Noam Chomsky On The State of American Politics.

and in terms of electing someone there's a lot of names that are coming around more in the in the angle of the Republican party which are Nikki Haley Vivek reps form one and Donald Trump and some that are potentially running which are the santis and Mike Pompeo and also in terms of the democratic party it seems that there's speculation that Biden may not run or perhaps he's not leaning towards running or maybe he will run but these are all of the questions that I have for you what are your thoughts in the Republican candidates are is there anyone that really would you would be interested in in having as a next president and also what are your thoughts in a potential re-election of President Joe Biden the report the Republican organization is not a political party in the traditional sense that it is been turning into something quite different for several decades in fact I agree with the comments of the political analysts of the American Enterprise Institute Thomas Mann Norman Ornstein that the Republicans have become what they call a radical Insurgency that has abandoned the procedures of normal parliamentary politics if you rank it internet look at International rankings it's attitudes and commitments it ranks alongside the far-right parties in Europe with neo-fascist Origins the party is now pretty the popular base of the party is pretty much in the pocket of Donald Trump uh you look at polls overwhelmingly popular that's the end result of a long period can trace it back to Richard Nixon in which the party recognized back in at that time it was an authentic political party well the Republicans and the Democrats whatever you thought about them they pretty pretty much overlapped in uh modes of procedure and attitudes and so on the Republicans were the the more pro-business of the two business parties in the United States the United States is basically a one-party State the business party has two factions called Democrats and Republicans the Republicans were more the more dedicated pro-business party uh Richard Nixon intelligence strategist understood that the Republicans cannot win elections on their actual programs their programs of strong support for the business world for the ownership class for investors from Banks and so on can't get votes that way so he recognized that what the Republicans ought to do is to shift attention away from their social economic policies to something else what are now called cultural issues with Nixon it was what was called the southern strategy let's draw Southern Democrats to the Republican Party by barely concealed racism by the mid-1970s Republican strategists record pulls over particularly recognized that if the Republicans pretended I stress pretend to be opposed to abortion they could pull in the huge Evangelical book then being politicized for the first time and the northern Catholic vote so they all switched on a dime uh George H.W bush Ronald Reagan had been strongly what's now called pro-choice certainly became what's an alcohol per Life almost instantly other leaders too so that became a plank of the Republican Party later on love of guns later on something else anything to keep people's attention away from the socioeconomic policies which are very harmful for their own constituency so you have to shift it with Newt Gingrich when he took over the house this became almost an open ward he said we have to declare a war on the Democrats uh and since then it's been steady decline in this direction became Donald Trump who's in very good showman was able to mobilize these ideas that these Tendencies very successfully so you look at his legislative program one achievement a major tax cut for the rich and the corporate sector stabbing everyone else in the back but you don't talk about that what you talk about is the great replacement Democrats being sadistic pedophiles and anything else just it's uh kind of don't look behind the curtain you know it's uh and that's been you can understand the success there has been a period of 45 years of what amounts to Savage class war against the general population despite part is led by Republicans started with Ronald Reagan followed by Bill Clinton Obama and it's it's called neoliberalism but which has a technical definition they definition of neoliberalism you look it up in the dictionary and says something about free markets free enterprise that's not what it is uh the uh it's basically class one so yes there is deregulation that is free of Enterprise but there's a footnote deregulation leads to financial crashes very quickly in fact started right away in the Reagan Administration Continental on my billing I mean no savings and home prices the business World understands that the way it works is get deregulation we move towards monopolization quite naturally we make risky Investments make a ton of money when it all crashes the state comes in the friendly taxpayer bills is out we're seeing it right now in fact the but it happens over and over so it's a market uh bailout economy for the very rich and many other things it cooperated So Reagan and also Thatcher is associated in this uh their first Acts were to attack labor movement and undermine and severely that made good sense the labor movement is the main way in which people can defend themselves in a vicious class of War so you have to eliminate the defenses they used illegal means but it didn't matter this opened the door to the corporate sector to move in with massive efforts at strike working undermining labor laws and much of it illegal but when you control the criminal state it doesn't matter if what you're doing is illegal and many other things like this go through the details like for example real wages for male workers are basically in 1979 productivity's increased because of very few hands we even have measures of it the Rand Corporation super respectable did a study of what they call politely the transfer of wealth from the working class in the middle class lower 90 percent of the population transfer will from them to the top one percent their estimate over the 40 Years of class war they don't call it that is about 50 trillion dollars that's quite impressive class word to steal 50 trillion dollars from the working class and the middle class and in order to get away with it you have to shift attention away from the policies and go to cultural issues well one of the effects of the class war has been to shatter the social order people live with precarious existences very little wealth if you're an Afro-American virtually no wealth uh precarious jobs and maybe it'll be cold tomorrow maybe he won't associations dissolved the people are alone atomized angry properly angry resentful rightly resentful distrust institutions rightly institutions don't work for them very fertile to Reign for demagogues you get it accomplished megalomaniac narcissist like Donald Trump who's a good showman he can mobilize people on this basis and from their point of view it's understandable the Republican organization now relies pretty heavily on a rural vote take a walk through rural town see what it looks like where's the industry it's gone Clinton uh developed insisted on global trade policies which were designed to harm the American working class and to benefit Rich entrepreneurs and investors called NAFTA World Trade Organization it's not free markets highly protectionist it's one reason why drugs are out of sight in the United States because of the highly protectionist elements of the investor rights agreement called free trade agreements or in our propaganda system so the industry's gone uh stores are shuttered homes are shuttered young people are leaving there's nothing there desperation in fact there's even an increase in mortality on the white working class increase in mortality unheard of in societies outside of war and pestilence What's Happening Here economists call the deaths of despair well you grab onto something maybe it'll be the church maybe it'll be the great replacement the Democrats are bringing in immigrants to undermine the white race almost half of Republicans believe that the Democratic party is run by sadistic pedophiles who are trying to groom children one after another crazy belief and you can understand that when your life is being taken away you grab onto something well it used to be things like say in the 1930s when I was growing up you grabbed onto the labor unions which were then growing developing my own family first generation working class things were pretty harsh much worse than today objectively but it was a hopeful period I remembered very well we're going to get together we're going to get out of this together we'll work together there was a moderately sympathetic sympathetic Administration and labor unions were not just wages they were cultural institutions classes adult education meetings discussions concerts even a week in the park in the Pocono Mountains for my uh Catskill Mountains for mine and so we're unemployed seamsters it was a whole way of life gone Reagan was a vicious brutal killer and racist understood or at least as advisors understood we ought to wipe this out and that and it's been the same pretty soon Clinton joined in in his own way well that's where we are now we have an election coming up with one party which is for quite rational reasons dedicated to undermining his democracy they can't survive in a democratic system you can't have a party who's sole commitment in policy is to enrich the very rich in the corporate sector and stab everyone else in the back can't run on those programs so let's undermine democracy let's bring up issues like Democratic pedophiles and the great replacement whatever crazy idea comes along next but just turn people's attention to that and again given the collapse the attack on the social order this is not too hard to do that's one party the other party is split the Democratic party which still functions as a political party is pretty much split between uh Clinton nine party management which is part of the general assault with a slightly softer touch and the sort of Sanders movement which has a strong popular base not much of a representation in Congress and they are in the American system doctrinal system they're called radical in fact by International standards they're mildly Centrist in fact one of the editors of the London Financial Times the major Business Journal by no means a radical Journal one of them equipped half jokingly only half jokingly that of Bernie Sanders was in Germany he could be running for the Conservative Christian Democrat Party if you look at it it's not false take a look at his programs Universal Health Care free higher education child care have that everywhere you have in Germany Mexico France to take Brazil and look around the world so these are mildly Social Democratic policies the United States considered very radical the United States has a very class conscious business class this goes way back that's why we have a very violent labor history extremely violent surprise conservative Europeans but and now even simple things like maternal care care for a woman after childbirth the only country that doesn't have it is the United States and a couple of Pacific Islands a hero is considered a very radical idea um right now in France people are out in the streets demonstrating that macron's version of neoliberalism raising pension age now here nobody understands that of course everybody wants to work like a maniac until the last minute well France still people want to have decent lives you raise the pension age who are you attacking working people not affluent professionals not people like me not people who work in offices we live longer you're a construction worker police officer you're not going to live very long it's a hard life raise the pension age you have less of a retirement to enjoy yourself or do whatever you want so in France that's fighting issues here it's almost even unimaginable raise the pension aged 64. what's that about I'm in Europeans Americans work about a month or six weeks longer than Europeans because of the Savage character of the uh sort of the Conservative Business run system it's not in the dreams you go back to the 1930s my childhood the United States led the way in social democracy Europe was descending into fascism the New Deal was offering hope for social democracy it's later picked up in Europe so it's not it's not a law of Nature and these are basically questions of the character of class war that the essence of it you're not allowed to talk about that in the United States there's no such thing as class no such thing just everybody's middle class whatever that's supposed to mean well it's not the case there are people who give orders or people who followers that's class uh if and you look at the way this is developed over the years yes you know there's been a constant class war takes different forms last 40 years it's been pretty Savage not just in the United States various forms elsewhere in France you see the forms right like during that cross here in office this prime minister you look at the record the rich have become richer the workers have become stagnated or become poor that's a mild form of the class were called neoliberalism and I find one indeed the worst victims those have suffered worse or the global selves they were subjected to IMF structural adjustment programs which had devastating effects in Latin America Africa elsewhere it's a the weaker are the ones who suffer most naturally [Music]

Channel: Through Conversations Podcast

Views: 213,122

Keywords: Noam Chomsky, chomsky, politics, elections, 2024 elections, 2024 presidential elections, trump, biden, Donald trump, Joe biden, democrats, republicans, business, economy, united states

Id: AqT_5C0H23E

Length: 20min 45sec (1245 seconds)

Published: Mon May 01 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Headhaunter79]

This man needs a medal and a bigger stage!

I can’t imagine how some (republican) people will look at this and go nah, fake news🤷🏼‍♀️