by Lance Selfa
From Hope to Despair
1.Edward Morrisey, “The Catastophic Decline of the Democratic Party,” The Week, January 11, 2017; Eric Garcia, “Republicans Expand Domination of State Legislatures,” Roll Call, November 10, 2016.
2.David Frum, “Beware the Democratic Sea-Change,” Financial Times, February 6, 2008.
3.Ron Suskind, Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington and the Education of a President (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), loc. 5377 of 12,193, Kindle.
4.Andrea Orr, “Tracking the Recovery,” Economic Policy Institute, October 6, 2009, www.epi.org/publication/big_banks_seen_as_big_beneficiaries_of_government_economic_policies.
5.Physicians for a National Health Program, “Pro Single-Payer Doctors: Health Bill Leaves 23 Million Uninsured,” www.pnhp.org/news/2010/march/pro-single-payer-doctors-health-bill-leaves-23-million-uninsured.
6.Glenn Greenwald, “The White House as Helpless Victim on Health Care,” Salon, December 16, 2009, www.salon.com/2009/12/16/white_house_5/.
7.Republicans failed in their first attempt to “repeal and replace” Obamacare under Trump in March 2017. But they committed to keep trying. See Sam Frizell, “The Effort to Repeal Obamacare Is Failing Again. Here’s What That Means for the GOP,” Time, April 6, 2017.
8.Greenwald, “The White House as Helpless Victim.”
9.Matt Taibbi, “Obama and Jobs: Why I Don’t Believe Him Anymore,” Rolling Stone, September 6, 2011.
10.See Bernadette D. Proctor, Jessica L. Semega, and Melissa A. Kollar, “Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015,” US Census Bureau, September, 2016.
11.For an excellent postmortem on Obama’s term, see Perry Anderson, “Passing the Baton,” New Left Review 104 (2017): 41–64.
12.Guy T. Saperstein, “Trump Didn’t Win the Election, Hillary Lost It,” Alternet, November 12, 2016, www.alternet.org/election-2016/trump-didnt-win-election-hillary-lost-it.
13.Zaid Jilan, “Center for American Progress Advised Clinton Team against $15 Minimum Wage, Leaked Emails Show,” The Intercept, October 10, 2016, https://theintercept.com/2016/10/10/center-for-american-progress-advised-clinton-team-against-15-minimum-wage-leaked-emails-show/.
14.Luke Savage, “Why Bernie Was Right,” Jacobin, October 21, 2016, www.jacobinmag.com/2016/10/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-podesta-emails-wikileaks/.
15.Liberal pollsters and analysts, like Stanley Greenberg, Celinda Lake, and Ruy Texeira, use this term to describe groups like unmarried women, people of color, and younger voters who have been reliably liberal and Democratic voters when they vote. A good reference for these analyses is the Democratic Strategist website, thedemocraticstrategist.org.
16.On this, see the indispensable report by Jasper Craven, “Once an Organizational Army, Team Sanders Now a Skeleton Crew,” Vermont Digger, May 16, 2016, http://vtdigger.org/2016/05/16/once-an-organizational-army-team-sanders-now-skeleton-crew/.
17.Edward-Isaac Dovere and Gabriel DeBenedetti, “Bernie Sanders’ New Group Is Already in Turmoil,” Politico, August 23, 2016, www.politico.com/story/2016/08/bernie-sanders-group-turmoil-227297.
18.For a number of examples, see James Hohmann, “The Daily 202: Five Reasons Bernie Sanders Lost Last Night’s Democratic Debate,” Washington Post, March 7, 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2016/03/07/daily-202-five-reasons-bernie-sanders-lost-last-night-s-democratic-debate/56dcf1e6981b92a22d730a5d/.
19.Chris Sánchez, “Don’t Vote for a Third Party Presidential Candidate in This Election,” Business Insider, September 17, 2016, www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-dont-vote-third-party-gary-johnson-jill-stein-2016-9.
20.Adolph Reed, “Vote for the Lying Neoliberal Warmonger: It’s Important,” CommonDreams, August 18, 2016, www.commondreams.org/views/2016/08/18/vote-lying-neoliberal-warmonger-its-important.
21.Jeff Stein, “Study: Hillary Clinton’s TV Ads Were Almost Entirely Policy-Free,” Vox, March 8, 2017, www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/8/14848636/hillary-clinton-tv-ads.
22.Aziz Rana, “Decolonizing Obama: What Happened to the Third-World Left?” n+1, no. 27, Winter 2017, https://nplusonemag.com/issue-27/politics/decolonizing-obama/.
23.Kevin Baker, “Barack Hoover Obama,” Harper’s, July 2009, http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/barack-hoover-obama/.
The Misogynist-in-Chief
Epigraph source: Anonymous, “Sexual Assault Survivor Reacts to Donald Trump Presidency,” Teen Vogue, November 10, 2016, www.teenvogue.com/story/sexual-assault-survivor-reacts-to-donald-trump-presidency.
1.“Transcript: Donald Trump’s Taped Comments about Women,” New York Times, October 8, 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html.
2.Gillian Mohney, “Sexual Assault Hotline Calls Up in Wake of Donald Trump Allegations,” ABC News, October 14, 2016, http://abcnews.go.com/Health/sexual-assault-hotline-calls-wake-donald-trump-allegations/story?id=42805063.
3.Michael M. Grynbaum and Jim Rutenberg, “Trump, Asked About Accusations Against Bill O’Reilly, Calls Him a ‘Good Person,’” New York Times, April, 5, 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/business/media/trump-oreilly-fox-murdochs.html.
4.Heidi Glenn, “Fear of Deportation Spurs 4 Women to Drop Domestic Abuse Cases In Denver,” NPR, March 21, 2017, www.npr.org/2017/03/21/520841332/fear-of-deportation-spurs-4-women-to-drop-domestic-abuse-cases-in-denver.
5.“Businessman at JFK Kicks, Shouts at Muslim Employee, ‘Trump Is Here Now, He Will Get Rid of All of You,’” New York 4 News, January 26, 2017, www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Muslim-Employee-Hijab-Delta-Sky-Lounge-Kicked-Harassed-Flyer-Shouts-Trump-is-Here-Now-411924555.html.
6.Oliver Laughland and Lauren Gambino, “Restaurants Run by Labor Secretary Nominee Report ‘Disturbing’ Rates of Sexual Harassment,” Guardian, January 10, 2017, www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/10/andrew-puzder-cke-sexual-harassment-labor-secretary. Puzder subsequently withdrew his name from consideration to be labor secretary.
7.Mattt Flegenheimer and Maggie Haberman, “Donald Trump, Abortion Foe, Eyes ‘Punishment’ for Women, Then Recants,” New York Times, March 30, 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/us/politics/donald-trump-abortion.html.
8.Olivia Becker, “46 Anti-Abortion Bills Are Already in Front of State Legislatures,” Vice News, January 12, 2017, https://news.vice.com/story/at-least-46-anti-abortion-bills-are-already-in-front-of-state-legislatures-in-2017.
9.Becker, “At Least 46 Anti-Abortion Bills.”
10.“The Wage Gap for Mothers, State by State,” National Women’s Law Center, 2016, https://nwlc.org/resources/the-wage-gap-for-mothers-state-by-state-2016/.
11.Wendy Wang, Kim Parker, and Paul Taylor, “Breadwinner Moms,” Pew Research Center, May 29, 2013, www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/29/breadwinner-moms/.
12.Ben Guarino, “Police: Conn. Politician Said He No Longer Has to Be ‘Politically Correct,’ Pinched Woman’s Groin,” Washington Post, January 17, 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/01/17/police-conn-politician-said-he-no-longer-has-to-be-politically-correct-pinches-womans-groin/?utm_term=.2aad6758bae8.
13.Clare Malone, “Clinton Couldn’t Win Over White Women,” Five Thirty-Eight, November 9, 2016, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/clinton-couldnt-win-over-white-women/.
14.Stephanie Coontz, “Why Women Are Still Voting for Trump, Despite His Misogyny,” interview by Daniel Denvir, Vox, October 25, 2016, www.vox.com/conversations/2016/10/25/13384528/donald-trump-women-stephanie-coontz.
15.“Election 2016, Exit Polls,” CNN Politics, November 23, 2016, www.cnn.com/election/results/exit-polls.
16.Lance Selfa, “Who’s to Blame for Trump’s Victory,” interview, Socialist Worker, November 14, 2016, https://socialistworker.org/2016/11/14/whos-to-blame-for-trumps-victory.
17.Thomas Frank, “Why Must the Trump Alternative Be Self-Satisfied, Complacent Democrats?” Guardian, May 4, 2016, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/04/democrats-acting-elitist-not-progressive-thomas-frank.
18.Mon
thly Harvard Poll, April 2017, http://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Harvard-CAPS-Harris-Poll-April-Wave-Topline-Favorability-04.18.2017.pdf.
19.NARAL Pro-Choice America, “NARAL Statement on DNC Chair Perez and Senator Sanders Embracing an Anti-Choice Candidate in Nebraska,” press release, April 20, 2017, www.prochoiceamerica.org/2017/04/20/naral-statement-dnc-chair-perez-senator-sanders-embracing-anti-choice-candidate-nebraska-today/.
20.Christina Cauterucci, “The Women’s March on Washington Has Released an Unapologetically Progressive Platform,” Slate, January 12, 2017, www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2017/01/12/the_women_s_march_on_washington_has_released_its_platform_and_it_is_unapologetically.html.
21.Jen Roesch, “The Lessons of Our Counterprotests,” Socialist Worker, February 17, 2017, socialistworker.org/2017/02/17/the-lessons-of-our-counterprotests.
Trump, Islamophobia, and US Politics
1.Laura Pitter, “Hate Crimes against Muslims in US Continue to Rise in 2016,” Human Rights Watch, May 11, 2017, www.hrw.org/news/2017/05/11/hate-crimes-against-muslims-us-continue-rise-2016.
2.“The Roots of Islamophobia: An Interview with Deepa Kumar,” Jacobin, December 21, 2015, www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/islamophobia-donald-trump-syrian-refugees-national-front/.
From “Deporter-in-Chief” to Xenophobia Unleashed
1.On September 26, 2014, forty-three “normalistas,” students training to become teachers, were abducted and disappeared while they traveled by bus from the state of Guerrero to Mexico City to take part in protests commemorating the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre. Many indications pointed to the culpability of drug gangs, with collusion of politicians and the Mexican state, in the disappearance and likely murder of the students. See Francisco Goldman, “Crisis in Mexico: The Disappearance of the Forty-Three,” New Yorker, October 24, 2014, www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/crisis-mexico-disappearance-forty-three.
INDEX
ACA. See Affordable Care Act (ACA)
Adorno, Theodor, 101
Aetna, 9
Affordable Care Act (ACA), 36, 39, 40, 41–42, 115–16, 135, 144, 178, 219n21
Afghanistan, 10, 115
AFL-CIO, 184
African Americans, 3, 6, 9, 31, 33, 38, 112, 125–41
and hate crimes against, 42–43, 126, 176
politics of, 125–41
and poverty, 19, 80, 127, 129, 132, 146
and voting, 12–13, 27, 28, 52, 54, 55–58, 65, 67, 134–35, 150, 218n19
AFT. See American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
AIG, 9, 115
Alabama poll closures, 69
ALEC. See American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
Allianz Global Wealth Report 2015, 14
alt-right. See under right (political)
Aly, Götz, 101
American Federation of Teachers (AFT), 41
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), 71, 72, 73
American Medical Association, 41
American Prospect, 9, 68
Americans for Prosperity, 73
Anderson, John, 49
Appalachia, 63, 73–81
Arabs, 10, 153
Aristotle (company), 54–55
Arizona, 67, 69, 175
Army of God, 161
Arpaio, Joe, 78, 175
Asian Americans, 11, 56, 150, 176
AT&T, 9
Baker, Kevin, 123–24
Bannon, Steve, 34–35, 64, 125
Barrett, Tom, 68
Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act (HB56), 107–8
Berlet, Chip, 103, 104
Bernanke, Ben, 114
Black Liberation Movement, 140–41
Black Lives Matter, 10, 43, 125–26, 128, 129, 136, 138–39, 153, 194
Block, Fred, 92
Bossie, David, 64
Branstad, Terry, 36–37
Breitbart, 33–35, 64, 125
Brennan Center for Justice, 69
Brenner, Bob and Johanna, 32
British National Party, 167–68, 169
Brookings Institute, 22
Brooks, David, 69
Buchanan, Pat, 64, 83
Bush, George H. W., 145
Bush, George W., 11, 65, 111, 114–15, 131, 184
Business Roundtable, 30, 39
Business Week, 15
California, 56, 67, 157, 163, 179, 182–83, 185
Callinicos, Alex, 99–100
Cantor Fitzgerald, 14
Capital (Marx), 91–92
capitalists and capitalism, 15–16, 25–26, 29–34, 38, 40, 86–88, 98–101, 104–8, 134, 166, 191–96
explanation of, 90–95
and immigration, 186–87
Carson, Ben, 36
Carter, Jimmy, 49, 79
Catalyst, 2
Caudill, Harry, 79
Census Bureau, US, 18–21, 63
Center for Immigration Studies, 176
Center for Responsive Politics, 25–26
Center of the American Experiment, 72
Central American immigrants, 173, 187
Chacón, Justin Akers, 3–4, 171–89, 201
Chamber of Commerce, US, 30, 37, 39, 41, 73
Chao, Elaine, 35–36
Chevron, 9
Chicago, 82, 132, 137, 138, 182
China, 16, 35, 36–37, 83
CIO. See AFL-CIO; Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)
Citizens United (organization), 64
Citizens United (court decision), 69
Cleveland, 6, 51–52, 75
Clinton, Bill, 3–4, 39, 50, 153–54, 160
administration of, 3, 38
and neoliberalism, 8–9, 15, 86–88, 192–93
Clinton, Hillary, 3, 39, 85, 87, 153–54, 160
and neoliberalism, 8–10, 15, 108–9
and 2016 elections, 1, 5–14, 25–29, 38, 45–46, 49–56, 65–69, 70, 79–80, 118–22, 133–35, 147–52, 194–96
Clinton Foundation, 9
Coca-Cola, 9
Cohn, Nate, 6, 10
Comey, James, 69
Commerce, Department of, 36, 39, 61
Commercial Vehicle Group, 75
Communist Party, 135
Congress, US, 37, 38–40, 43, 56, 57–58, 111
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), 75
Conway, Kellyanne, 64
Coontz, Stephanie, 149
Cruz, Ted, 64, 69
DACA. See Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
Daily Kos, 6
Daley, David, 71
Davidson, Neil, 2, 85–109, 200
Davis, Mike, 3, 61–83, 199
Dear, Robert, 161–62
Defense, Department of, 36, 38, 39
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), 38, 174
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, 68
Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), 8–9, 50, 79
Democratic National Committee (DNC), 43, 119, 121, 151–52
Democratic Party, 2, 3, 12, 14, 15, 22, 33, 42–43, 67–69, 76, 79, 111–24, 130–37, 140, 153–54
and healthcare, 41–42
and immigration, 177–80, 183–84, 188–89
and Muslims, 159–60, 161, 165, 169
reshaping of, 8–9
and 2016 elections, 5–6, 8, 10, 11, 25–29, 47–59, 63, 70–74, 80, 82, 111–12, 148, 151–52
The Democrats: A Critical History (Selfa), 150
Detroit, 6, 13, 19
Detroit Free Press, 18–19
DeVos, Betsy, 35
DeVos family, 61
DHS. See Homeland Security, Department of (DHS)
Diamond, Sara, 103–4
Dissent, 2
DLC. See Democratic Leadership Council (DLC)
DNC. See Democratic National Committee (DNC)
Draper, Hal, 88–89, 92
Dreyfuss, Robert, 9
DSPolitical, 54–55
Duke, David, 125
Economist, 14–15, 47, 75
/> Education, Department of, 126
Electoral College, 1, 7, 11, 13, 26, 28, 50, 56, 67, 112, 193
Enron, 9
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 36, 126–27
European Union, 63, 83, 85–86
Evangelical Christians, 27–28, 30, 64–65
Fabrizio, Tony, 67
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), 163
Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces, 144
fascism, 40, 42, 62, 81–83, 86, 95–100, 102, 140, 165, 189
feminists. See women
Ferguson, Missouri, 139
Fillon, François, 86
FirstEnergy Solutions, 75
Five Star Movement (Italy), 31
Florida, 28, 65, 66–67, 71, 183
Flynn, Michael, 36
FOCA. See Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA)
Forbes, 125
France, 85–86, 167, 168, 191
Frank, Thomas, 150
Fraser, Nancy, 2, 191–96, 201
Fraternal Order of Police, 174
Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), 154
Frum, David, 111–12
Gates, Robert, 115
GE. See General Electric (GE)
Geithner, Timothy, 114
General Electric (GE), 75
Georgia, 67
Germany, 88–89, 97–102, 192
globalization, 15–16, 33, 35, 40, 54, 62, 63, 83, 169, 191, 194, 208–9n16
Goldman Sachs, 10
Goldwater, Barry, 88
Gore, Al, 11
Gorsuch, Neil, 144
Gramsci, Antonio, 93–94, 104
Great Recession, 18, 22, 30, 112–13
Greenberg, Stanley, 66, 70
Green Party, 9, 50–51, 66t, 80, 122, 148, 151
Greenwald, Glenn, 115–16, 158
Griffin, Roger, 97
Guardian, 55
Gunther, John, 81
Gutierrez, Luis, 178
Haiti, 187–88
Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act, 187
Haley, Nikki, 35
Harriman family, 61
Harrington, Michael, 79
Hayden, Michael, 212n49
