I just watched “Requiem for the American Dream,” with “iconic intellectual Noam Chomsky,” and I agree with the LA Times’ reviewer Martin Tsai, who writes that “[t]he film isn’t necessarily pegged to the upcoming election per se, but the logic presented within helps make sense of current affairs.” I further agree that, “[k]nee-jerk reactions notwithstanding, Chomsky informs citizens, and with much food for thought.”
Now, here’s more “food for thought” from Chomsky, this time from his appearance yesterday on “Democracy Now” (see video below). The following bullet points (bolding added by me for emphasis) includes Chomsky’s thoughts on the rise of Donald Trump, and more broadly on the rise of today’s extremist version of the formerly sane Republican Party.
According to Chomsky:
- Today’s GOP has shifted so far to the right that they are “off the spectrum,” a “radical insurgency which has abandoned parliamentary politics.”
- The actual policies of Republicans, whether Paul Ryan or Donald Trump, “is basically enrich and empower the very rich and the very powerful and the corporate sector.”
- “Of course, “you cannot get votes that way, so therefore the Republicans have been compelled to turn to sectors of the population that can be mobilized and organized on other grounds…[hoping] that the white working class will be mobilized to vote for their bitter class enemies who want to shaft them in every way by appealing to something else, like so-called social conservatism — abortion rights, racism, nationalism…”
- Today’s extremist Republican Party is comparable to Germany’s “descent into barbarism” in the 1930s.
- “What you have is a voting base consisting of evangelical Christians, ultra-nationalists, racists, disaffected angry white working class sectors that have been hit very hard…”
- That voting base produces extreme candidates which the GOP has not been able to beat down this time. The result: “today’s Republican Party qualify as candidates for the most dangerous organization in human history.”
- Chomsky cites the “two major issues that face us — climate change, nuclear war.” On climate change, Republicans are saying “let’s race to the precipice, let’s make sure our grandchildren have the worst possible life.” On both climate change and nuclear war, there’s been nothing “more dangerous to the species…ever” than today’s GOP.
No argument here. I’d just add that anyone who supports this party in any way – voting, donations, using social media to spread its noxious views – is responsible for all the disasters that will unfold if they are allowed to gain (even more) power. Your thoughts?
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