[Peace-discuss] News from Neptune for July 8, July 15, and July 22

[Wilson, David]

Interesting and important  points, and thanks for the response back, Carl.

I would make two final points. First neoliberalism is of course a slippery and multi-interpretable term. In one dominant take in the present (and one that I like), it references a set of economic and political principles that pivot around the drive to simultaneously re-entrepreneurialize places and feather the profit nests of capital (increasingly today real-estate capital). Indeed, David Harvey (you mentioned him) now widely invokes the term in this way when he speaks of "neoliberal governances" (see the Postmodern Condition and espeially his discussion of Baltimore). So to does Neal Smith when he discusses revanchist New York and the neoliberal Rudy Guliani (see Neoliberal Urbanization, 2002). A great exposition on this usage of neoliberalism is by Jamie Peck, Nik Theodore and Neal Brenner and Nik Theodore (Neoliberal Urbanism: Models, Moments, Mutations, 2009). 

In this vein, I do not view Trump's domestic ideas as anti-neoliberal but rather as a crazy hybrid that integrates especially crude populism with domestic neoliberalism. His commitment to the core package of neoliberal principles I previously identified is rock solid. To me, Trump has ingeniously (but unwittingly) engineered a face of complexity here that still needs to be be intricately excavated.     David

David Wilson
Associate Head and Director of Graduate Studies
Professor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dept of Geography
Department of Urban Planning
Department of African American Studies

________________________________________
From: C. G. Estabrook [carl at newsfromneptune.com]
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2016 8:28 PM
To: Wilson, David
Cc: peace-discuss at anti-war.net; Peace; sf-core; Occupy CU
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] News from Neptune for July 8, July 15, and July 22

Thanks for the comments, David.

I agree that Trump’s comments on 'lawnorder’ are frequently disturbing, but I don’t think they can easily be described as neoliberal.

I think neoliberalism applied consistently refers to the conscious, calculated policies of the US business class over the last 40 years, a counter-attack on the social democratic trend from the 'New Deal' through the 'Great Society' (1930s-70s): deunionization, financialization, globalization, removal of social supports - in support of elite profits. (See now David Harvey in the current Jacobin, “Neoliberalism is a Political Project.”) A culmination of neoliberalism is the trade pacts (NAFTA, TPP, TTIP) that Trump attacks - and the Democrats defend.

And identity politics of Clinton’s sort are bound up with neoliberalism: see inter alia Walter Benn Michaels, "The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality,” 2006. (Cf. Benn Michaels’ “Let Them Eat Diversity,” in Jacobin.)

The remarkable thing about Trump is that under the bluster he is asserting an (anti-neoliberal) class politics, over against Clinton’s identity politics.

See the remarks by the editor of CounterPunch on Trump’s acceptance speech: <http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/22/late-night-thoughts-on-trumps-jeremiad/>, e.g., "Trump completely ignored the traditional cultural issues that have freighted the GOP for 30 years and went right for the working class anxieties that the Democrats have failed to quell since the advent of neoliberalism. You can see why the smarter Democrats are running a little scared."

I think the Clinton people are quite worried about Trump’s class politics (as they were about Sanders’), know they can’t answer it, and are working strenuously to deflect the question, as acute critics like Glen Ford in BAR have seen: "Hillary Wants a Crusade to Defeat Trump’s 'Bigotry' – and Leave Her Bankers Alone” <http://www.blackagendareport.com/hillary_crusade_against_bigotry_trump>.

No one doubts that Clinton is a neoliberal (in Harvey’s sense); the remarkable thing is that Trump isn’t.

Regards, CGE

PS - BTW I think you know I’m voting for Jill Stein, who’s better than both.


> On Jul 25, 2016, at 7:31 PM, Wilson, David via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
> Hello Carl and Friends,
>
> Some very helpful and interesting posts on the presidential campaign in recent days, thanks.
>
> As we work our way through the Clinton versus Trump binary (I won't vote for either), I think it important to note that neoliberalism (as an ethos, sensibility and set of policies) also has a domestic dimension that needs to be considered.
>
> Trump is absolutely committed to placing neoliberal principles at the center of his domestic agenda. He has promised a ruthless "law and order," class based policing campaign that will deepen the affliction on poor neighborhoods (particular those of color). At the same time, purported "social engineeering" initiatives will be  shut down (e.g., affordable housing initiatives, Section 8 housing provision, school lunch programs) while the neocon. spin on the second amendment will be ferociously defended. Trump here unapologetically embraces a recipe of hyper privatization, evisceration of the welfare state, the killing of political dissent, a ramping up of the New Federalism, and the annihilation of what he terms "bad culture and bad individual choices."
>
> His notion of helping the inner city poor becomes a cruel hoax.
>
> On this neoliberal front, Trump far surpasses Clinton.
>
> David Wilson
>
> From: C. G. Estabrook [carl at newsfromneptune.com]
> Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2016 9:18 AM
> To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net; Peace
> Cc: Occupy CU; sf-core
> Subject: News from Neptune for July 8, July 15, and July 22
>
> Produced and directed by Yousef Kash for Urbana Public Television:
>
> July 22: a "Who’s Neo?” edition (#309): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00gVkb3HBls&feature=em-subs_digest
>
> July 15: a "Worse Than You Thought” edition (#308): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaCYnbkRRdo
>
> July 8: a "Who's a Warmonger?" edition (#307): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnZtH9AGi54
>
> It’s the first US presidential election in more than 40 years in which a major party candidate doesn’t profess allegiance to neoliberal and neocon principles. As a result, hysterical neocons are already talking of a coup against President Trump! (INMTU: “If Trump wins, a coup isn't impossible here in the U.S.” - James Kirchick LA Times 21 July.) The eminently neoliberal/neocon New York Times can’t believe what it’s hearing from Trump (nor, it seems, can it report it straight); and neocon Max Boot tweets, “Trump is reading straight from talking points of anti-American dictators.”
>
> Noam Chomsky (for whom News from Neptune is named) is said to predict (1) that we will have a Trump presidency and (2) "the left" will play a small but significant role in making it happen.
>
> "So this is really the class war. And it’s the class war of Wall Street and the corporate sector of the Democratic side against Trump on the populist side. And who knows whether he really means what he says when he says he’s for the workers and he wants to rebuild the cities, put labor back to work. And when he says he’s for the blacks and Hispanics have to get jobs just like white people, maybe he’s telling the truth, because that certainly is the way that the country can be rebuilt in a positive way.” [Michael Hudson]
>
> —CGE
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