RFH Ep 133: Marx’s “Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte” ... and the Trump Regime

Co-hosts Andrew Kliman and Gabriel Donnelly discuss Karl Marx’s 1852 book “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” written soon after French president Louis Napoleon—or, as Marx refers to him, Louis Napoleon—staged an auto-coup in 1851, replacing a parliamentary republic with “rule by bayonet.” Shortly thereafter, he declared himself Emperor Napoleon III. Much of the discussion focuses on how Marx considered history, political struggle, and parties in relationship to the broader class struggle. The co hosts focus especially on his claim that French political parties and figures “represented” social classes. While they note striking similarities between the assaults on democracy in Louis Bonaparte’s France and in Donald Trump’s US (and elsewhere) today, they also discuss the pitfalls of trying to draw simple comparisons between substantially different political, economic, and cultural situations. Plus current-events segment: Trump administration chaos creating macroeconomic chaos. The co-hosts discuss how Trump’s on-again, off again tariffs and other chaos have led to widespread economic uncertainty, and the likely consequences of that uncertainty.