Karl Marx wrote, “Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice.” Marx writes, “He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” Ronald Reagan was the tragedy, sections of the white working class breaking from the New Deal coalition and progressive politics, and embracing small government and the undermining of the social safety net. On the face of it, much of it aimed at black Americans, but in fact all of it a cover for the ushering in of a new stage of globalization where U.S. production was moved offshore and workers of the world instead of uniting were used to erode the living standards of exactly these white American workers.
Now enter the farce: Donald trump giving voice to sections of the white working class who yearn for a enemy and a voice for their hatred of the other, be it Mexicans or muslims, bamboozled by a con artist who will attack unions and further undermine the living standards of exactly these white workers. It should be noted, however, on Super Tuesday, there are also sections of the white working class who are voting for Bernie Sanders, with a message that actually takes on Trump and the fellow members of his billionaire class. So Super Tuesday’s being called historic and to put this in historic perspective I’m joined now from New York by Frances Fox Piven and from Washington, DC James Early.
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