The Future is Another Country
Just as the history of the Maroons in Jamaica demonstrate, the black freedom struggle can ill afford any more accommodation or compromise now any more than it did two centuries ago. Marronage is freedom, but only if we collectively understand its limits. Otherwise it is mired in class collaborationist politics which may profess a desire for black freedom, but in reality hamper it at every turn.
What the Establishment really fears is a challenge to the status quo and the empowerment of ordinary people—a democratization of politics rather than the mere administration of the state by political insiders.
Many incidents in recent American politics appear bizarre when analyzed as policy discussions, but become meaningful political acts if interpreted as efforts in brand management. In particular, viewing voter behavior as a form consumer culture provides some explanation for the popular support enjoyed by the Republican party.
In 2016, Sen. Bernie Sanders was far and away the favorite candidate of young people in the US. Two years later and two years closer to 2020, is Sanders and his message still resonating with millennials and would they support him again?
It is clear by this point that Bernie’s run was not just a flash in the pan—a one-time thing. The long moribund left in the United States clearly has some momentum behind it once again.
While Democrats are, at best, a corporate-dominated center-left party with a history of attacking its left flank, they represent the only viable alternative to the far right Republican agenda. Supporting Democrats, given the alternative, is important. After all, Democrats are the only other political party with real power in a system designed to accommodate the existence of only two parties.
On January 31st of this year, CNN hosted a Town Hall with Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).[1] During the event, NYU-student Trevor Hill shifted from his prescreened question to a more substantive one.
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