The Skinny: a Liberal Lexicon

NinaIllingworth October 28, 2019November 5, 2022 2020 Democratic Party Nomination Contest, Amerikan Musik, antifascism, Bernie Sanders, Bircher nonsense, blog, Brooks Brothers Riot, CA4, class war, confronting fascism, democratic socialism, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, fascism, history of liberalism, how liberalism works, labor class, left wing theory, liberalism, Liz Warren is a muppet, Matt Gaetz, MP6, neoliberalism, Nina Illingworth, Offsite Writing, Patreon, Patreon Blog, PMC, political history, Political Theory, Politics, Professional Class, professional managerial class, Socialism, technocratic incrementalism, technocrats, The Skinny, Theory, Trump impeachment, US politics, why liberals lose, working class

Editor’s note: after battles with online censorship and years of procrastinating, I’m finally getting around to reorganizing my website. As part of the process, I’m posting links to older content that I will never find again otherwise.

This activity is tedious, but necessary for my writing and records. Please bear with me in the meantime and thanks for all your support.

Timeless American Bullcrap

Of course sometimes, you nail it.

In this edition of The Skinny, which was originally published on October 28th, 2019 over on my Patreon Blog, I managed to combined breaking down (then) current events, and putting those events into a historical context that factors in political theory. Although we touch briefly on the second Trump impeachment trial, Liz Warren’s 2020 nomination run, and even the smoking crater of failure that was Russiagate, the real value in this post comes in examining theoretical concepts and definitions. What is liberalism? Why do liberals love technocratic incrementalism? Why do people who don’t understand foreign policy insist on pretending they’re experts; and finally, why are liberals unable to see the threat fascists like Matt Gaetz actually represent and what’s coming next?

“Look, ever since the birth of the myth of then-President Bill Clinton’s economic prowess, which was fueled literally by an insane policy of providing essentially free money to banks & Wall Street from the Fed as well as a tech stock bubble that was fake as hell, mainstream liberals have believed in a grand mathematical formula that when applied to the economy will “fix it” for some percentage of the poor and labor class, but also protect the rich donors they rely on heavily for funding. The goal here isn’t really to “help” the labor class so much as to give them enough crumbs from the table to secure their votes and continue the good times plutocratic celebration going on behind the curtain at the top levels of the Party.

Naturally, there is no such magic formula because the fundamental economic problem in America is not “how many crumbs we have to give the filthy poors to secure their complicity in the ongoing neoliberal project” but rather ultimately issue of mass inequity. You can’t be “for” protecting elite capital’s right to exploit poor people for profit, and also for protecting the labor class’s right not to be exploited; just like you can’t be for protecting the political influence of Wall Street and wealthy Dem Party donors while simultaneously be about restoring political power to the labor class – these are mutually exclusive goals for fuck’s sake!”

Check it out on my (always free to read) Patreon Blog by clicking on the quotation block above, or the title header below:

Technocrats, Liberalism, Bircherism and a Brooks Brothers Mixer

nina Illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

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