US election questions for Richard Seymour
Added 2024-11-11 18:06:44 +0000 UTCBy popular request, Richard Seymour will be returning to answer your questions on everything related to the US election and Donald Trump's victory (including the international implications). As usual please send your questions to politicstheoryother@gmail.com with 'Seymour election' in the subject line. Or you can comment below the line here. We'll be recording on Wednesday morning at 10am so please do send your questions ASAP. Thanks as ever for your support!
Comments
Is Trump more or less likely than Biden had been to ramp up tensions with China?
Clive Hedges
2024-11-18 07:38:17 +0000 UTCIn the aftermath of the Harris’ defeat, it seems from a number of mainstream reports that the Democrats are rallying around a program basically analogous to True Liz Cheneyism Has Never Been Tried. We see old figures like Rahm Emanuel making scenes and vintage Democrat Leadership Council talking points about giving into “interest groups”, and the usual willingness to blame transpeople. In light of this, I would be interested to hear what Richard thinks is the libidinal structure underlying the Party, in analytic terms. Why is there this damning tendency towards repetition-compulsion across all centre to centre-left parties globally? And how might this possible rightward ideological shift differ from prior iterations (i.e. in the 90s) given the different political and politico-economic terrain?
Laisrian Flynn
2024-11-17 14:26:56 +0000 UTCHas the possibility for a secular grand narrative with mobilizing power come to an end? And if so, what could replace it?
Nisha Bolsey
2024-11-13 01:29:38 +0000 UTCI would be interested in Richard's thoughts on 2 counterfactuals: 1) would Bernie have won? 2) if Trump would have been assasinated, what would have happened? How central/crucial is he as a person? 3) what is Richard's favourite bird?
Nina
2024-11-12 16:33:53 +0000 UTCMy question concerns the future of mainstream leftism. If we accept the argument about this election representing the overturning of the neoliberal order and a reversal of many of its tenets then how do the mainstream left parties that have now broadly adopted them change their platforms in response? For the sake of argument we can say that Blair and Clinton took the neoliberal ball and ran with it, got lucky with growth (and China) and directed a slightly larger portion of the proceeds to health and education. i.e. the mainstream left accepted a blunted form of the neoliberal order. If we say that Trump is Reagan as the leader of this new political order then what will its Clinton/Blair analogues on the mainstream left look like? I recognise some of the premises are questionable but the intention is to basically ask where Labour/the Democrats go if they are going to once again move to play on this new pitch. Does the future look something like the BSW in Germany?
Jon
2024-11-12 15:37:56 +0000 UTCHow would an epilogue to your book disaster nationalism be informed by what we’ve learned since you finished your camera ready draft (eg trump’s election, voter turnout and polling, and the unwillingness of the Harris campaign to put their weight behind any substantially progressive policies)
Dany Haddad
2024-11-11 20:03:37 +0000 UTCQuestion for Richard who also authored the outstanding Twittering Machine. Can Richard tell us how important X and other social media platforms were in this election? Does this signal the final triumph of social media/podcasting over traditional media, and how difficult will organizing and fighting back be now that Silicon Valley has its tenterhooks firmly in the office of President?
Michael Doyle
2024-11-11 18:37:29 +0000 UTCThanks for your thoughts and insights - I have my copy of Disaster Nationalism ready to go, although had hoped against better judgement it might feel a bit less relevant this November. My question is just for, really, your take on which policy areas the threat from a second Trump administration is probably overblown, and where it is actually underrated. I can see a world where the attempted mass deportations that seem to be promised are difficult to apply in practice, as with the Muslim ban in 2017, but it does also seem clear there are fewer guardrails this time around. On the other hand, as far as I can see, his ability to wreck the administrative state and federal agencies by firing people and defunding them has very few practical limits, if that is the aim. Where do you think the administration will succeed in its aims insofar as they are discernible?
PA
2024-11-11 18:20:17 +0000 UTC
