Aufhebunga Bunga

On the US election, a huge turnout and the end of Trump.

We survey the results of the presidential and legislative elections, peer through the exit polls and discuss some counterintuitive facts: Florida goes Trump but opts for a $15 minimum wage; California goes Biden while Uber gets its way; Trump did protectionism but it didn't help him win the Rustbelt; the Republicans win over more Latinos – but do Latinos even exist?

And the big questions: Will Biden and the Democrats have any authority now that they don't have anti-Trumpism to drive them? Is a Biden administration to be a Silicon Valley dictatorship? And will the GOP be Trumpism without Trump?

Readings:

• Are the Democrats losing on purpose? Amber Frost & Daniel Bessner, Jacobin

• We Don’t Live in Weimar Germany, David Broder, Jacobin
• The Trap The Democrats Walked Right Into, Andrew Sullivan
• The End of Anti-Fascism, David Broder, Jacobin
• What Is Trump?, Dylan Riley, NLR

On the Covid election. 

Full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast 

On the Covid election. 

• We Don’t Live in Weimar Germany, David Broder, Jacobin
• The Trap The Democrats Walked Right Into, Andrew Sullivan
• The End of Anti-Fascism, David Broder, Jacobin
• What Is Trump?, Dylan Riley, NLR

On political decline and realignment.

The editor of American Affairs joins us to discuss the decay of conservatism and we ask whether this decay doesn't apply to other parts of the political spectrum too. Is today's 'class struggle' really just between the upper-middle class and the elite? And we discuss the 'late-Soviet' USA - the sense of decline embodied in the gerontocracy of the ruling class. 

Readings:

• The Real Class War, Julius Krein, American Affairs
• America’s Unhealthy Gerontocracy, Julius Krein, American Affairs
• Conservatism Is A Collection Of Losers. It Doesn’t Have To Be. Julius Krein, The American Conservative

• Conservatives’ grip on ‘red wall’ holding firm, Sebastian Payne, FT
• Lawmakers ‘Alarmed’ by Reports U.S. Envoy Told Brazil It Could Help Re-elect Trump, Ernesto Londoño, Manuela Andreoni and Letícia Casado, NYT
• “Imagine the damage a president could cause”: What would happen if Trump refused defeat?, Emily Tamkin, New Statesman

• The Triumph of Black Lives Matter and Neoliberal Redemption, Cedric Johnson, NonSite
• ‘As soon as I saw the slaveowner’s statue being toppled in Bristol, I knew the real anti-racism protest was OVER’, Lisa McKenzie, RT
• The Triumph of American Idealism, Alex Hochuli, Damage
• Alex's additional notes on his blog

On the left case for freedom.  

We talk to Corey Robin about how the left has sacrificed the realm of freedom to the right. And why the Left's weakness is also the Right's. Plus, why is it clear that Trump is not a fascist? And insight into the BLM protests in NYC and responses to the pandemic. 

Reading:

• What People Power Looks Like in a Pandemic Democracy, Corey Robin, NYRB
• Symposium on the Challenges Facing Democrats: Freedom Now, Corey Robin & Alex Gourevitch, Polity
• If authoritarianism is looming in the US, how come Donald Trump looks so weak?, Corey Robin, Guardian

This is a sample. For the full episode go to patreon.com/bungacast 

Bonus content (always the best stuff) from our interview with Angela and Michael (episode 126). 

Why did Bernie Sanders fail?

In the third in an occasional series on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Angela Nagle and Michael Tracey about their analysis of Bernie Sanders' campaign. We put to bed some bad arguments as to why Bernie didn't win the nomination, and examine some better ones: was the campaign was too establishment-friendly? too "left"? too middle-class? too anti-nationalist?... or are structural factors to blame instead?

And we ponder the end of the union of Old and New Lefts, of cultural liberalism and socialism. And the most worrying of all: was Bernie just a blip?

Reading:

• First as Tragedy, Then as Farce: The Collapse of the Sanders Campaign and the "Fusionist" Left, Angela Nagle & Michael Tracey, American Affairs

In the second in an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nicholas Kiersey, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in Texas and host of the Fully Automated podcast. What were things like on the campaign trail, and what went wrong for Bernie? Will Biden go the distance, and are there more shenanigans in store?

Readings:

• Like It or Not, If We Run Third Party, We Will Lose, Dustin Guastella, Jacobin
• The Tyranny of Decorum Hurt Bernie Sanders’s 2020 Prospects, David Sirota, Jacobin
• ‘Life After Bernie’: The Young Left Braces for Disappointment in 2020, Tim Alberta, Politico
• The Left Can’t Just Dismiss the Anti-Lockdown Protests, Ben Burgis, Jacobin

In the first of an occasional series of episodes on the US presidential election and the Left, we talk to Nick Frayn, a volunteer with the Bernie Sanders campaign in New England. How have things gone on the campaign trail? What is next for the Democratic primaries delayed by the corona outbreak? Can Bernie regain ground in the primaries against Joe Biden? How will the corona crisis impact the Democratic primaries?

Readings:

• How the coronavirus pandemic is disrupting the US Democratic primary calendar, FT
• Biden Wins Coronavirus Primary, The Atlantic
• Joe Biden sweeps key primaries and moves closer to nomination, The Guardian