Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Chapter Four (250 Days Until the 2020 Election)
Anand Giridharadas is on to something. Really on to something.
I listened to this interview twice. At 19:24, he says this:
"There are people who clearly have Cold War trauma and I feel for them, but we're not actually in the Cold War anymore. We're in just a completely different era. And just as it would have been unhelpful in the Cold War to be like talking about what we need to do in the trenches of World War 1, it's just not a helpful framework for the Cold War, cuz it's just not now. It's not particularly helpful now in 2020 to be reliving your own Cold War trauma as guidance for the United States....Michael Bloomberg is trying to present this old American talking point that you got two choices, people. We can either be a Goldman Sachs country, or we can be Maduro's Venezuela. Those are your choices. We have come to a place in America where our understanding of gender is more fluid than our understanding of capitalism, socialism and democracy. It's remarkable. I never would have expected that. We've made tremendous progress in understanding that it's not like men, women, nothing in between. It's complicated. People fall on all kinds of places on that distribution. But capitalism and socialism, no no no. It's one or the other. The reality is for any person who's actually traveled or read a book, every country in the world, with maybe a couple of exceptions, has some mix of capitalism and socialism. When you're on the highway, the thing beneath you...socialism. The things on the highway, capitalism, the cars and the trucks carrying stuff. When you are on Wall Street, the banks, capitalism. The regulators that make sure that brokers are not stealing your money, socialism. When you work for 40 years at IBM, capitalism. When you retire and have social security and medicare take care of you, socialism...All the ways in which socialism and capitalism are actually part of every hour of our lives, let's end this ridiculous binary and have some understanding of economic fluidity."
In a nutshell, Anand just laid out the battle plan for the 2020 election. Last century's mindset vs this century's mindset, old vs young, Cold War thinking vs 21st Century thinking. This can be applied to everything from economics to race to old fears (nuclear war/Red Dawn) vs new fears (terrorism/viruses/Putin's Chaos). Not only should the Dem nominee bring together a Team of political rivals, the nom should also include scientists, activists, readers, thinkers, and especially the under-30 voting block who did not actually live through the Cold War.
When you think of it, the entire Trumpist mindset is stuck squarely in a Cold War/20th Century mindset. Make America Great Again is an homage to a past that no longer exists...trench mentality and cold war mentality in an era that has no need for such antiquated thinking.
Perhaps this is why Bernie's appeal from the under-30 voter is so resilient and compelling.
Chapter Four (250 Days Until the 2020 Election)
Anand Giridharadas is on to something. Really on to something.
I listened to this interview twice. At 19:24, he says this:
"There are people who clearly have Cold War trauma and I feel for them, but we're not actually in the Cold War anymore. We're in just a completely different era. And just as it would have been unhelpful in the Cold War to be like talking about what we need to do in the trenches of World War 1, it's just not a helpful framework for the Cold War, cuz it's just not now. It's not particularly helpful now in 2020 to be reliving your own Cold War trauma as guidance for the United States....Michael Bloomberg is trying to present this old American talking point that you got two choices, people. We can either be a Goldman Sachs country, or we can be Maduro's Venezuela. Those are your choices. We have come to a place in America where our understanding of gender is more fluid than our understanding of capitalism, socialism and democracy. It's remarkable. I never would have expected that. We've made tremendous progress in understanding that it's not like men, women, nothing in between. It's complicated. People fall on all kinds of places on that distribution. But capitalism and socialism, no no no. It's one or the other. The reality is for any person who's actually traveled or read a book, every country in the world, with maybe a couple of exceptions, has some mix of capitalism and socialism. When you're on the highway, the thing beneath you...socialism. The things on the highway, capitalism, the cars and the trucks carrying stuff. When you are on Wall Street, the banks, capitalism. The regulators that make sure that brokers are not stealing your money, socialism. When you work for 40 years at IBM, capitalism. When you retire and have social security and medicare take care of you, socialism...All the ways in which socialism and capitalism are actually part of every hour of our lives, let's end this ridiculous binary and have some understanding of economic fluidity."
In a nutshell, Anand just laid out the battle plan for the 2020 election. Last century's mindset vs this century's mindset, old vs young, Cold War thinking vs 21st Century thinking. This can be applied to everything from economics to race to old fears (nuclear war/Red Dawn) vs new fears (terrorism/viruses/Putin's Chaos). Not only should the Dem nominee bring together a Team of political rivals, the nom should also include scientists, activists, readers, thinkers, and especially the under-30 voting block who did not actually live through the Cold War.
When you think of it, the entire Trumpist mindset is stuck squarely in a Cold War/20th Century mindset. Make America Great Again is an homage to a past that no longer exists...trench mentality and cold war mentality in an era that has no need for such antiquated thinking.
Perhaps this is why Bernie's appeal from the under-30 voter is so resilient and compelling.
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