?

January 20, 2021 /

The U.S. left – especially the leftist factions most excited about Bernie Sanders – never figured out how to handle Joe Biden. Sanders folded right away. He endorsed Biden, and then he spent endless hours campaigning for him. Most progressive advocacy groups did the same. As usual, they dropped any and all non-electoral work to focus once again on electing Democrats. Now they’ve got a Biden presidency on their hands.

I won’t remind readers what I think of all this. If you’ve read this blog for awhile, you know I think progressive advocacy groups fuck up by focusing on electing Democrats to office. They fail over and over, and they’re the Charlie Brown of politics.

But as Biden’s inauguration proceeds after the Trumpist insurrection, many issues remain unsettled. What should we expect from the Biden presidency? What kind of job will he do in office? And do progressives have any chance at all of ‘pushing Biden to the left’?

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Trump Administration

Three Lessons from the Trump Administration

January 18, 2021 /

The Trump Administration will come to an end this week, and not a moment too soon. Trump began his presidency with a surprise win over Hillary Clinton. He ended it with a foolish invasion of the U.S. Capitol. The win was more about the weakness of the Democratic Party than any electoral strength of Trumpism. As soon as the Democrats discarded Clinton, they had little trouble beating him.

But let’s take stock of what we might learn from the 4 years of the Trump Administration.

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Trump insurrection confederate flag

Trump Insurrection: Very Bad People on Both Sides

January 14, 2021 /

Any reader not living off the grid knows about the Trump insurrection on January 6 (and second impeachment). Trump supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol. And they did so with a bit of help from some police officers and violent conflict with others. The Trump insurrection involved a conflict between QAnon conspiracy theorists, other Trumpists, and the police. Insofar as that’s true, I’m inclined to grab and modify Trump’s ‘very fine people on both sides’ remark.

In the Trump insurrection there were, indeed, very bad people on both sides, i.e., Trumpism and policing. We might say a great deal about how the left should respond. But I’m inclined to say the left shouldn’t directly involve itself in a fight between a Trump insurrection and police officers. Because that’s not really our fight.

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