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

[allan siegel <allan@allansiegel.info>]

Thanks for writing Molly,
A quick response to two of your items here before I get lost in something else…

> On 2 Dec 2016, at 01:23, Molly Hankwitz <mollyhankwitz@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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
what I meant here by ahistorical is that this form of populism shapes (defines) popular perception of economic or political crises as evolving without precedent and disconnected from previous events or policies… so the present wars in the Middle East (for example) have nothing to do with the Bush invasion of Iraq, etc. of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict… ahistorical in this sense is liquidating historical memory
> 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.—
yes, you are right to include action here as well; I emphasise vision because far to often we are unable to fully describe a society that is just and economically viable beyond the neoliberal mantra of free enterprise etc. etc.. we cannot create something better without imagining and describing what that can be - too often we think that actions can solve these problems - and actions are essential in expressing anger at injustices and inequities - but we need a foundation to build on that includes ideas people can understand and action…

Wendy Brown has talked about a lot of these problems (Wasserman also) and Sanders and West going to Standing Rock are good examples of supporting a brave and important action BUT Sanders got sucked into the perennial two-party dilemma and was trashed by Clinton operatives; so by vision I mean something beyond the two-party definition of American so-called democracy…

well, thanks again for writing
best
allan



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