Trump’s racist politics BACKFIRE in Michigan GOP primary
#Republicans #Midterms #Michigan
Chris Hayes: Trump and his allies are unleashing a wave of anti-Muslim bigotry, and in Michigan, that hatred is already consuming candidates in their own party.
“What’s Past is Prologue…”
Chris Hayes: Trump and his allies are unleashing a wave of anti-Muslim bigotry, and in Michigan, that hatred is already consuming candidates in their own party.
“What’s Past is Prologue…”
“...The most stunning and deeply disturbing fact about American political and cultural/aesthetic life since the brutal assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert Kennedy in April and June of 1968 is the chilling realization that for the next twenty out of twenty-four years the virulently rightwing Republican Party led by Nixon, Reagan, and Bush One won five of the following six presidential elections (1968-1992). This quarter century tyranny over both the national political economy and its cultural institutions (like the NEA) has created an ominous ideological and social legacy that remains intact to this day. This postindustrial and high tech period of political, cultural, economic, and ideological hegemony and control has dramatically permeated all general intellectual, political, cultural, and ‘aesthetic’ discourse in the U.S. over the past five decades and unfortunately remains a highly reactionary and oppressive, yet undeniably potent force in American culture and politics in the new millennium. Certainly the moderately conservative, blatantly opportunist, and politically quietist neoliberal policies and programs of Bill Clinton’s administration (1992-2000), followed by the frenzied rightwing hysteria and criminally neoconservative Empire politics (and neolithic cultural attitudes) of George W. Bush’s imperialist junta from 2000-2008 had a markedly demoralizing affect on art and artists (not to mention its censorious and repressive impact on any contemporary notion of a truly humane, democratic, and progressive civic culture).
As a result the so-called ‘Age of Obama’ (2008-2016) that hesitantly and rather cautiously emerged following the unprecedented election of the nation’s first African American president in 2008 did in some obviously heavily compromised, tragically limited and predictably deceptive ways initially helped to buoy the spirits and even openly inspire some members of this society to move (or think about moving) in a far more positive and liberating direction. However, it was unfortunately all too clear throughout Obama’s eight year tenure that the tepid neoliberalism and moderate self serving incremental policies of his administration was always in servile political support and slavish ideological defense of the hegemonic and utterly elitist ruling class mythology of ‘American exceptionalism’ in terms of both domestic and foreign policy. This structural as well as institutional and systemic abdication of progressive principles, ideas, and action on the part of government ultimately provided us all with yet another major cautionary tale about the cynical, manipulative, evasive, and debilitating machinations of the two party dominated American political system drowning in money, corruption, disinformation, and hubris.
Finally the raging fascist politics and brazen white supremacy as well as predatory misogyny, pervasive social and cultural repression, rank economic exploitation, reckless advocacy of political violence, and deadly criminality of the clinically maniacal, openly xenophobic, and deeply cultish Trump regime (both in and out of state power since 2016) makes it appallingly clear not only where we’re presently going but more precisely how we got here. Thus our collective experience of these realities and its undeniable impact on our lives demonstrates that it is still very important to remind ourselves always that in our present highly contested and deeply conflicted social, ideological, and cultural context “aesthetics”--like politics!, like art!-- are as prone to institutionalized ossification, manipulation, myopia, distortion, and corruption as anything else. This is precisely why we as citizens, cultural workers, and human beings must always remain vigilant and continue to vigorously assert and exercise our collective will to create viable alternatives of our own that don’t require any ‘official’ validations, sanctions, or controls from the government or anywhere else. This is the genuine definition and meaning of self-determination in both art and politics…”
—From the introduction to 'What is an Aesthetic: Writings On American Culture, 1980-Present' by Kofi Natambu, September 9, 2024
