2200 – Is This the Future Liberals Want? w/ Matt Karp
Good morning, on today’s Majority Report Michael Brooks hosts Matt Karp, professor of History at Princeton University, for his latest piece in the Jacobin, “Is This the Future Liberals Want?” Join as Karp and Brooks discuss the prospects of Trump in 2020 and the potential pitfalls of “progressive technocracy” defining the future of the Democratic party. Brooks and Karp begin their conversation exploring the broader course of the Democratic party’s New Deal coalition politics transition away from working people. In losing this class configuration, Karp believes voters have put the individual politician above the policy platform, leaving the foundation of any movement unstable at best. Additionally, the restructuring of the global economy and left political parties moving away from class alignment have accelerated the political realignment underway across western democracies. Shifting gears, Brooks and Karp take on the political media discourse surrounding the “professional-managerial class” identity that the Democratic Party now upholds. Karp argues that this breed of Democrats does not have the fight that a material class-based party would in struggling for things like Medicare for All and Card Check. It’s impossible to ignore the rate at which inequality is growing, which is why the professional class Democrats see Warren as a crucial candidate. But still, Karp and Brooks believe, given the track record of recent Democratic presidents, only a working class-driven candidate from the grassroots arm of the party can push through progressive legislation that produces material benefits for workers. The two conclude their conversation considering the challenges that a Bernie Sanders administration would face and how his grassroots movement would confront and mobilize against the capitalist class.
And in the Fun Half: Bernie’s debate performance and the Squad endorsement, recalling Bernie’s defense of Ilhan Omar amidst anti-semitism attacks, remembering Elijah Cummings, assessing the Democratic primary field, the Serfs call in and share their charity drive stream, Kamala Harris can’t stop talking about Twitter mods, updates on the Chicago Teachers’ Strike, Warren’s stance on Israel/Palestine, libertarians who like Bernie, Bullprog’s story from the Minneapolis Trump rally, Warren supporter tells Fox News the billionaires class bitches too much about taxes, plus your calls and IMs!
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