LUMPENPROLETARIAT   Thoughtful radio broadcasts are sometimes few and far between.  As pandemonium takes hold on the American left with Donald Trump, a sleazy, reality-TV, celebrity with transnational business interests, ascends to the White House, free speech radio’s Doug Henwood scratched beneath the surface of average political discourse here.

On this week’s edition of Behind the News, Henwood presented a thoughtful and, most importantly, convincing set of arguments from Dr. Nancy Fraser, regarding the pros and cons of our collective response on the left to notions of a Trump Presidency.  Dr. Fraser is an American critical theorist, feminist, and the Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science and professor of philosophy at The New School in New York City.

In conversation with Doug Henwood, Dr. Fraser discussed various areas for improvement in the left’s largely apolitical response to the spectre of Trump, a body of responses, which are too often preoccupied with questions of identity politics or the moral failings of Donald Trump as a person or personality, and which are too often devoid of meaningful political, philosophical, or critical analysis.  These are important questions for peace and justice people, who are sincere about opposing the regressive aspects of the evolution of the Republican Party from its roots as the party of Lincoln to the corporate anchor of the corporate two-party political system we have in the United States, a political system with a political center, which perpetually shifts rightward.  Listen (and/or download) here. [1]

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BEHIND THE NEWS—[12 JAN 2017] [KPFA station identification announcements by Erica Bridgeman(sp?)]

[Introduction by Doug Henwood]

[additional notes/transcription pending]

[snip]  (c. 59:59)

Learn more at BEHIND THE NEWS.

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[Image of Dr. Nancy Fraser (c. 2008) in Jena by Bunnyfrosch (CC BY-SA 3.0)]

[13 JAN 2017]

[Last modified at 23:15 PST on 15 JAN 2017]

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