Hi All ---- I want to take off from Mark's following comment
The quite standard idolatry of the free market is quite sufficient to get
us here. By the 1980s, the Republicans--and, yes, the Democrats,
too--embraced that notion that what's good for the market is good for the
society. This deepened over the next twenty years into systemic faith that
capitalism means that greed is a social good--and, conversely rationalizing
draconian cruelties inflicted on those who were least able to protect
themselves. This converged with a corporatized Fundamentalist Christianity
to create a religion of cruelty with the new century.
I am mostly (not quite 100 %) a supporter of the SSA (Social Structures of
Accumulation) analysis of the stages of capitalist development in the US
political economy. My book actually tried to straddle the two "left wing"
macro-economic analyses (SSA vs. Monthly Review "stagnation" thesis)
because I wanted to make the case that there was such a thing called the
"Reagain Revolution" in the US political economy that was ENABLED by the
Clinton Administration ---
(Shameless self-plug -- book entitled SURRENDER, HOW THE CLINTON
ADMINISTRATION COMPLETED THE REAGAN REVOLUTION -- should be available on
line for free)
We have lived through almost 20 years since Clinton and during that period
we had both the financial meltdown and the emergence of TRUMP and TRUMPISM
--- which (you all know) I consider a particularly American version of
fascism. I am now convinced that the best explanation for the last 20
years is that the neo-liberal SSA entered a period of crisis FROM WHICH IT
HASN'T EMERGED. According to the traditional ("classical") Leninist
version of Imperialism (I'm more a W.A. Williams guy but forget that for a
moment ...), as hegemons (read British Empire) get challenged (read
Germany) we get "wars of redivision" (read WW I) ---- Germany and Italy
demanded a "do-over" (sorry if that seems flip -- I certainly don't mean to
be) and so we had WW II --- which led to the emergence of a new hegemon ---
45 years of COld War (with hot wars all over the place but SOMEHOW
--despite the Cuban Missile Crisis -- no civilization ending nuclear war)
led to the demise of the Soviet Union but the FAILURE of the United States
to consolidate its hegemonic status and so we now have the emergence of
CHINA as the new challenge ---
US CHina military confrontation is obviously something they both want to
avoid -- but look for a LONG period of hostile "competition" ....
Meanwhile, internally, neo-liberalism failed to deliver the goods which
accounts for the emergence of the populist RIGHT (leading directly to Trump
and OTHER authoritarian versions elsewhere in the world) and SOME left wing
challenges (Sanders, some true left wingers in the Congress --- I would
argue first of their kind since Marcantonio) ----
In the US this has meant that the Roosevelt Coalition that created the US
political economy from 1945-say- 1980 completely fell apart ---- and Mark's
quote with which I stated this post became appropriate.
Where I think I disagree with folks is I don't think "the left" had much to
do with this --- we played a major role in forcing an end to the
Indochinese Wars and clipping the wings of American imperialism -- at least
partially -- but with the end of the draft and the failure of the Soviet
Union to be a MODEL for alternatives to western style capitalism, the way
was opened for the ideological victory of neo-liberalism -- (David Kotzs
book THE RISE AND FALL OF NEOLIBERAL CAPITALISM is the book that informs me
most about this). We on the left had nothing to say about this--- in
some nooks and crannies (fighting against welfare reform....) we may have
had some marginal influence ---- with the end of the draft and the
implosion of the "new left" into the various groupuscules --- Weather
Underground, October League, RCP, you name it --- we were pretty irrelevant
until the Bush Administration decided to take advantage of 9-11 to go after
Iraq, (later Iran and North Korea --- remember those "promises") and CHOKED
on that imperial overreach.
Unfortunately, despite all this HISTORY that has occurred since the 1960s,
we on the left are almost exactly where we were --- not very relevant to
make real change --- and forced to choose between standing on the sidelines
and criticizing or getting involved in supporting the imperial corporate
democrats to defeat what some of us fear will be real honest to God fascism
(and let's not go there --- we've all rehearsed the arguments ad nauseum).
The only glimmer of hope were the Black Lives Matter demonstrations over
the past years --- starting small in Ferguson --- building to a tsunami
after George Floyd was murdered --- AND the various wildcat teachers
strikes which showed the power of working class self-activity.
The fact that NBA athletes forced a (short) postponement of games in
support of the Black Lives Matter movement should be celebrated not
denigrated --- If Trump stages a coup after November 3, we are going to
need professional athletes to shut down sports along with flight
attendants, teachers, you name it ....
That would open space for "the left" while hopefully squashing the attempt
to bring fascism to the US.
So sorry this was so long --- hope it was somewhat useful in clarifying
some points --
Solidarity, TUCK FRUMP, Mike
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