Well Mourn, Then Well Analyze and then Well Organize: An Election Post-Mortem with Gerald Horne, Chair of the History and African-American Studies Department at the University of Houston and prolific author of more than 30 books and 100 scholarly papers on struggles against imperialism, colonialism, fascism and racism, joins us to give us his take away of the complex social, political and economic issues raised by the national election. and Frances Fox Piven, internationally renowned social scientist, scholar, and activist whose commitments to poor and working people, and to the democratic cause have never wavered. Pivens professional accomplishments in the world of academia place her among the ranks of the most important social scientists of the last century.
The tectonics of the presidential election has opened fissures in the American landscape wider and pushed to the surface, with some terrible volcanic force, the racism, sexism and xenophobia that is the bedrock of this country. To be sure this eruption was fueled by all the principle players of the Republican Party, albeit most advantageously by Trump. Trump is a white supremacist, tactically and strategically its part of his DNA, and even against the general instruction of his party confronted with the growing browning of America sought to and did appeal to white voters across the class divide with the traditional scapegoating of people of color and immigrants. Amidst whites feelings of economic insecurity and diminished status in society Trumps clarion call to white supremacy and misogyny galvanized their support and even trumped the gender interests of woman.
The fact that these malignancies are so easily stoked is an important reminder. Like a boil that must be lanced for the host to be healed this election has revealed the toxicities of American society that must be reckoned with " which we ignore at our peril. These biases serve as fundamental challenges for people of conscience to confront in their institutionalized form and when individually expressed. But then, as well, there was the Democratic primary where tens of millions rallied to Bernie Sanders' call for a political revolution, and advocated sweeping changes in US society, which also gives us fertile ground in which to plant and grow our social justice movements.
Now, we can begin to exhale - the die is cast, the angst and anxiety will dissipate and yield to first a reasoned analysis of what the results of this election says about the state of America and then for us to think deeply about the terrain in which activists campaign - once the new president is inaugurated, for the movement for black lives, for immigrants rights, indigenous rights, for womans rights, for workers rights and the struggle for climate justice, and more.
produced by Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash
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