Remember in 2016 when the McResistance told us that fighting for progressive causes was getting put on hold while all effort would be focused on blocking Trump? Then, predictably, Democrats ended up confirming virtually all of Trump’s nominations and cabinet picks. Alleged maverick and new liberal darling John McCain voted for every one of them, but he’s dead now, so who’s counting?
Of course, we knew the ‘Resistance’ would really be performative outrage at Trump while actually blocking the Left’s platform of progressive, socialist policies. Anyone with half a brain in politics knows the way to fight authoritarian shitlords like Donald Trump is by pushing insanely popular programs like Medicare for All, free public college tuition, and living wages.
Call it crony capitalism, call it plain ol’ regular capitalism, whatever. The fact is nowhere has the divide between rich and poor been so grossly exacerbated and celebrated as in our cities. People in the heartland need healthcare, but it’s in cities where the cost of living is skyrocketing, mostly because of real estate speculation and a monopoly on location goods and services.
Social geographer professor David Harvey has spent his career applying Marx to modern urban life, rightly recognizing the struggle of labor extends into all manner of city existence today:
“Urban development since the 1850s has always been speculative. Whole economies of dispossession and predatory exploitation are no longer confined to the workplace. Wage gains for workers can be stolen back by the capitalist class: by landlords, by credit-mongers, bankers, and financiers. How then, can progressive forces organize [against] these problems?”
How then indeed?
Tom Klem on Twitter
Cynthia Nixon’s policies for fixing the subways: https://t.co/ojY0qIg3hv #FixOurSubway #NYGov #CynthiaNixon #Cuomo #subway
