“Two Faces of American Capitalism”: Juan González on What the RNC & DNC Reveal About U.S. Politics

AMY GOODMAN: But before we end, Juan, we began this week with you and Bill Ayers going back to 1968, talking about the protests of the time. And as we begin to wrap up, can you share your thoughts about this week?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, you know, I think one of the things that struck me most was the level, as I said, of choreographed mass spectacle of this convention that would be really worthy of Leni Riefenstahl, the famous Nazi, Hitler’s filmmaker and propagandist, in terms of controlling the narrative that the America people receive of what the Democratic Party is about.

We’ve seen that both the Republican convention and the Democratic convention show the two faces of American capitalism. On the one hand, with the Republicans, you have a party of a white supremacist capitalism, of anti-immigrant xenophobia, of patriarchy and of war on the working class. And now, this past week, we’ve seen the party of multiracial neoliberal capitalism, for a party that seeks a kinder and gentler form of mass deportation and border militarization, and one that is even more aggressive in the imperial policies of the United States than even the Republican Party, if you consider that.

And both parties sort of having a disconnect with the rest of the world. I was stunned by all the chants of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” throughout the Democratic convention, when the reality is that the United States has never been lower in its prestige and never more discredited around the world than it is today as a result of — especially of the war in Gaza, but of all the attempts at regime change and controlling other countries and forcing other countries to do what it wants.

And it reminds me constantly that “one person, one vote” is a dangerous concept, because there’s always the possibility that the masses of people will act in ways that the rulers don’t want. So, the necessity to control the narrative, to control what the people consider possible, is so important to our ruling classes. And that’s why they invest so much time and so much effort in this choreographing of spectacle to, somehow or other, prevent the people from thinking of other possibilities.

And so, I think that that’s what most — had most impact on me, and also the fact that the social movements have had impact. I think Kamala Harris’s choice of Tim Walz was a direct response to the sense among this multiracial neoliberal wing of capitalism that they’ve got to, somehow or other, placate the masses of the people and bring the young people back into the fold. And so, I think they’ve attempted to do that. We’ll see what happens in the coming weeks. But I think that the choices have never been clearer between the two forms of capitalism. And we’ll see what the American people decide in the coming weeks.

AMY GOODMAN: Your final thought on that, Barbara Ransby?

BARBARA RANSBY: I agree. I was nodding and amening as Juan was commenting. Yeah, I mean, two faces of capitalism, because we see — you know, it’s very hard to be enthusiastic about this moment in the Democratic Party, with Gaza and everything else. And I think the cynicism of this orchestrated consensus at the convention is one example of that.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’re going to ask you to stay for our second hour. We have a lot more that we’re going to bring everyone. The historian Barbara Ransby teaches here in Chicago at the University of Illinois. She’s going to stay with us.

That does it for the first hour of our two-hour broadcast. A very happy birthday to Democracy Now!‘s executive director, Julie Crosby! We’ve been hosted this week at CAN TV, Chicago’s public access television and media production facility, that has run Democracy Now! for so many years throughout the greater Chicago area. A very special thanks to our CAN TV crew: Darrious Hilmon, David Tainer, Jason Bryant, Jeremy Frye, Jim Knightwright, Rocío Santos, Imani Payne, Kenny Nelson, Allen Voss, David Greenleaf, Leannet Rodriguez, Keith McDonald, Anita Torgus and Marisa Moffett. And special thanks, as well, to the Democracy Now! crew here in Chicago: Mike Burke, Renée Feltz, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Messiah Rhodes, Nermeen Shaikh, María Taracena, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo, Hany Massoud, Hana Elias and Denis Moynihan. Back in New York, Democracy Now! produced with Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, John Hamilton and Robby Karran. Special thanks also to Becca Staley, Jon Randolph, Paul Powell, Mike Di Filippo, Miguel Nogueira, Hugh Gran, David Prude, Dennis McCormick, Matt Ealy, Anna Özbek, Emily Andersen, Julie Crosby, our director. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, for another edition of Democracy Now! here in Chicago.