Goodbye,
American neoliberalism. A new era is here
Cornel West
Trump’s
election was enabled by the policies that overlooked the plight of
our most vulnerable citizens. We gird ourselves for a frightening
future
Thursday 17 November
2016 11.00 GMT
The neoliberal era
in the United States ended with a neofascist bang. The political
triumph of Donald Trump shattered the establishments in the
Democratic and Republican parties – both wedded to the rule of Big
Money and to the reign of meretricious politicians.
The Bush and Clinton
dynasties were destroyed by the media-saturated lure of the
pseudo-populist billionaire with narcissist sensibilities and ugly,
fascist proclivities. The monumental election of Trump was a
desperate and xenophobic cry of human hearts for a way out from under
the devastation of a disintegrating neoliberal order – a nostalgic
return to an imaginary past of greatness.
White working- and
middle-class fellow citizens – out of anger and anguish –
rejected the economic neglect of neoliberal policies and the
self-righteous arrogance of elites. Yet these same citizens also
supported a candidate who appeared to blame their social misery on
minorities, and who alienated Mexican immigrants, Muslims, black
people, Jews, gay people, women and China in the process.
This lethal fusion
of economic insecurity and cultural scapegoating brought
neoliberalism to its knees. In short, the abysmal failure of the
Democratic party to speak to the arrested mobility and escalating
poverty of working people unleashed a hate-filled populism and
protectionism that threaten to tear apart the fragile fiber of what
is left of US democracy. And since the most explosive fault lines in
present-day America are first and foremost racial, then gender,
homophobic, ethnic and religious, we gird ourselves for a frightening
future.
What is to be done?
First we must try to tell the truth and a condition of truth is to
allow suffering to speak. For 40 years, neoliberals lived in a world
of denial and indifference to the suffering of poor and working
people and obsessed with the spectacle of success. Second we must
bear witness to justice. We must ground our truth-telling in a
willingness to suffer and sacrifice as we resist domination. Third we
must remember courageous exemplars like Martin Luther King Jr, who
provide moral and spiritual inspiration as we build multiracial
alliances to combat poverty and xenophobia, Wall Street crimes and
war crimes, global warming and police abuse – and to protect
precious rights and liberties.
The age of Obama was
the last gasp of neoliberalism. Despite some progressive words and
symbolic gestures, Obama chose to ignore Wall Street crimes, reject
bailouts for homeowners, oversee growing inequality and facilitate
war crimes like US drones killing innocent civilians abroad.
Rightwing attacks on
Obama – and Trump-inspired racist hatred of him – have made it
nearly impossible to hear the progressive critiques of Obama. The
president has been reluctant to target black suffering – be it in
overcrowded prisons, decrepit schools or declining workplaces. Yet,
despite that, we get celebrations of the neoliberal status quo
couched in racial symbolism and personal legacy. Meanwhile, poor and
working class citizens of all colors have continued to suffer in
relative silence.
In this sense,
Trump’s election was enabled by the neoliberal policies of the
Clintons and Obama that overlooked the plight of our most vulnerable
citizens. The progressive populism of Bernie Sanders nearly toppled
the establishment of the Democratic party but Clinton and Obama came
to the rescue to preserve the status quo. And I do believe Sanders
would have beat Trump to avert this neofascist outcome!
In this bleak
moment, we must inspire each other driven by a democratic soulcraft
of integrity, courage, empathy and a mature sense of history – even
as it seems our democracy is slipping away.
We must not turn
away from the forgotten people of US foreign policy – such as
Palestinians under Israeli occupation, Yemen’s civilians killed by
US-sponsored Saudi troops or Africans subject to expanding US
military presence.
As one whose great
family and people survived and thrived through slavery, Jim Crow and
lynching, Trump’s neofascist rhetoric and predictable authoritarian
reign is just another ugly moment that calls forth the best of who we
are and what we can do.
For us in these
times, to even have hope is too abstract, too detached, too
spectatorial. Instead we must be a hope, a participant and a force
for good as we face this catastrophe.
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