Fourteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The New York Times reported that the Trump administration resumed the policy begun during the Clinton administration to transfer surplus military equipment to local US police departments during the “war on drugs.” This transfer expanded during the “war on terror” after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Obama administration prohibited the transfer of military weaponry to US police departments after a series of high-profile police killings of black men. The Trump administration rescinded the restrictions in 2017 (Edmondson 2020, para. 14). During the policing of the Black Lives Matter/George Floyd killing protests amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, law enforcement officers were reluctant to wear facial masks to prevent community transmission (Wilson 2020). Trump enthusiasts were reluctant to use face masks. Neoliberal American Gramscian hegemony tends to deny obligation for government intervention on behalf of social equity to work to redress systemic structural racism and marginalization producing Covid-19 disparities. It will otherwise self-perpetuate without state intervention which American neoliberalism as a rhetorical political discourse seeks to delegitimate. The Nixon administration pit the white working classes, both in uniform (e.g., the Ohio National Guard) and outside (working class whites) against anti-Vietnam War protestors. Trump sought to orchestrate a comparable moment by inciting a mob of his militant supporters to march on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Had the Capitol police responded with significantly larger amounts of violent, lethal force, consequent national political polarization may have been comparable to the 1933 Reichstag fire in Berlin, used as a justification for Nazi dictatorial empowerment.

Presenters

Benedict Edward DeDominicis
Professor of Political Science, School of International Studies, Catholic University of Korea, Gyeonggido [Kyonggi-do], South Korea