A look at two forthcoming elections: the November midterms in California, and the second round of Brazil’s general election on Oct 28. Gustavo Arrellano of Orange County, author of Ask a Mexican and Taco USA, wrote in a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed that “The Spotlight may be on the OC, but Democrats are building for the long haul in the Central Valley” — in other words, he explains why winning blue in Bakersfield and Fresno is even more important than in Republican OC — and, says it could be a template for winning back small towns and rural America.

Suzi then talks to Matthew Richmond in Sao Paulo about the Oct 28 second round of the general election. The ultra-right-wing Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal party is ahead of the PT’s Fernando Haddad (as Lula sits in jail), and we get Matthew Richmond’s analysis of how Bolsonaro was able to gain a formidable base among the poor — and why these constituencies support Bolsonaro when his economic policies will hurt them.

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Brazil is headed toward fascism by way of Jair Bolsonaro, a sexist, homophobic, and violent militarist clown nostalgic for a murderous dictatorship. How did this happen? Alfredo Saad-Filho, a professor of political economy at SOAS University of London, explains the roots of right-wing reaction and left-wing collapse — and the ultimately disastrous results of a PT governance strategy centered on an accommodation with a capitalist order that could only last as long as the global commodity boom did.

Read "Bolsonaro’s Conservative Revolution" by Matthew Aaron Richmond: https://jacobinmag.com/2018/10/brazil-election-bolsonaro-evangelicals-security

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge catalog of left-wing books at www.versobooks.com.

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Socialist Alternative's Kshama Sawant was elected to Seattle City Council way before socialism became a cool thing. Today, Dan's talking to Sawant about how socialists can build power and win at the local level—and how in Seattle, that means taking on Amazon, which recently coerced her colleagues on Council to reverse themselves on a big-business tax that was earmarked to help the homeless people who have been squeezed out of the housing market by an economy dominated by those very same big businesses.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their enormous catalogue of left-wing books at www.versobooks.com

Please support this podcast with money at Patreon.com/TheDig

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Today, we’re addressing one of the most obnoxious corners of the identity politics debate. And that is the corner occupied by Right Liberals who believe that any desire to change the world is a divisive symptom of maladjusted affluenza emanating from pampered college students. Moira Weigel discusses her Guardian review of The Coddling of the American Mind, which makes its case by way of pragmatic folk aphorisms like: “Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child”.

Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge catalogue of left-wing books at www.versobooks.com

Please support this podcast with you money at patreon.com/TheDig

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.