25/8/2017 Against Progressive Neoliberalism, A New Progressive Populism | Dissent Magazine

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Against Progressive Neoliberalism, A

New Progressive Populism
Nancy Fraser January 28, 2017

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Hong Kongs New Normal
Senator Bernie Sanders speaking at a People's Rally for social and economic justice led by National
Denise Y. Ho
Nurses United, Washington, D.C., November 18, 2016 (Lorie Shaull / Flickr)
August 23, 2017

Thisarticle concludesa debate on progressive neoliberalism. Read Nancy Frasers How the Forever War
Brought Us Donald Trump
original article and Johanna Brenners response.
Jedediah Purdy
August 22, 2017
Johanna Brenners reading of my essay misses the centrality of the problem of
Pride and Prejudice
hegemony. My main point was that the current dominance of finance capital was not Timothy Shenk
achieved only by force but also by what Gramsci called consent. Forces favoring August 18, 2017
financialization, corporate globalization, and deindustrialization succeeded in taking
over the Democratic Party, I claimed, by presenting those patently anti-labor policies
as progressive. Neoliberals gained power by draping their project in a new
cosmopolitan ethos, centered on diversity, womens empowerment, and LGBTQ
rights. Drawing in supporters of such ideals, they forged a new hegemonic bloc,
which I called progressive neoliberalism. In identifying and analyzing this bloc, I never
lost sight of the power of finance capital, as Brenner claims, but offered an Email Address :
explanation for its political ascendance.

The lens of hegemony also sheds light on the position of social movements vis--vis
neoliberalism. Instead of parsing out who colluded and who was coopted, I focused Subscribe
on the widespread shift in progressive thinking from equality to meritocracy.
Saturating the airwaves in recent decades, that thinking influenced not only liberal
feminists and diversity advocates who knowingly embraced its individualist ethos, but
also many within social movements. Even those whom Brenner calls social-welfare
feminists found something to identify with in progressive neoliberalism, and in doing
so, turned a blind eye to its contradictions. To say this is not to blame them, as
Brenner contends, but to clarify how hegemony worksby drawing us inin order to
figure out how best to build a counterhegemony.

The latter idea supplies the standard for assessing the fortunes of the left from the
1980s to the present. Revisiting that period, Brenner surveys an impressive body of

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25/8/2017 Against Progressive Neoliberalism, A New Progressive Populism | Dissent Magazine

leftwing activism, which she supports and admires, as do I. But it does not detract
from that admiration to note that this activism never rose to the level of a
counterhegemony. It did not succeed, that is, in presenting itself as a credible
alternative to progressive neoliberalism, nor in replacing the latters view of who
counts as us and who as them with a view of its own. To explain why this was the
case would require a lengthy study, but one thing at least is clear: unwilling to
frontally challenge progressive-neoliberal versions of feminism, anti-racism, and
multiculturalism, leftwing activists were never able to reach the reactionary
populists (that is, industrial working-class whites) who ended up voting for Trump.

Bernie Sanders is the exception that proves the rule. Though far from perfect, his
campaign directly challenged established political fault lines. By targeting the
billionaire class, he reached out to those abandoned by progressive neoliberalism,
addressing communities struggling to preserve middle-class lives as victims of a
rigged economy who deserve respect and are capable of making common cause
with other victims, many of whom never had access to middle-class jobs. At the
same time, Sanders split off a good chunk of those who had gravitated toward
progressive neoliberalism. Though defeated by Clinton, he pointed the way to a
potential counterhegemony: in place of the progressive-neoliberal alliance of
financialization plus emancipation, he gave us a glimpse of a new, progressive-
populist bloc combining emancipation with social protection.

In my view, the Sanders option remains the only principled and winning strategy in
the era of Trump. To those who are now mobilizing under the banner of resistance, I
suggest the counter-project of course correction. Whereas the first suggests a
doubling down on progressive-neoliberalisms definition of us (progressives) versus
them (Trumps deplorable supporters), the second means redrawing the political
mapby forging common cause among all whom his administration is set to betray:
not just the immigrants, feminists, and people of color who voted against him, but
also the rust-belt and Southern working-class strata who voted for him. Contra
Brenner, the point is not to dissolve identity politics into class politics. It is to
clearly identify the shared roots of class and status injustices in financialized
capitalism, and to build alliances among those who must join together to fight against
both of them.

Nancy Fraser is a professor of philosophy and politics at The New School for Social
Research and author, most recently, of Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed
Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis (Verso, 2013).

Thisarticleconcludesa debate on progressive neoliberalism. ReadNancy Frasers

original articleandJohanna Brenners response.

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