From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carlos-alberto-torres/republican-partys-perfect-storm_b_2007528.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Carlos Alberto Torres
10/23/2012
Hegemony is a concept derived from the Greek word eghémonia, which means leader or ruler. Usually employed to signify military power, or the political predominance of one state over another, Antonio Gramsci, arguably the most important Marxist thinker of the 20th century, suggested the term hegemony is often used to mean the broader process of moral and intellectual leadership through which the dominant class and ruling elite exercises its domination.
Domination is not only based purely on coercion but it is a moral, intellectual and even cultural drive imposing a clear and certain cultural direction. Moreover, the basic argument that Gramsci makes is that socially subordinate sectors accept the hegemonic domination of elites even though this implies that they will follow economic, cultural, and political principles working against their own interests.
The tumultuous nature of this presidential campaign teaches us many things about hegemony in the United States. The country, split into two different political persuasions representing two different views of the world, includes unique understandings of capitalism and the role of government. To see evidence of hegemony, however, one need only look to the Republican Party, whose campaign discourse and idea of democracy is a perfect storm of overwhelmingly male centric, class centric, and ethnocentric policies.
The Romney/Ryan philosophy is straightforward old school male-centric. When Romney shared that he had asked for a “binder full of women” while governor of Massachusetts, to purportedly identify and appoint a few women to his administration, it was a small but telling gaffe reflective of a larger personal and social disposition: that males are natural rulers in every sphere, most especially in politics. It’s not a big leap from there to suggest that women should return home to fix dinner for their man once they have finished working all day outside the home. For Romney, it is obviously irrelevant that there are many households with just one head of the household, most of whom are women. In political life, women would only play a role when they embody and represent, like many businesswomen and some politicians, “hegemonic masculinities.” That is, they share with men and particularly the elites their desire to control and suppress counter-hegemonic principles, values, alternatives, and practices. Women’s bodies, which have long been a matter of public policy, are placed at the center of a “war against women,” where Republican anti-abortion policies are sustained and cuts to Planned Parenthood are proposed.
Continue reading at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carlos-alberto-torres/republican-partys-perfect-storm_b_2007528.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
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