No surprise here: the main ideological prop for American capitalism was the thriving American middle class. You can read a 1955 " Life Magazine " editorial celebrating this " happy " country in contrast to dreary, weary Stalinist Russia.
But Russia ended " communist " rule a generation ago. But capitalism in Russia has no " 1955 " American equivalent. And we too have experienced decades of decaying capitalism. It seems old Karl Marx was right about the " dialectics " of capitalist development after all.
History has not ended with global capitalism and Donald Trump leading a New American Century. " Socialist " Democrat Bernie Sanders makes much more sense. Now how can Bernie attract the big enthusiastic crowds and Hillary still win the party's nomination ? Trump does not lie about a number of things: The American Dream is dead and the political system is fixed in favor of the establishment ruling class.
How can middle class Americans with moderate political views not change profoundly after the experience of the last eight years and the Great Recession ? Futile New Colonialism war also shifts them far from " respectable " liberalism.
But Russia ended " communist " rule a generation ago. But capitalism in Russia has no " 1955 " American equivalent. And we too have experienced decades of decaying capitalism. It seems old Karl Marx was right about the " dialectics " of capitalist development after all.
History has not ended with global capitalism and Donald Trump leading a New American Century. " Socialist " Democrat Bernie Sanders makes much more sense. Now how can Bernie attract the big enthusiastic crowds and Hillary still win the party's nomination ? Trump does not lie about a number of things: The American Dream is dead and the political system is fixed in favor of the establishment ruling class.
How can middle class Americans with moderate political views not change profoundly after the experience of the last eight years and the Great Recession ? Futile New Colonialism war also shifts them far from " respectable " liberalism.
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| A metaphor for the present : an emaciated Rock Hudson with AIDS |
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Ron