Bob Buzzanco – Page 8 – Green and Red Podcast

From Clinton to Trump: America in Tatters.

November 20, 2020Uncategorized

The latest U.S. history lecture from Green and Red Podcast co-host, and University of Houston history professor, Bob Buzzanco.

From Clinton to Trump: America in Tatters. He begins with the roaring 90s: Clinton and the “New Democrats”; Welfare and Crime “reform”; Right-Wing Hardball; Globalization and Financialization.

And the goes into the George W. Bush and Barack Obama eras–Tax Cuts and Patriot Act; Obama and the Great Recession; saving Wall Street; Obamacare; Black Lives Matter.

Bob takes on Reagan’s America

November 19, 2020Uncategorized

The latest U.S. history lecture from Green and Red Podcast co-host, and University of Houston history professor, Bob Buzzanco.

We hear about the aftermath of Watergate. The 1980s–the Backlash Continues: Reagan and the Triumphant Right.

The Moral Majority and Phyllis Schlafly; Reagan’sEvil Empire Speech; Reverse Robin Hood Economics and De-Industrialization in placeslike Youngstown. The new New Cold War; SDI and slaughters in Central America. And then the cultural resistance of the period that includes Punk and Hip Hop. And ends with Rodney King and the LA Rebellion.

Hysteria about Fascism and Coups Hurt the Left

November 18, 2020Uncategorized

cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

by Prof. Robert Buzzanco

Since 1/20/2017 huge numbers of people, liberals and on the Left alike, have been adamant, and often apoplectic, that Trump was guiding the U.S. toward fascism, that he was the new American Hitler, and that his followers were Nazis. More recently, we’ve been inundated with increasingly-panicked warnings that a coup was imminent because he was unlikely to win the election fairly or he’d refuse to leave office if he lost.

And we’re not just being told that Trump is a fascist. Some people on the Left have gone further and insisted that nobody should even question that perspective, that fact–as they see it. The most extreme, unhinged example of attacking coup skeptics was probably Counterpoint’s feature write Paul Street, who shrieked that “any asshole ‘radical left’ douchebag who goes around posting and publishing denialist bullshit based on the absence of full on parallels with the Third Reich disgraces themselves and pollutes the discourse with ahistorical drivel.” I guess then I’ll cop to being a disgraceful polluter.

Ruling Class 101 and the Coup That Wasn’t

November 18, 2020Uncategorized

We’re not ones to subscribe to popular world views, even those held on the left. So, in our latest episode, Green and Red dive deep into the history and politics of the American Ruling Class, coups at other points in history, and the great coup of 2020 (that wasn’t).

Listen here: https://bit.ly/RulingClassGandR

We start off with a conversation about what is a coup and not a coup. We talk about coups in places like Indonesia in 1965, Chile in 1973, and in other points of history; and how the end of the Trump regime has yet to constitute what is considered “coup.”

Bob Talks About the Fun Part of the Sixties! (and the Right-Wing Backlash to It)

November 15, 2020Uncategorized

The latest U.S. history lecture from Green and Red Podcast co-host, and University of Houston history professor, Bob Buzzanco.

He starts with the fun part, the Counterculture, which includes protest music; Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; the riots at Stonewall and gay liberation; plus the real counterculture stuff like LSD, Age of Aquarius and Woodstock.

And then gets into the right wing backlash: that includes Nixon and Law and Order, the southern strategy. The New Right. Nixon and Detente and Vietnamization.

Buzzanco: New Left, the Anti-War Movement and Participatory Democracy

November 14, 2020Uncategorized

The latest U.S. history lecture from Green and Red Podcast co-host, and University of Houston history professor, Bob Buzzanco.

In this lecture he talks about the New Left and Participatory Democracy. It’s origins with C. Wright Mills, SDS, Port Huron Statement. The eruption of the Free Speech Movement, Mario Savio. The emergence of a mass Antiwar Movement.

As well as Chicano Movement–Cesar Chavez, Reies Tijerina, Brown Berets. And the Women’s Liberation–Friedan, Miss America Protest, Abortion Rights. Protest Music–Dylan, Rolling Stones.

Is Your Outrage Pure?

November 13, 2020Uncategorized

cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

by Prof. Bob Buzzanco

Planned Election Protests Shouldn’t Have Been Postponed

First, there’s not going to be a “coup” or any other type of stolen election. The hysterics surrounding this issue have frankly become embarrassing on the Left. No reason to go into the particulars here (though I did in a lengthy piece a few weeks ago), but it’s not going to happen. Trump won’t be president after January 20^th, 2021.

But coup-or-no-coup is a pretty weak line on gauging political success. The standard for Pass/Fail shouldn’t be the worst possible outcome—the actual theft of government power. The way some people are sizing this up, anything short of tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue flying Confederate flags with the Proud Boys and Q him- or her-self leading the attack with Kid Rock providing the marching music would be a victory.

The Big Five-Oh Pt 2. “Where Does the Left Go From Here?”

November 13, 2020Uncategorized

Our fiftieth episode was such a BFD, that we made it a two parter.

Listen here: https://apple.co/3krciyK

In part two, we get into the aftermath of the election and discuss where do we go from here when 70 million Americans voted for the racist and right-wing policies of Donald Trump, the Democrats’ “Misleadership Class” that continues to fail masses of people, the Coup That Wasn’t and how grassroots organizers saved the day.

Buzzanco: Backlash to the Civil Rights Movements, Black Power, Urban Uprisings and Questioning Authority

November 13, 2020Uncategorized

The latest U.S. history lecture from Green and Red Podcast co-host, and University of Houston history professor, Bob Buzzanco.

In this lecture, Dr. Buzzanco gets into the backlash to Civil Rights. Northern Rage, Malcolm X, Black Power/Black Panthers; Urban uprisings; Poor People’s Campaign; MLK’s transition. As well as a discussion on the 1960s–Commodification and Questioning Authority.

The History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement

November 12, 2020Uncategorized

The latest U.S. history lecture from Green and Red Podcast co-host, and University of Houston history professor, Bob Buzzanco.

In this lecture, we hear about the Modern Civil Rights Movement. In the courts and in the streets. Brown v. Board, Montgomery Bus Boycott, emergence of MLK. Sit-Ins and SNCC; Freedom Rides, Birmingham, Freedom Summer. Civil and Voting Rights Acts.