Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Category: Partisan Politics (Page 19 of 21)

gun control

A ‘Green New Deal’ for Gun Control?

July 29, 2019 /

Fahrenheit 11/9 was a bad movie. It didn’t get anywhere near my list of best anti-capitalist movies or my list of best recent movies. Despite its messiness, Michael Moore almost pulled it together at the end with a thoughtful monologue on the state of American politics in 2018. Almost. He interrupted the monologue for a disastrous non-sequitur: some loud-ass sirens and a message from Emma González on gun control. Whatever point Moore had been making was completely lost.

In its own way, this represents the role gun control plays in American politics. Compared to, say, health care, immigration, or climate change, it’s not an important issue. And hardly anyone bases their vote on it. However, it pops up at strange or suspicious times, such as when Hillary Clinton used it to pretend she’s politically to the left of Bernie Sanders.

But Democrats toss out big ideas on some of those other issues. Could they do the same for gun control? You know, like a ‘Green New Deal’ for gun control? German Lopez advocated for this idea in a recent Vox article. Let’s find out.

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impeach

Should the Democrats Impeach Trump?

June 20, 2019 /

The question is simple enough. Should the Democrats impeach Trump? And yet it’s not a simple question. It’s really two questions. The first one is: has Trump done anything impeachable? And the second one is: if so, is impeachment the best strategy for handling this?

So that’s the background. To impeach is not the solution to all impeachable offenses in all situations, just as to convict is not the solution in all cases where a person has committed a crime. In the latter case, it’s a question of whether conviction is the best way to address the crime. Is it not?

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The Socialist Manifesto

June 10, 2019 /

socialist manifesto

Jacobin founding editor Bhaskar Sunkara recently published his first book, The Socialist Manifesto.

He’s trying to do a lot with the book. But here’s the main goal as I see it. Sunkara wants to distinguish between social democracy and socialism. He draws this distinction primarily in terms of the political methods people use in their pursuit. And he argues that the best political vision for our times is one that helps us move from the former to the latter. He does this via a historical project, covering everything from the feudalist roots of capitalism to German and Swedish social democracy to the Soviet Union and China to the history of leftism in the United States. Again, quite a project.

I’ll lay out some of Sunkara’s key arguments in The Socialist Manifesto. And I’ll offer some agreement and criticism along the way.

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How to Criticize the Democratic Candidates

April 4, 2019 /

Rife with disorganization and insecurity, the Democratic Party wants you to vote blue no matter who. I guess. I mean, they do sell the phrase on a t-shirt.

And it loves its metaphors. When you criticize fellow liberals, so they say, you’re just engaged in a circular firing squad. They really love that metaphor. You know, circular firing squad. They write about it over and over and over and over.

Not that they started recently. They were writing about it in 2016. Hell, even in 2006.

Probably in 1896, for all I know.

But there are real distinctions and divisions among liberals and leftists. And between liberals and leftists, as I wrote about previously in a quiz. The call to line up behind a candidate and a message is always louder when it comes from those who dominate the debate and the issues. That’s, of course, the fly in the ointment. Among others, which I’ll say more about below the flow chart.

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