Liberal yaybama and its consequences

The calls are going out now! Impeach Trump!

Well it's good to know that there's some support out there for the idea of President Pence.

And if they impeach President Pence? President Paul Ryan. Yeah, that ought to be just GRRREAT for the folks now living on food stamps. And if you get to him you get President Orrin Hatch. The only people who will have the power to impeach Donald Trump, it must be noted, will be those who don't think he's enough of an austerian creep, the elite Republicans who ran to his right in the primaries. Yeah, impeach Trump -- we want the TPP back, and maybe it will hasten the privatization of Social Security or something like that.

How did it get this way? Let's start here.

Obama Has Decimated His Own Party Unlike Any Other Modern President
913 lost legislature seats. 11 lost governorships. And a partridge in a pear tree.

The people who most need to be impressed by this fact are the nice liberals, who need to recognize what a catastrophic mistake eight years of Barack Obama was. The nice liberals, the ones who Rahm Emanuel called "fkn retarded," were and are Obama's most loyal constituency. But liberal support for Obama appears as a massive snake-oil sales effort. Obama gave us:

In short, what we got from Obama was a lot of stage-setting for a Trump victory.

Omigod Trump!

One of the biggest mysteries for the liberal Obama core constituency is one of how Donald Trump became President. After all, Barack Obama was one of our best Presidents ever, so how could he be replaced by Orange Hitler? One explanation popular among the nice liberals is that white people (specifically those who voted for Trump) are racists. This may be true, although it's hard to see the precise relevance of this explanation to Trump's actual victory, which had to do with large numbers of Obama voters not voting for President at all in November of last year. Another popular explanation is about undocumented insinuations by spooks about Russian interference in the election.

The explanation I've seen that merits the most credibility was the one published in Cracked magazine, a place of lame attempts at humor, by a guy who can hardly be accused of being a Trump voter ("How Half Of America Lost Its F**king Mind" being the title of an explanation for Trump's victory). Basically, the Obama version of economics was a promotion of neoliberal globalization, and specifically of the financial interests of the bankers who run the show through their control of the magic substance we call money. In the Obama economy, the cities do acceptably well. If you benefited from the job recovery, you are in all likelihood the possessor of one of those part-time jobs that are 94% of the new issues in the Era of Obama. If you aren't feeling the ostensibly expanding employment-population ratio, or if you aren't in the magical 25-54 age bracket, you can always be a driver for Uber. The countryside, however, doesn't do so well. In the November election, the countryside voted for Trump. So there's another Obama gift for everyone; Trump!

Protest! Protest

OK, now all the nice liberals in their cities are outraged by Donald Trump, and have taken to the airports in protest. That's great! Trump sucks, and the nice liberals do us all a favor by opposing him. But the problem with all this opposition is that Trump sucks because he's the culmination of thirty-plus years of lousy politics. Trump is, to be sure, the product of that politics. And who was at the forefront of that lousy politics? The political elites, to be sure, who decided back in the Seventies that neoliberalism was to be their principal ideology. But the awards for best supporting actress and actor in this drama of neoliberalism and of Trump-creation must go to the liberals, who made "being left-of-center" into a matter of supporting Barack Obama, who in turn played a major role in handing us this mess.

In about two weeks I will be coming out with a retrospective upon the protests of February 15, 2003. These were the protests against Bush Junior's forthcoming war against Iraq, and they were the largest protests in human history at the time. Hundreds of thousands of deaths later, it's hard to remember them. But we must. Protest is fine; but protest must have a purpose, otherwise, like 2/15/2003, it will go nowhere. The first purpose I would like to suggest for the anti-Trump protests is in getting the liberals to figure out how much damage they've done to the world through their screwed up electoral politics, especially as regards their support for Barack Obama, with the aim in mind of preventing them from doing more such damage in the future.

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

and Trump is its name.

Fantastic essay. Thanks so much.

To me, this article is an essential is understanding Prez Obama's mishandling of the economy:

President Obama Loved Austerity and the New Democrats Remain Addicted to It.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Azazello's picture

So the first thing is to understand the mindset of the Neo Dem constituency i.e. the (largely White) Professional Class. There is nothing so mortifying to these nice liberals as the possibility of being "called out" as racist. This explains why Barack Obama was given a pass. It didn't matter what he did, the WPC would not object because any criticism of his policies could be, and very often was, interpreted as racism. As for the "resistance", I'm fine with any and all anti-Trump demonstrations we just gotta' make sure that The Resistance isn't co-opted by Neo Dems. Chuck Schumer in a pussy hat ain't gonna' cut it.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

@Azazello argument, or even conversation, stopper. Those who commonly use this tactic are trying to bully people into silence.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@duckpin Using charges of racism in this way does terribly harm to the fight against racism. Charges of bigotry should not be made lightly, and certainly not fraudulently. Using them as a way to shut down disagreement is extraordinarily destructive.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Azazello {CSTS considers putting out her eyes. Would it be worth it? No, the image would still remain, burned into her brain like PURE BEEF on the Mighty Dog...}

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Is Dan Quayle still available?

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Cassiodorus's picture

@gjohnsit with his investments in the potatoe business.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@gjohnsit Because what's better than a rich guy who thinks all women should be available to him because everything should? A religious rich guy who thinks women should keep their place because God told him so.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Alex Ocana's picture

OK, now all the nice liberals in their cities are outraged by Donald Trump, and have taken to the airports in protest. That's great! Trump sucks, and the nice liberals do us all a favor by opposing him.

I think this "nice liberals" meme is a bullshit Trumpo right wing extremist method to try and discredit and shame the people who are at the airports and what they stand for. Maybe there are some "nice liberals", but watching live periscope feeds, social media I am seeing a lot of immigrant families, Muslims, and radicals who are willing to get themselves arrested. What I didn't see was a single Obama is great, Clinton is wonderful or Democrats rule meme on signs, or chants.

Before the election I suggested that the only way to change is not by voting for the corporate police state candidates, but to get out and shut the country down. Mass protests. So when a worthy cause, like unconstitutional, racist, bigoted bans on immigrants and refugees is passed by royal decree, I am happy that immigrants, Muslims, Democratic Socialists, radicals (socialist, communist, anarchist) and anyone else comes out to demonstrate.

And I am up to my eyeballs in the bullshit that its Clinton, Soros and the fucking Democrats manipulating me, or trying to discredit the demonstrations which such hog pucky. And its insulting to immigrant families.

I do agree (if I read the essay right) that that its not "Trump" or "Obama" or whover of these clown faces, its the damn corporate police state that is the enemy.

hands off my family_0.jpg
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From the Light House.

Cassiodorus's picture

@Alex Ocana That's why I said the protests were great.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Cassiodorus @Cassiodorus Even my position, which is more critical of the protests than yours, has nothing to do with discrediting the protesters. It has to do with analyzing the protests as a tactic. That means taking into account the field of power around the protests (which can include everything from the media to the mood of the country to about a dozen other things). It means projecting the likely results of the protests, and who will benefit. It means looking into who is organizing the protests, and who, if anybody, is funding them (maybe this is the part that's supposed to be discrediting, but I kind of think that if Gloria Steinem is a co-chair of the Women's March, perhaps it might indicate that establishment Democrats have their fingers in that pie.) That doesn't, obviously, say anything about the people who showed up in good faith except that there's other interests involved that might want to profit off of their good will.

I can remember a time when people might have disagreed on tactics, but the act of analyzing a tactic was not automatically considered either character assassination or disloyalty. Certainly analysis didn't used to imply "belonging to the other side." People didn't find such analysis automatically insulting.

Interesting times.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cassiodorus's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Beggars can't be choosers.

At any rate, yes, I agree with your critique of the protests.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Cassiodorus One could grow one's own food, of course.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cassiodorus

Hah - you used the word 'great', trademarked by Trump!

Now we all know that you're an orange-loving Roosian sleeper agent out to inform the public about important public information the public shouldn't know about! And you probably have a White, male, sexist, racist, Bernie-Roosian-Bear-adorned basement, too!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Alex Ocana stop with the ignorance?

So when a worthy cause, like unconstitutional, racist, bigoted bans on immigrants and refugees is passed by royal decree, I am happy that immigrants, Muslims, Democratic Socialists, radicals (socialist, communist, anarchist) and anyone else comes out to demonstrate.

Where were you (and the protesters) when BO did the same thing for six months, not just three months? Or at various times when other presidents (like Carter) took similar action.

How can we take the protesters seriously when the idiots apparently didn't care about the issue previously? Their concern is apparently propelled by the mere fact of a change in personnel issuing such EOs.

These protesters, including all of the people hyperventilating over the EO, should be ashamed of themselves. They are a bunch of hypocrites, swayed easily by purty people who talk purty.

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dfarrah

Cassiodorus's picture

@dfarrah I'm just hoping the protests become more meaningful at some point, and will stay tuned in case they do.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

@Cassiodorus
Nothing against protesting in and of itself.

I'm very disappointed. I used to think my side (or the liberal side) was more fact-based and mostly unbiased in evaluations. After the Bernie and Trump campaigns, I now realize how much my side distorts and lies just as much as the other side.

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dfarrah

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@dfarrah Things have changed. Recently.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal dropped from my eyes.

When my conservative cohorts talk about how awful the dems/liberals are, I'll be agreeing with them all of the time.

There will be peace instead of discord. Lions shall sleep with lambs, and so on.

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dfarrah

MarilynW's picture

@Cassiodorus
It never happened.

Trump's plan to visit Harley Davidson and sign some stuff there was cancelled because of a planned protest.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/31/politics/donald-trump-milwaukee-harley-dav...

The "the most powerful man in the world" can't go where he wants, that's meaningful.

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To thine own self be true.

Alex Ocana's picture

@dfarrah @dfarrah . . . at home in Bolivia. Watch the videos. Learn some history of protest from other places in the world. I'm 70 and been at it for over fifty years. I think you should apologize for calling me "ignorant".

Can't embed this but this will show how our revolution went: video:http://cdn.fireclip.io/bo_bolivision/2016/10/03/9967e/13-aos-de-la-defen...

Obviously I am not Evo, but all these social movements needed food organized and, the ones from the tropics, clothing.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkL6H3ymyJE]

@dfarrah http://notibol.com/noticia/13-anos-de-la-defensa-del-gas/741277

Socialism and the Fight Against War
Build an International Movement of the Working Class and Youth Against Imperialism!

Statement of the International Committee of the Fourth International
18 February 2016

1. Fifteen years after the United States launched the “war on terror,” the entire world is being dragged into an ever-expanding maelstrom of imperialist violence. The invasions and interventions organized by US imperialism have devastated Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. NATO is engaged in a massive rearmament program in preparation for war with Russia. Africa is the target of relentless US and European neo-colonial machinations. Border disputes between neighboring states are provoking tensions and outright clashes in Eastern Europe, the Trans Caucasus, the Indian subcontinent and South America. In East Asia, the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” is embroiling the entire region in the United States’ confrontation with China.

2. The “war on terror”—riddled with imperialist deceit and limitless hypocrisy—has traumatized, maimed and killed uncounted millions, and triggered the greatest refugee crisis since the end of World War II. Sixty million people have been driven from their countries. . .

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/02/18/icfi-f18.html

I don't live in the USA. But I have shared my support for Black Lives Matter all over the world, especially the Caribbean and Bolivia. (Note "Black" means all oppressed people, including Syrians, Rojavans and Palestinians).

Black Lives Matter's platform is clear enough:

“America is an empire that uses war to expand territory and power,”

the Movement for Black Lives states clearly.

“American wars are unjust, destructive to Black communities globally and do not keep Black people safe locally.”

The platform calls for cutting the U.S. military budget by 50 percent, closing the more than 800 U.S. military bases around the world and pulling back U.S. troops. This money, the Movement for Black Lives says, should then be re-invested in communities that have been harmed by the U.S. government.

“Resources and funds needed for reparations and for building a just and equitable society domestically are instead used to wage war against a majority of the world’s communities,” the platform stresses.

And this invest-divest policy should apply globally. The Movement for Black Lives demands reparations not only for Black Americans, but also for “countries and communities devastated by American war-making, such as Somalia, Iraq, Libya and Honduras.”

And because its a bit long I will be glad to share my research on all the executive orders signed since Reagan and discuss when I have time. The right wing crap being sprouted out about the immigration protests is hooey as is the crap about justifying a monstrosity decreed by Trump by trying to compare it to the Executive Orders made by previous Presidents of the USA.

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From the Light House.

blazinAZ's picture

@dfarrah

"ignorance"?

Shame on you for this unfounded attack.

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

@dfarrah @dfarrah @dfarrah

Actually, Alex Ocana, for whom I have the greatest respect, appears to have had a great deal of experience with protest/resistance and has made some very informative posts on such subjects, since he lives in an area where such skills and knowledge are essential.

You might want to reconsider referring to him as being ignorant, as it doesn't apply in this case.

Edit to delete a left-over word from sentence reconstruction, and, as long as I'm here, to unnecessarily mention that I haz been ninja'd, having responded to a comment well up-thread.

And another edit to add a note about this major and heroic victory of the people of Bolivia over the World Bank and the most appalling corporate greed over their own water supplies, demanded by the World Bank to be 'privatized', triggering global outrage:

http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/bolivians-end-foreign-owned-wat...

Bolivians end foreign-owned water privatization in Cochabamba ‘Water War', 2000

December 15,
1999
to
April 10,
2000

Citizens died and were maimed - but the people valiantly won back their water supplies and the Greeds crawled away, although I seem to recall that they attempted to sue? Long time ago and just skimmed the page as a refresher, but too tired to think, lol.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Alex Ocana Cassiodorus is many things, but right-wing is definitely not one of them.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Alex Ocana's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal @Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal From my point of view from a country where everyone from Falangistas to Maoists are (or were) forces to reckon with, the political spectrum of USA, with few tiny fringes, is all right wing.

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From the Light House.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Alex Ocana If you mean those of us who are left have no power, you're certainly right about that.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cassiodorus's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal because we've fallen in with the nice liberals whose hero is Obama and who forgot about the working class a long time ago.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

MarilynW's picture

@Alex Ocana I agree.

Protests have power. The massive protests against the invasion of Iraq didn't stop Bush from invading but we are still talking about those protests. They are part of history and they support the fact that it was an illegal invasion.

Word of a planned protest stopped Trump from visiting a US city.

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To thine own self be true.

It is long, so I feel comfortable posting the first three paragraphs below.

The Dying Days of Liberalism
How Orthodoxy, Professionalism, and Unresponsive Politics Finally Doomed a 19th-century Project

failure
The Dying Days of Liberalism
How Orthodoxy, Professionalism, and Unresponsive Politics Finally Doomed a 19th-century Project
What a sight to behold. These are the dying days, counting down soon to the final hours, of the defeated political project of liberalism, inherited from the 19th-century. The centre—if there ever was one—could not hold after all. What a thing it is to watch one of the dominant, cornerstone ideologies of the international system, which has strutted its stuff with such swagger and certainty since the end of the Cold War, finally fall face forward into the dustbin of history. It has fallen with the same force as if shoved from behind by a stampeding mob, although its defenders will claim that mere “mistakes” were made, as if they accidentally slipped on history’s largest ever banana peel. And what a scene: who would have expected such a lack of dignity, such pathetic hysteria, such baseless smears, such empty threats, coming from those who otherwise elaborately preened themselves as gallant statesmen, who spoke as if they had cornered the market on “reason”. While the fall could have been worse, there has not been an absence of violence, threats, boycotts, and even calls of treason designed to delegitimize the voters’ choice.

Liberal democracy has been reduced to a shell, more a name than a fact that deserves the name. For many years, liberalism has been liberal authoritarianism or post-liberalism or neoliberalism, with a high elitist disdain for democracy and a fear of the masses everywhere. Promises of inclusion, fairness, and welfare, were replaced by sensitive-sounding rhetorical tricks and tokenism. Moral narcissism, virtue signalling, identity politics, and building patchwork quilts of diversity were the order of the day. Protests were encouraged abroad, against target nations, in the name of democracy promotion—but at home, protests were shut down by an always more militarized police. Nations around the world were lectured about transparency and accountability, but at home it was all about mass surveillance, domestic espionage, and a crackdown on whistleblowers. Liberal leaders claimed to be upholders of peace and order, while multiplying the number of wars. Obama himself is personally responsible for the killing of thousands, many of them civilians—in 2016 alone, the US dropped 72 bombs every day on average, in wars in seven countries. Obama oversaw the rapid acceleration of wealth transfer, and heightened domestic poverty, and then he is praised by pseudo-left liberal scholars and writers for having “governed well” and doing so with a professional, graceful demeanour. The North American and European left, which made its peace and came to a bargain with liberal imperialism, sinks with those who in the end rewarded them with so little. Once again leftist social imperialism results in failure as it lays the foundations for its replacement.

It’s not a small thing that has fallen here, not merely the defeat of Hillary Clinton and Americans rejecting Obama’s “legacy”. We are dealing with a series of institutions, an expert class, and a network of political and corporate alliances, that is being shaken beyond repair. We are in the earliest days of a historical transition, so it’s not clear what is coming next, and the labels that have been proliferating demonstrate confusion and uncertainty—populism, nativism, nationalism, etc. Closer to my professional home, we can start to witness the fact that as part of the ignominious defeat of the expert class, US anthropology—exercising its hegemony on an international scale—will not be spared either. Within a few years, professional and institutional anthropology will approach the zero line that this site has talked about for several years now, the line at which power and influence disappear as the imperial supports for US anthropology weaken or fall away.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@dkmich small part of the quotation.

There are several schools of anthropology and I doubt that the Cultural Materialist school will be affected negatively by liberalism's passing. This school, almost alone, has predictive power and has a coherent world view.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Creosote.'s picture

@dkmich
"The breadth and depth of the defeat, and the entire architecture used for conveying and defending their ideology failed to such an extent that we must conclude that it was the ideology itself, and the social and economic project that it championed, that was also rejected. . . . A collapse this big opens too many previously unseen doors for it to be just a momentary hiccup for the system."

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It is long, so I feel comfortable posting the first three paragraphs below.

The Dying Days of Liberalism
How Orthodoxy, Professionalism, and Unresponsive Politics Finally Doomed a 19th-century Project

failure
The Dying Days of Liberalism
How Orthodoxy, Professionalism, and Unresponsive Politics Finally Doomed a 19th-century Project
What a sight to behold. These are the dying days, counting down soon to the final hours, of the defeated political project of liberalism, inherited from the 19th-century. The centre—if there ever was one—could not hold after all. What a thing it is to watch one of the dominant, cornerstone ideologies of the international system, which has strutted its stuff with such swagger and certainty since the end of the Cold War, finally fall face forward into the dustbin of history. It has fallen with the same force as if shoved from behind by a stampeding mob, although its defenders will claim that mere “mistakes” were made, as if they accidentally slipped on history’s largest ever banana peel. And what a scene: who would have expected such a lack of dignity, such pathetic hysteria, such baseless smears, such empty threats, coming from those who otherwise elaborately preened themselves as gallant statesmen, who spoke as if they had cornered the market on “reason”. While the fall could have been worse, there has not been an absence of violence, threats, boycotts, and even calls of treason designed to delegitimize the voters’ choice.

Liberal democracy has been reduced to a shell, more a name than a fact that deserves the name. For many years, liberalism has been liberal authoritarianism or post-liberalism or neoliberalism, with a high elitist disdain for democracy and a fear of the masses everywhere. Promises of inclusion, fairness, and welfare, were replaced by sensitive-sounding rhetorical tricks and tokenism. Moral narcissism, virtue signalling, identity politics, and building patchwork quilts of diversity were the order of the day. Protests were encouraged abroad, against target nations, in the name of democracy promotion—but at home, protests were shut down by an always more militarized police. Nations around the world were lectured about transparency and accountability, but at home it was all about mass surveillance, domestic espionage, and a crackdown on whistleblowers. Liberal leaders claimed to be upholders of peace and order, while multiplying the number of wars. Obama himself is personally responsible for the killing of thousands, many of them civilians—in 2016 alone, the US dropped 72 bombs every day on average, in wars in seven countries. Obama oversaw the rapid acceleration of wealth transfer, and heightened domestic poverty, and then he is praised by pseudo-left liberal scholars and writers for having “governed well” and doing so with a professional, graceful demeanour. The North American and European left, which made its peace and came to a bargain with liberal imperialism, sinks with those who in the end rewarded them with so little. Once again leftist social imperialism results in failure as it lays the foundations for its replacement.

It’s not a small thing that has fallen here, not merely the defeat of Hillary Clinton and Americans rejecting Obama’s “legacy”. We are dealing with a series of institutions, an expert class, and a network of political and corporate alliances, that is being shaken beyond repair. We are in the earliest days of a historical transition, so it’s not clear what is coming next, and the labels that have been proliferating demonstrate confusion and uncertainty—populism, nativism, nationalism, etc. Closer to my professional home, we can start to witness the fact that as part of the ignominious defeat of the expert class, US anthropology—exercising its hegemony on an international scale—will not be spared either. Within a few years, professional and institutional anthropology will approach the zero line that this site has talked about for several years now, the line at which power and influence disappear as the imperial supports for US anthropology weaken or fall away.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@dkmich @dkmich @dkmich

Thanks! Sometimes the obvious does need to be said - and repeated a lot to counteract the Big Lie propaganda - and your chosen quote was perfect for stating it.

Edit: whoops, had started a comment in regard to that quote, decided I was too tired to finish writing it and refreshed, thinking the comment box would be removed. But it seems that when I later tried to reply (below) to Creosote, for whom this was intended, it had sneakily remained and appeared when I clicked 'reply' to Creosote, cleverly showing the name only in symbols on the message... I really should just go crash out - if you'd only stop being so darned interesting, people!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Creosote.'s picture

@Ellen North
I greatly appreciate being able to be in the vicinity of your thought.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@dkmich Everyone here should read this -- and in this regard I make no apologies for my use of the term "nice liberals," a sort of caricature of people who can't restrain themselves in front of people who voted for Trump in a state where he lost by thirty points.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

I was in a bunch of those bunch marches and did what I could. And what I see now is and will be a repeat. Once Obama became president and began his active militarism it became in hindsight that the anti-war movement was not anti-war, but anti-Bush. War wasn't such a bad thing if the president was a democrat. The irony of course was that his rise to prominence was due to his anti-Iraq war stance.

So yes, Trump should not not have made his decision about the refugees. And yes, the protests at various airports are great (and rather coordinated but that is okay), and elected democrats are attending and giving brave speeches. But gone down the memory hole is that Obama in eight years did nothing to stop the refugee crisis by get this, stopping the wars and bombings--50,000 bombings in last two years. No one from all the images and videos that I have seen is yelling out "Trump stop the bombings, stop the wars, stop creating refugees". I imagine anybody yelling that out would not be appreciated or welcome.

But now, being anti-Trump is kinda like being in the cool kids club--with everybody rushing to be the coolest on the block. But in particular, all of celebs not saying jack shit about Obama's wars, they are complicit at least in massive hypocrisy in they now protest the ill treatment of refugees created by Obama's wars. The first and foremost issue that made me leave the democratic party was that it became pro-war because Obama and Hillary were pro-war.

If and when the democrats re-gain power, it will be nicer faces on the same shit. Look at the cabinet choices Hillary was going to appoint:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW9erWMxlsY
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/139751/hillary-clintons-cabinet-bad

My favorite was Neera Tanden who advised Hillary not to support $15/hr min wage as HHS head (a candidate which the SEIU leadership supported over Bernie in the primaries).

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Big Al's picture

@MrWebster I love Trump, he's my president.
I don't know what to say anymore. That's all I got.
It's hard being anti-everything because when others decide to join, they paint the barn a different color.

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@Big Al

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riverlover's picture

@Big Al
I would have no problem, unless the barn color turned muddy brown. But hex signs and quilt sides are neat. And I am with you: a pointed protest would be great. I think it must be economic. And you? Marches do squat. and now in some places could be deadly.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

@MrWebster puddle up? He said, oh so dramatically, every fiber in his body would work against the EO. (don't watch if you haven't, you'll hurl....oh, go ahead and watch and have a good laugh).

Have we ever seen Schumer so worked up about anything before or promising every fiber toward a goal?

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dfarrah

@dfarrah I don't follow Schumer much but when has he ever taken the side of Muslims?

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blazinAZ's picture

@dfarrah
at least partially because the US government would not allow refugees into the country to avoid Hitler's genocide.

I'm not a fan of Schumer, but your response ignores his family history and borders on cruel.

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

@dfarrah

Fiber is very important in the production of bowel movements. He produces a lot of those, doesn't he?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Big Al's picture

what are we protesting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Afghanistan.
And it's five, six, seven
open up the pearly gates.
Ain't no time to wonder why, whoopee we're all gonna die

When a protest comes along with the right goal, I'm all in.

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sojourns's picture

@Big Al Country Joe McDonald and the Fish -- the lyric change from Viet Nam to Afghanistan came about 1979 when Russia invaded Afghanistan and young people were concerned they'd get drafted to fight in that.

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"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Big Al It's come by for me a couple of times--
But then these guys come by too:

RTSSKSF-1-960x639.jpg

And these guys (trigger warning, DO NOT WATCH if you're triggered by police violence):

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Amanda Matthews's picture

Obama do for 8 years, run rough shod over the plebs. But now they're whining and crying about it because they aren't the ones making out like bandits now.

They must have forgotten the part where they told all us non-True Believers to go away and they didn't need us, the Anointed One will fix everything. Since her throne was snatched out from under her, they're now demanding we take to the streets to fight the same old same old that's been going on since Clinton I. It ain't gonna happen.

Obama and the 'libs' had 8 years to do something about 'immigration reform' but didn't. He just kept deporting people while pretending he gave a damn. He put a hold on refugees from Iraq coming into the US and none of the SJW Libs said a word about keeping out the people who's country we bombed back to the Stone Age. Where were Chuckles and Granny Pelosi back then? If they really care about these people then maybe we should QUIT BOMBING THEM ourselves?

This isn't just about Muslims, this is really about immigration period. I'm more worried about the people of Flint being continually poisoned then I am seeing that there's a never-ending supply of cheap foreign labor coming into the country. And THAT is all these Dems are worried about. Where will their real constituents, the 1%, keep getting our replacements from if something is finally done about uncontrolled immigration?

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews

according to Rasmussen, amidst all this screaming, tears, and wailing. Pretty effective, that drama. Not just the protesters, the media is "helping," too. Not working. It seems to be turning off the peons. Though I do remember that it's fun to be out there with all your buddies.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

image007.jpg

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

and I hope you do!

For now, the one bit I disagree with: I don't feel the cities are really doing acceptably well. Only for the top 10%, really. Of course, in a little while only the top 10% will be able to afford to live in the cities. Hope they have a lot of robots to do their dry cleaning and wait their tables and raise their kids.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cassiodorus's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal The rents are absurdly high, and so a lot of people live outdoors. But outdoors in CA is much more tame than outdoors in the rest of the country. Still there's money to be made through begging and food to be gotten in food banks and soup kitchens. But I don't think that's the worst of it. Americans hate the poor, and especially the Black poor. Friends are hard to find and there's no solidarity. Still it could be worse.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

If You Want Trump Impeached, It's Because You Don't Know Enough About Mike Pence: http://www.newslogue.com/debate/312/CaitlinJohnstone

Excerpts (full piece worth the read):

Everything you hate about Trump, Pence embodies, albeit with a much more politically conventional and polite face. He embodies everything that’s foul about Trump, plus he’s as eager to start World War 3 as Hillary Clinton. If you thought the general election featured two awful choices, think about what would happen if you combined all the worst aspects of both of them. The very worst of both deeply abysmal worlds. That’s exactly what Mike Pence is.

What we progressives need is not the impeachment of the current President, it’s to focus on the battle of ensuring that the next one is excellent. The Democratic party currently actively sabotages true progressive candidates. That has not changed. Not one thing about the machine that killed Bernie Sanders has changed a whit, and they don’t intend to change if they can get away with it. As long as they’ve got us naively exerting our energy on a dead-end campaign to oust Trump, they can just quietly slip into the background only to emerge in 2020 with yet another corporate warhawk candidate that we don’t want but feel like we have to get behind as they play the same old trick of “Well, do you want Trump again?”

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

Cassiodorus's picture

@2andfro we can get another city councilmember like Kshama Sawant elected. Meanwhile Republicans will triumph everywhere but in California, NYC, and Chicago.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama