The optimistic America of 1955 is dead,dead, dead

  Both" The Donald " and Bernie would agree that the American Dream is dead. I recall in my high school days ( circa 1965) having to read " The Communist Manifesto " . The point of this Cold War assignment was to IMMUNIZE us to its subversive ideas. I recall that the introduction was as long as the text. It refuted Marx my insisting that American capitalism had created a prosperous, stable, and happy middle class. But soon 1968 had nothing in common with 1955 and the perspective of " Life Magazine ".

Way back then -protesting Nixon's America- I concluded that Karl Marx was essentially right about our capitalist system. I give critical support to " socialist " Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. And yet he is hardly a shadow of his teacher, Eugene V. Debs. 100 years ago America had a vibrant Socialist movement -long before anybody heard the word Stalinism.
I recall Upton Sinclair's " The Jungle " and Jack London's " The Iron Heel ".

Euphoric America of 1955