American liberty has since its foundation relied upon the dispossession of
indigenous people and Mexicans, upon African enslavement and, ultimately, upon
the constant fleeing outward that created an empire that none dare call by its
name. As historian Greg Grandin writes in The End of the Myth: From the
Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, this expansionist project
has finally lost its ideological and material vitality, no longer able to
neatly reconcile centuries of mounting contradictions. And so politics
returned to the border as American expansion hit a wall—figuratively and, as
Trump has demanded, very literally. "Trumpism," Grandin writes, "is extremism
turned inward, all-consuming and self-devouring. There is no 'divine,
messianic' crusade that can harness and redirect passions outward. Expansion,
in any form, can no longer satisfy interests, reconcile contradictions, dilute
the factions, or redirect the anger."
Thanks to University of California Press. Check out No Go WorldL How Fear Is
Redrawing Our Maps and Infecting Our Politics by Ruben Andersson
ucpress.edu/book/9780520294608/no-go-world
And thanks to Verso. Check out their huge selection of left-wing titles at
www.versobooks.com
Please support this podcast with your money at patreon.com/TheDig
