A point I have always made to explain the long life of the US version of Social Democracy --- beginning with the New Deal but continuing in that tradition all the way to al most the end of the 1970s --- is the existence of the challenge of the SOviet Union's "alternative" to capitalism ---
Because there was a Soviet Union (and its terrible realities were hidden from its supporters in "the west"), and because fascism had been utterly destroyed both as a source of power and as an ideology because of WW II --- the W. European version of social democracy (and the pale American imitator) was essential for the ruling class to show that capitalism could, in fact, smooth off the rough edges that had caused the depression and fascism -- So stop suppressing labor --- woo them with higher wages and recognition --- (In W. Europe it meant allowing social democratic parties to rule .... and for a much more egalitarian (and rational?) system than the pre-war versions) --- Johnson's great society was actually followed by a VERY INTERVENTIONIST 8 years under Nixon and Ford (it was FORD in 1975 who engaged in the most "Keynesian" policy intervention of the entire post WW II period) --- In the 1970s, as the SOviet Union began to reveal it was actually a "failed experiment" the ruling class got more confident that they didn't have to "bribe" the working class who had already (due to public awareness) become soured on the SOviet model --- RESULT _- The Democrats stopped even paying lip service to supporting the working class and moved in the direction of neo-liberalism (slowly under Carter, resisting a bit under REagan and Bush I, but surrendering completely [there's that book title again] under Clinton) --=- But I do think the failure of the Soviet alternative had a lot to do with it -- On Wed, Nov 25, 2020 at 2:59 PM Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > To put it bluntly: if the far right has managed, through the use of > disinformation or otherwise, to mobilize the anti-systemic feelings of > people who feel they have been failed and left behind, it is because those > sentiments *exist*. It is only because many people sense that there is > something profoundly wrong about the existing economic and political system > that the far right’s message can take hold. Combating this message, > therefore, is not just a matter of fighting deception; it is ultimately > about addressing the issues that are at the source of those feelings. This > cannot happen, however, for as long as we are in denial about those issues. > _._,_._,_ > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#3931): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/3931 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/78507904/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
