“Harris and Trump are no different”

By Meritaxel Freixas |

Santiago de Chile (EFE).- American historian and political scientist Jody Dean told EFE that there is “no difference” between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in terms of immigration, in terms of their firm support for Israel and in terms of arming Ukraine. Is.”

If the Democratic candidate wins, “American support for Israel will continue for the genocide (in Gaza),” Dean said during a visit to Chile, where he presented his latest book ‘Comrade.’ A Political Essay on Political Affiliation’ (Verso Libros), the first edition of which in Spanish is published this November.

“Harris is not a leftist,” the academic said of the Democratic leader who was the first attorney general of California, the first black person elected to the Senate from that state, the first vice president and the first racial nominee for the White House.

Dean (New York, 1962), a professor of political science in her hometown and an expert in political theory, media, and social movements, said that Harris “does not campaign politically with her identity as the first black woman (which can reach the White House).

Academics “do not want to credit the feminist movement with the rise to power of figures such as the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990), or the former North American Under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (1997–2001)”.

“We want more than just bourgeois women in power,” she said, adding that Kamala Harris is “symbolically important” to millions of young women of color who “see that power can have a face Is”, but “the reality matters even more.”

Harris, polarization and Trump

The Democratic candidacy, which gained considerable strength following Harris’ nomination, especially among women, is weakening as the weeks go by. Polls predict a very close result and it is not ruled out that we will have to wait several days to find out the winner.

Dean said, “Polarization in the United States is weird because the parties agree on the issue, but absolutely hate each other.” According to him, it is more an “identity issue” than “really based on real politics”.

“We should not convert (polarization) into a left-right axis,” he said.

In her opinion, the United States has “a capitalist party that has two branches that want to maintain North American hegemony: one that has a woman at the top and the other that attacks women and takes away their physical liberties.”

However, for him, in the United States “the working class has no political party that represents it: there are only a few secondary parties that try to break with the system.”

“The electoral model is designed to keep the popular classes away from politics,” the political scientist said.

“Build stronger social movements”

Dean, who participated in a book fair in the popular capital commune of Recoleta in September, chose to “build strong social movements linked to the experiences, hopes, desires and struggles of the working class”, but admits that “it is not automatic”.

“It doesn’t happen just because someone is a woman or just because someone is working class,” she stressed.

According to him, activists and social organizations “have to take to the streets and deliver this message, so that as the movement grows stronger, politicians say ‘we have to change’.”

“Excited” by the publication in Spanish of her work, the author invites us to delve deeper into what she calls “a love letter to young leftist activists” to see what they see themselves as creating parties and movements and interacting with each other. We can strengthen it, because – he said – harmony is a relationship, especially one that has to do with political affiliation.

In his work he briefly defends this, saying that “if the left does not establish strong bonds of solidarity, it will never be able to defeat the right.”