Minnesota Millennial, Power Politics Part 2

Mathieu Landretti photo from Facebook. Mathieu delves into the 2016 election in the second installment of our interview.

PART 1 OF INTERVIEW HERE: https://4tpack.blogspot.com/2018/01/minnesota-millennial-power-politics_3.html

                  In Part 2 of our three-part interview, we learn more about Mathieu Landretti's thoughts and activities during the 2016 election, and where he thinks we as a country can go from there.

-What was your take on the 2016 election? Things/issues/people you enjoyed witnessing, things you didn't, etc. 

"In my opinion, the 2016 election was a rude awakening. 

This election exposed the anger and discontent of the American people who have felt betrayed by their leaders. This bitterness towards the political establishment manifested itself in two key figures: Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.  Bernie Sanders represented progressive left-wing populism, and Donald Trump represented regressive right-wing populism.

The people gravitated towards populism because they have realized that for the past few decades, their “representatives” are representing them less and less. 

They are tired of being manipulated by leaders who ignore their cries for help. They wanted a leader who would dramatically alter the status quo.

Photo from Pexels. A 2014 study from Northwestern and Princeton Universities found that the United States is effectively an oligarchy. 

From what I have gathered, the people who voted for Hillary Clinton where not voting for her because they were excited about Hillary Clinton; they were voting against Trump.

We have a lot of problems in this country: crumbling infrastructure, growing wealth inequality, never-ending wars, a college loan crisis, loss of manufacturing jobs, an exploitative health insurance system, and the list goes on. 

Hillary Clinton’s campaign symbolized a continuation of these issues. She was pro free trade, supported interventionism, and had no interest in progressing beyond Obamacare to single payer.

To many people, Trump offered change. His rhetoric was popular. (I must note that I am only discussing his rhetoric not his actions). 

It spoke to white working-class people. Setting aside his racism and bigotry, a lot of what Trump said on the campaign trail was good. 

He said no to the TPP and out sourcing; he said he was not going to cut Medicare and Social Security; he was going to get us out of Afghanistan. 

Photo from Pexels. While Donald Trump defeated over a dozen presidential candidates during the 2015/2016 primaries, Bernie Sanders performed well against Hillary Clinton, garnering over 40% of the vote total. 

This said, he also played to many people’s fears by scapegoating the three M’s: Muslims, Minorities, and Migrants. 

He also talked about killing/torturing innocent foreign civilians and bringing back unconstitutional “stop and frisk” laws.

Contrary to Trump’s campaign trail promises, he is filling the swamp with more sewage and polluting our politics further.

Bernie Sanders also represented change, but unlike Trump, Sanders does not—how do I put it nicely?—pose a threat to our democracy. As ironic as it is, Sanders was a new face in the political mainstream even though he has spent his entire life in politics. 

His ideas and message brought people together, unlike Trump who divided and conquered. He spoke about issues that were not politically acceptable in the past two decades.

He spoke about single payer health care, raising the minimum wage, unions and workers’ rights, among other issues which would have most politicians ridiculed as “communists” and “un-American”. 

This tells me that the paradigm is shifting left. 

These issues can no longer be ignored. Americans are moving beyond the “red scare” and “McCarthyism.” He has inspired a movement that I believe will influence voters to elect progressives in the 2018 and 2020 elections. 

Sanders campaign has single handedly mobilized young people, senior citizens, conservatives, and liberals to come together and fight for progressive issues. 

Mathieu Landretti at a 2017 Climate March

I’m not going to lie. I had a lot of fun following this election cycle. It was so uncouth and unpredictable that the news was comparable to reality television. 

This said, it was also sickening. The treatment of political dialogue in this country is heavily skewed; we no longer engage in honest debate. 

None of the so called “liberals” in government represent the real left in America, and the conservatives in our government are far off in the extreme right. 

Our corrupt two party system has moved the Overton window (the window of acceptable political dialogue) so far to the right it has become impossible to have reasonable debate.

In summary, like most progressives, I was disappointed with the outcome. Although Trump’s victory was hard to watch, it was harder to watch Bernie Sanders lose."

-Were you able to take on some roles and activities during the 2016 race?

"At the time I was enrolled in a College political science course through the U of M. 

During that time I served as an election judge and began analyzing current events and public policy. I also co-created a Bernie Sanders web page to promote his campaign, and it became the most popular web site my friend Roman and I ever made.

My political activism did not begin until after the election. Trump was a wakeup call. 

Since his election, I have gone to several meetings on the environment/ Keystone pipeline and took part in the 350.org climate change march. More recently, I have attended four meetings on the Minnesota Health Plan; I intend to become more involved in the fight for Medicare for all in the coming future."

HealthCare For All Minnesota is an organization devoted to creating single-payer healthcare in the state. Photo from the Itasca County DFL

-What is your take on our current political system under President Donald Trump?

"I think it is imperative that we watchdog our government. 

We as citizens cannot be complacent. It is far too easy to make an angry Facebook post or yell at your relatives at Thanksgiving about the election. 

We as Americans need to act. Whether that takes the form of making phone calls, protesting, or running for office, we as citizens need to act.

Although I despise Trump, I do believe his presidency could be used as a catalyst for change. 

In today’s political climate, all eyes are on Trump. 

Never before have we seen anything like this. 

Trump’s presence by itself shocks people. 

We are already seeing grassroots movements springing up in the wake of Trumps disruption of our democratic institutions. 

We now have progressive movements such as Our Revolution, Justice Democrats, Demand Progress, and here in Minnesota, MN Health Care for All. I believe that if another establishment Republican or Democrat had won in 2016, we would see a continuation corporatism and corruption without protest.

This said, we must be careful that Trump does not cause too much destruction before he is out of office. We can do this by mobilizing. As economist Robert Reich says, “Americans need to move beyond outrage and into action.”