The Vast Majority: "Why Bernie Talks About the New Deal" with Seth Ackerman

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2019

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bernie Sanders has been talking a lot about the New Deal lately, mentioning it in his recent speech on democratic socialism. Ironically, the response from many liberals has been to argue that the New Deal wasn’t really socialism. Jacobin’s Seth Ackerman has a few quibbles. Plus, we talk about why the idea that the New Deal was racist doesn’t fully capture its relationship to white supremacy.

Read Seth’s article on Bernie’s New Deal rhetoric here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/06/new-deal-socialism-bernie-sanders-democratic-primary Read an interview with New Deal historian Richard Walker, who discusses the charge that the New Deal was racist, plus many other aspects of the New Deal’s wide-ranging policies, here: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/03/green-new-deal-roosevelt-public-works

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

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the vast majority. My name is Micah Utrich Managing Editor for Jacobin.
0:07.0	Bernie Sanders has drawn on the New Deal throughout his campaign.
0:11.0	You heard it in his recent speech on Democratic socialism in which he argued that his
0:15.9	platform is one that would complete the unfinished business of former
0:19.7	President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
0:22.4	Liberals have been quick to point out that Democratic Socialism and the New Deal are very distinct from one another.
0:28.0	And they're not exactly wrong, but something is a bit off in dismissing the New Deal as not real socialism.
0:36.0	Seth Ackerman writes in Jacobin that liberals who dismiss Bernie's association of the New Deal
0:40.4	with socialism in some form, quote,
0:42.8	sound like a bunch of Maoist sectarians.
0:45.8	It also doesn't get at the truly radical pro-worker
0:49.0	transformation that the New Deal brought to American society.
0:53.0	Seth is the executive editor of Jacobin.
0:55.0	He wrote a piece for Jackinimimag.com
0:58.0	called Why Bernie Talks About the New Deal.
1:00.0	And we talked about that piece,
1:02.0	as well as the idea that the new deal was racist.
1:05.0	Seth, hello?
1:09.0	Hello, Micah.
1:11.0	So Seth, was the New Deal socialist?
1:15.0	Well, yes and no.
1:18.0	I mean, the reason I decided to write this article was because I was struck by the way that a lot of liberal pundits, Democratic Party type people were reacting to Bernie Sanders' socialism speech
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jacobin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jacobin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.