It’s a waste of time to debate Trump supporters.
Instead I ask them what they care about in terms of healthcare, jobs, housing, livable planet…etc, and what “make America great(again)” means.
I ask. How can we be great if we don’t invest in our people and if we ‘neglect’ (to put it mildly), in the natural environment that sustains our lives and livelihoods?
To counter ethno nationalism, multiracial democracy is a good goal, espousedloudly and clearly.
There is no sane way to stop the emerging demographic shift to a nonwhite majority US, nor any sane way to stop the emerging decline of US and Western power (at least relative to other power centers in the world.)
Coming to terms with the need to get beyond empire and coming to terms with our racist and genocidal history is a way to improve our national character and our prospects for freedom and prosperity, not tear our country down, as Trump alleges as he proposes a “patriotic education” program, with echoes of Hitler Youth.
Rightwing propaganda has alleged the “radical left seeks to destroy America.”
But the left actually offers an alternative to authoritarianism as global capitalism pushes the US and much of the world toward crises.
My own distillation of George Orwell’s work involves the idea that advanced industrial liberal democracies face two main options (barring complete collapse): some form of authoritarian/fascist configuration of their political economies or some form of democratic socialist , social democractic configuration.
That’s a rough sketch. The reality is obviously very complex.
For example, while social democracy in the US and parts of Europe has declined, you can’t exactly call it fascism because in the same period in which private wealth has drastically increased at the expense of public amenities, social progress continues on cultural issues such as gender equity and LGBTQ rights.
Leave a Reply