The Dead Center takes an acerbic and often ribald eye to contemporary politics, particularly those of mainstream liberals in the United States. Combining engaging polemic and serious intellectual analysis, it offers a timely portrait of a political landscape sullied by an already ineffectual Biden administration, the marginalization of forces around Bernie Sanders and the ominous shadow of Donald Trump in the wings.
In these pages Jacobin staff writer Luke Savage exposes the hollowness and futility of the liberal project in the 21st century, offering searing critiques of some of its leading figures, notably Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau, and touching on topics that extend over the milquetoast politics of the Biden presidency, Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing, the monopolists of Silicon Valley, and the worst excesses of cable news punditry. Always deeply informed, often on the basis of direct personal experience, Savage’s book also explores the recent trajectory of younger people away from the liberal mainstream and towards the socialist left.
Mục lục
Introduction: The Dead Center
A Note to the Reader
Part I: Salvos
Liberalism in Theory and Practice
Why Liberals Pretend They Have No Power
David Brooks’ Capitalist Fatalism
What Canada Can Teach Us About Liberals Everywhere
Part II: Bipartisan Bromides
The Curse of Bipartisanship
Liberalism’s Veil of Ignorance
2004 Redux
How Liberals Fell in Love with The West Wing
The Never Trump Delusion
Part III: Dramatis Personae
The Fraudulent Universalism of Barack Obama—co-authored with Nathan J. Robinson
Justin Trudeau and the Politics of Spectacle
Fear and LARPing on the Campaign Trail
Farewell to Betomania
Why The Pundit Class Loves Amy Klobuchar|
Variations in B-Flat Minor
Keir Starmer and the Genealogy of Centrist Non-Belief
Joe Biden Is Not a Radical
Part IV: On the Media
Manufacturing Consent, One Chyron at a Time
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Chris Matthews
All the President’s Tweets
Erasing the Working Class
James Carville Will Never Stop Being Wrong
The Progressive Era That Wasn’t
Part V: All That’s Solid…
Savory Snacks for Social Justice
The British Monarchy Will Not Survive Late Capitalism
Barons of the Valley
From New Deal to Nudge
Neoliberalism? Never Heard of It.
Acknowledgements
Endnotes
About the Author
Giới thiệu về tác giả
Luke Savage is a writer and essayist whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New Statesman, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. Born in St John’s, Newfoundland, he studied political science, history, and philosophy at the University of Toronto, where he edited Canada’s largest student newspaper The Varsity. Having worked for several years as an investigative reporter covering Canadian politics and the far right, Luke has been a staff writer at Jacobin since 2018 – where he is a frequent commentator on American, British, and Canadian politics. He is co-host of the popular Michael and Us podcast, a twice-weekly show about politics, cinema, and our crumbling world.