E268 - Antifada Election Desk (Part 1) w/ Varn, Zhana, Reid Kane
Added 2024-11-08 05:25:26 +0000 UTCOur roundtable discusses the meaning of Trump's victory--the election's stakes, its international reverberations, what it tells us about the crisis of capitalist accumulation, how economics connect with the the race/class/gender demographic voting shifts, and the historic characters of the Republican and Democratic Parties.
In Part 2, we plot THE RESISTANCE!
Panelists:
C. Derick Varn
Zhandarka Kurti
Reid Kane
Song: Los 3 de La Habana - Cancion de Trump
Comments
Felt like Reid really could not reel in the interruptions on this one, great ep otherwise
Baron
2024-11-13 14:13:03 +0000 UTCDoes anyone know the name of the book referenced at 52:45?
Gadfly
2024-11-13 11:53:59 +0000 UTCOh absolutely! If car dealers are paradigmatic, then GOP rent seekers consist more of state-enabled cartels then outright subsidy schemes. Which also lets them pretend that they are insurgents against big business and big government. The Dems are just as incoherent, of course. All these state-affiliated industries and agencies (including the armed forces) are clearly on their side, and yet they fail to make use of them in anything more than rhetoric. You'd think the slightest bit of discipline or patronage would see them win every time. But that brings us back to the modern-day weakness of incumbency; not even Peronism can hack it anymore.
The Inner Moon
2024-11-10 03:16:11 +0000 UTCTHat's fair--I think we should be clear on the KINDS of rent-seeking--a lot of GOP capital isn't as obviously rent-seeking as Tech or academia.
Derick Varn
2024-11-10 02:52:52 +0000 UTCReid's analysis is enlightening in parts, but subtly wrong in others. The Dems and GOP definitely aren't split along petite/haute bourgeoisie lines, and he overstates their historical continuity. While the party coalitions themselves are and always have been somewhat arbitrary, the best description of the present divide is one I believe I first heard on this very show, namely the illusory distinction between concrete and abstract labor. This also overlaps with the gendered division of work. I would slightly disagree with Varn though on tying rent-seekers to the Democratic coalition, since while this makes sense on the corporate level, there are plenty of small business rent-seekers like car dealers and landlords who are more than comfortable in the GOP. Additionally, while capitalist overproduction definitely gives rise to an ever greater proportion of unproductive consumption, this is not a conscious move on the part of the capitalist system so much as its inevitable outcome. Plus, much of the work which pays for this consumption can still be indirectly productive if it is tied into social reproduction, like a lot of care work. The GOP's disdain for service work may have something to do with its unproductive or emasculating nature, but they empower plenty of parasites themselves. Overall, both parties still dance to the same tune, and whatever Trump concocts in the coming term will be reliably recuperated into the Democratic platform in 2028.
The Inner Moon
2024-11-10 02:48:14 +0000 UTCI found that assertion less clarifying by Reid which is why I nuanced it. Professionals that are formally petite bourgeois is not the same as petite bourgeois but they are rent-seeking. Whereas GOP likes p.b. is they are rural and involved in small capital holding--chamber of commerence stuff. Now before the 1980s, I actually think Reid is dead-on right, but its complicated now. I don't love Christian Parenti's political turn but I actually think he is pretty on this.
Derick Varn
2024-11-10 02:45:09 +0000 UTCIt does seem like they may be using bourgeoisie in a way similar to Berkman did in his writings where they are not the same as “capitalists” and actually means the PMC/managers so I think we are actually in agreement but like the use of the term like that just feels needlessly muddying
Brandon Lighty
2024-11-09 19:57:37 +0000 UTCI feel like the analysis of Democrats as the party of the petit bourgeois is the opposite of the truth unless the words are just being used in a way I don’t understand. Overwhelmingly it seems Democrats are the party of the professionalized proletarian and the international bourgeoisie while Republicans are the party of downwardly proletarianizing petit bourgeois
Brandon Lighty
2024-11-09 19:52:38 +0000 UTCThat horrible song is an earworm that is trying to fash-brainwash me
I'm a Sentient Lichen - and so can YOU!!
2024-11-09 19:33:24 +0000 UTCyayyy ILC
Milo Gallagher
2024-11-09 16:06:03 +0000 UTC
