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The Republican Party is the biggest threat to our liberal democracy, and we cannot depend on the liberals to defend our liberal democracy. How then should we as democratic socialists spearhead the fight for democracy and worker power?

Socialism 2022 Conference, Chicago
“The Crisis of American Politics: Socialists and Liberal Democracy”, part 2.
Moderator: Griffin Mahon
Panelists: Sanjiv Gupta, Paul Heideman

Sanjiv Gupta is a member of the River Valley DSA chapter in Western Massachusetts, and is a sociologist at UMass-Amherst. I personally discovered Sanjiv first from his excellent podcast Socialism in the Time of Corona. You’ll find the link in the show notes.
NOTE: In the episode Sanjiv was introduced as a sociologist at Amherst College, but Sanjiv is at UMass-Amherst.

Paul Heideman is a writer and high school teacher in NYC. He is the editor of Class Struggle and the Color Line and his work has appeared in Jacobin, Dissent, and In These Times. He is currently working on a history of the modern Republican Party. There is a link to his article “Behind the Republican Party Crack-up” in Catalyst.

Links:
Haymarket Books Socialism 2022 podcast
https://socialismconference.org/

Sanjiv Gupta’s podcast Socialism in the Time of Corona

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/socialism-in-the-time-of-corona/id1511330379

Paul Heideman

“Behind the Republican Party Crack-up”, Catalyst

https://catalyst-journal.com/2021/09/behind-the-republican-party-crack-up

***At a point in the recording something was repeatedly hitting the microphone, making it  difficult to hear Griffin the moderator. Griffin asked Paul and Sanjiv why they didn’t use the F word “fascism.” Griffin assumed it was intentional to avoid this term, but asked them to expound on their opinion on the use of the word fascism. And he asked a follow up question, if they prefer not to use the term, how would they describe the Republican Party?

Paul said he wasn’t opposed to the use of the term for rhetorical reasons, but argues it isn’t particularly accurate. Historically fascism has been the complete crushing of liberal democracy and a complete break with the constitutional order. When fascists come to power the old constitution is no longer in effect, and all opposing political parties would be removed. This is not actually what the Republican Party is doing, though we could consider calling them “Authoritarian,” like India and Turkey where they still have limited civil liberties and opposition parties.

You’ll continue to hear some noise as Sanjiv answered Griffin’s question, but we were able to make the sound quality good enough to include it into the episode. Thanks for bearing with us.***

Credits:
Producer: Elton LK
Logo by Michaela Brangan
Sound Engineer & Opening Music by Casey Stikker

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