Why did things get worse in America?
A counter-revolution happened and it inevitably led to Trump.
This is a carryover from “Why things got better”. If you wish to see it for some context, you may view it here:
To give some context for my previous paper: the biggest reason why things were better for baby boomers was because Europe was destroyed. America had free reign to capitalize on Europes destroyed markets. These conditions created enough prosperity so that the market can boom and expand the economy of scale in a great way. It doesn’t imply that it was great for everyone, you must make it work for everyone as well.
There was a humongous Soviet Union which was the only economy growing during the 1930s. The capitalist world went in two directions. You could compromise and try to bring about a capitalist world based on equal balance between capital and labor, which is what the US did. Perhaps also, you could try and crush the forces wishing for change as what fascism did. The side that decided to compromise was able to escape the destruction that fascism brought about. The New Deal was that it also created very compromise which brought about many changes such as labor protections and unions, government investment and intervention in the economy, and the positive externalities it brought about were able to spread success across the American economy. The main catalyst for this change was organized labor, which greatly outnumbered the capitalist class.
Of course, there were forces who were opposed to the changes made by the coalition of organized labor (the New Deal), this antithesis was dominant originally before the 1930s. When FDR made his intentions clear to the capitalist class, the capitalists split into two factions. They decided to make these changes as they would be temporary, and we need to calm the working class down. There was the pro FDR-faction which consists of those who would go on to be allies of President Kennedy and what’s known as the Rockefeller Republicans. Then there was the anti-FDR faction which would go on to become the Koch brothers and Bush administrations. They essentially gave the middle finger to FDR and argued for “liberty”. It goes without saying that FDR got his way. The anti-FDR faction never forgave FDR for what he did.
Before we can get into the forces that would revolt against the New Deal, we need to talk about the dominant ideas before the 1930s to give context.
The gilded age and early 20th century were dominated by the following ideas (back then the political spectrum was a lot different than what it is today):
One) Classical Liberalism. This is an ideology that emphasizes free market and laissez-faire economics. This was back when the term “liberal” or economic liberalism, had a much different meaning than today which is associated with Social Liberal. While the American economy was not totally free market, a market with little regulations and no welfare was the norm in economics until the emergence of both Marxism and Keynesian economics in the 1920s and 30s.
Two) Social Darwinism. The basic premise of social Darwinism is that there is a constant struggle in nature to survive. This motivates people to find the best, most efficient way possible to use their resources. Those who use their resources effectively will rise to the top while those who “don’t” will fall and die off. The former should be the desired rulers because they produce the most while those of the latter should be subservient to the dominators. This idea has been used to justify racism, laissez-faire capitalism, and even fascism. It was very popular amongst the upper classes. This idea was blamed for the horrible destruction of World War II.
Three) Rugged individualism. This idea says that everyone should be able to help themselves and the government should have no part in helping the American people. This was originally coined by Herbet Hoover. This idea was very popular amongst the business class and many conservative politicians. Remember that this idea was conceived of by Herbet Hoover and was associated with him and was blamed for the Great Depression.
Four) Racism. Racism and racial hierarchies were considered “settled science” because well, might makes right. This idea was pretty much dominant everywhere, even amongst some on the left. This idea really didn’t die but rather it went quiet.
Five) Protestant Work Ethic. This idea, while a contested concept in socioeconomics and theology, links hard work and frugality with capitalism. It is basically the fusion of capitalism with Christianity. You exalt the lord by creating capital and being thrifty. This was a very common phenomenon amongst the more conservative parts of the country. Particularly the white working class. Contrary to some scholarly belief, this idea really hasn’t died out but rather it has morphed into something else. While I as a history major reject Max Weber’s conception of history, I still think the idea still holds.
Six) Prosperity gospel. This is based on cherry-picked parts of the bible which basically boil down to the more you have, the more god loves you. Poverty is a result of sin, and we shouldn’t help people because they need to learn to be more loyal to God. This idea emerged during the late 19th century as people became more conscious and started having their own interpretations of the bible. This combined with the protestant work ethic formed the backbone of conservative Christianity in many parts of the working and middle classes. It still does today but also has morphed.
Seven) fascism. You wouldn’t think this, but fascism used to be a popular idea amongst German and Italian Americans. The German American Bund was a sizable organization which received a lot of funding from prominent businessmen as an attempt to distract the working classes which was going to the left. The Silver Legion was also another popular fascist organization. In 1933, there was an attempted coup being organized by Prescott Bush (George H.W Bush’s dad) to try and both establish a corporatocracy based on Italian Fascism as well as stopping FDR’s New Deal [1]. World War II basically made fascism the enemy of America and thus the fascists in America were denounced and even arrested. The people who adhered to these ideas never died out or gave up their beliefs, rather they went quiet. Waiting to re-emerge.
We will be talking about the emerging counterforce or what is sometimes known in Marxist literature the “counter-revolution”.
Our story begins with the anti-FDR faction. They were angry that they lost and had to pay the taxes to pay for the New Deal. Taxes were after WWII, as high as 94%. Also, the socialist and communist movement was everywhere, and the business class was apoplectic to this.
After WWII, the Anti-FDR faction immediately went to work and counter this New Deal coalition.
The first thing they did was go after the communists. The communists were seen as the weakest link in the New Deal coalition. They spoke of the communists as though they were an anathema to God because the state religion (I used this term ironically) was atheism. “They were out to destroy Christianity” as was often said. Truth be told is that classical Marxism is quite indifferent to Christianity and Marx called religion the opiate of the masses because it was thought of to be a coping mechanism with class subordination. Marxist-Leninism (the ideology of the communist bloc) was hostile to religion for rather screwed up reasons and faulty interpretations of Marx. Many began to turn on the communists at first for this very reason. This provided fuel for anti-communists to launch raids on the CPUSA and other communist movements. The next justification was the fact that the Soviet Union developed its own atomic bomb which gave the USSR the ability to obliterate the USA, so this set the stage for anti-communist hysteria. Joseph McCarthy was the ringleader in this movement which is why the movement became known as “McCarthyism”. CPUSA membership dropped 90% and most of their remaining members were FBI scabs [3]. So, people basically forgot about being communists.
Then they went after the socialists. Now the Socialist Party of America pretty much committed political suicide during WWII by coming out as against America’s entry. This was a major political mistake as this was literally an internationalist threat and Americans were rightfully furious. Many either became independent, joined other socialist parties, or joined the communist party. Those who remained were targeted in a very similar way to how they were during the first red scare. Treating the socialists as if they were “communists spelled a different way.” [4] The SPA and the many other socialist parties were about as or even more anti-Stalinist than liberals and conservatives are because they felt as though Marxist-Leninism betrayed the mission that Marx set out to establish. Lying is very beneficial to the bourgeoise and McCarthyist hysteria was massive and irrational.
The anarchists up and vanished after the anarchist revolution in Catalonia was undermined by the communists and crushed by the fascist government of Spain. You would not think so, but anarchists have quite a deep tradition in America. Anarchism used to be associated with populism in the Great Plains, particularly Kansas. Even though they lost influence and were anti-Stalinist, they were crushed alongside all other leftists in the New Deal Coalition.
The trade unions were much tougher to crack because the working class was incredibly class conscious and well organized. Many trade union leaders were often themselves leftists and trade unions were highly pressured to get rid of them. Even many leaders who were social liberals but sympathetic to the left were crushed (often becoming leftists as a result). Even though the leftists were crushed, the unions themselves stood tall so it would have to be undermined from within. Let us talk about some of those elements that the business class would use in the economic sense.
One) Anti-communism. Everything I described above has been a common rallying force against the New Deal. One quote by Harry Truman describes it quite well but basically, the words “socialist” or “communist” have been hurled at every single New Deal program. Lots of people didn’t necessarily take it seriously until the 1970s. This was when class tensions had died down and the New Left was up and running. People began to associate hippies with marijuana and gang violence. The Black Panthers were leftists and tensions with the Soviet Union were getting worse. So, people eventually began to believe that any form of collectivism was socialism. If you repeat something enough times, people believe it which is called the “illusory truth effect”. People had pretty much forgotten the leftists who won them their prosperity in the first place anyway.
Two) Anti-Labor. During the New Deal, the working class had made significant gains that helped create jobs, wealth, sustainability, development, and shared prosperity. These gains and improvements went against the profits of the capitalist class, and they were furious. In fact, capitalism was going through a profitability crisis in the late 60s and it was feared that the labor movement would “go towards socialism” as Russell Kirk and William F Buckley Jr. kept on saying. So, they went to work dismantling those gains. The first thing they did was when Truman put down a strike against a steel plant in Pennsylvania by the workers to let them know who was in charge. The second thing they did was banning wildcat strikes which is when you strike without notice. But wait, aren’t these things free association? Which leads me to my next point.
Three) Neoliberalism. Classical liberalism had pretty much fallen out of favor with intellectuals and Keynesianism was the dominant force in economics. Keynesianism is often associated with social liberalism or what’s known as “modern liberalism”. The Marxists were pretty much forced silent as well because even non-communist leftists were targeted as well. Classical liberals knew that the crusade to take back the word “liberal” was fruitless and not worth the time since socialism was on the march. So, they did a few things. Classical liberals met at the Mont Pelerin Society to develop a new philosophy called “neoliberalism”. This basically means that markets would be kept in place but with a strong state to back it up and make sure it keeps flowing. Besides, this new form of social liberalism wasn’t their idea of how “free enterprise”, or “private enterprise” ought to work. Another thing they did was take the word “libertarian” from the left as Murray Rothbard would popularize it with the right-wing version of negative liberty rather than its origins in positive liberty. Now you know why the words “freedom” and “liberty” are associated with the right wing today rather than the left.
By the late 1960s, the business class decided, it had had enough. After all, wages were high at the time and America was the most economically equal first world nation. Europe also finally recovered from the devastation of WWII and was able to compete with America economically. They knew that their policies were unpopular with the mass of people. So, what did they do? They pit the working class against one another. Around this time is when social conservatism would emerge as an essential element of politics. Let’s go over many of the social conservative elements which would arise.
One) RACISM! This was the origin of the social conservative movement. After 1965 when the voting rights act passed, many white (particularly male) Americans began to fear that their status would be challenged by the feminist and anti-segregation movements once their status of secondary citizens would be lifted. So, they appealed to other movements within such as the new emerging religious right. This was an essential element to what would be known as the “Southern Strategy” which we will talk about later.
Two) The Religious Right. There is no single definition as to what the “religious right” is but to give mine; it is a right-wing conservative movement that revolves around their own interpretation of American Christianity. This includes both the prosperity gospel and protestant work ethic. But the origin of the religious right that we know today had its origins in racism. In 1954, the Brown vs. Board of Education supreme court decision made it so that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This eventually began to apply to many white-only private schools if they wanted to remain tax-exempt status. Also, the vote to ban prayer in public school was an offense to this unironically totalitarian movement. Many racist whites were furious as it wasn’t their idea of how “religious liberty” ought to work. The movement didn’t achieve their goals as this wasn’t a very successful strategy in mobilizing the American people as they were a WASP (white Anglo-Saxon protestant) movement. So, they went to another movement to try and appease the Catholics (which they were not very keen on the idea at first) [5].
Three) Anti-abortion. Abortion is the issue that would unite the social conservatives. In 1973, the Roe v. Wade decision was made by the supreme court which made abortion bans unconstitutional. This made religious Catholics very angry as the church was anti-abortion, even to the point where rape still doesn’t justify the act. The evangelical protestant community was okay with it and in some cases, even encouraged abortion. What changed? The preachers. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson both were preaching that abortion was a horrible sin. They were eager to deny Carter, a fellow evangelical, a second term so it was necessary to appeal past their typical southern-white base. White Catholics were originally very democratic but turned pretty much on the issue of abortion. This alliance, as you could guess, wasn’t an easy one.
Four) Far-right. The far-right has always had presence in America. Alexander Hamilton was very arguably far right as he wanted to establish what was essentially a corporatocracy and was anti-democracy (as were a lot of founding fathers). While this aspect is more of the economic side, he was also quite conservative himself. Know-nothing movement was active in the 19th century as they would terrorize immigrants. The KKK was quite active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as they would terrorize immigrants, jews, Catholics, leftists, feminists, basically anyone would dare challenge their right to power. Fascism was a popular idea as well amongst the middle classes. The far-right would never die out, but rather it goes quiet and inserts itself into other movements be it segregation or the Southern Strategy. To far-right people, economics is usually secondary to social issues.
The business community was in crises, so they found potential allies to align themselves with. After the civil rights act, many southern whites were very angry at the democratic party as they felt as though they had been abandoned. The democrats had historically been against racial equality but the blacks which would join the democratic party and the new deal coalition in the 1930s, finally won over. The Republican Party was eager to win their votes so what they did appeal to white southerners using what is called “dog-whistle politics”. This was an attempt to appeal to prejudice people without using overtly racist language. To quote Lee Harvey Atwater (a strategist for the Nixon campaign):
“Y’all don’t quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying “N*****, n*****, n*****.” By 1968, you can’t say “n*****”-that hurts you. Backfires. So, you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’, saying that if it is getting abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, “we want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N*****, n*****.” [6]
The Southern Strategy, as this would soon be called, failed at first in 1968 because the Alabama Democrat governor, George Wallace, who was what’s called a “Dixiecrat”” and oppose to racial desegregation, won the electoral vote in a few states in the Deep South. Nixon was nonetheless elected because he was rhetorically anti-Vietnam war and still used many of the same appeals. However, in 1972, the strategy succeeded, and Nixon was able to fly into the White House with the South and the Bible Belt securely Republican. 1972 was also the final year in which a New Deal progressive, George McGovern, would have dominance because as mentioned before, class tensions had died. Also, Nixon cheated but that’s not as relevant because the strategy still worked.
Other schemes were happening behind the scenes which would drive the movement to take back democracy. Some of which was lined out in the Lewis Powell memo [7].
During the late 1960s, religion had begun to enter politics as a political bloc for the first time. While religion had always been prevalent in American politics, it wasn’t necessarily a political bloc like it would eventually become. To make changes, they would need to be organized as an effective force. Paul Weyrich, a business tycoon who was nostalgic for 19th century capitalism, was also a very religious guy who wanted to have institutions that could make it seem like they were legitimate intellectuals. The Heritage Foundation was founded for this reason and became influential in picking court judges and conservative advocacy [8]. The federalist society became a thing which teaches law in a conservative bend.
It’s becoming increasingly revealed that the center-right (who was more interested in economic issues) secretly met with the far right (who was more interested in social issues) to stave off the progressive threat. The fascists of old never died out, nor did they see the error of their ways. Rather they went quiet and America would knowingly let in old nazis and fascists and didn’t care. They wanted to be heard for the first time in politics and there was talk of either propping up the American Independence Party or simply infiltrating the Republican Party. Well, they would end up doing the latter but something else would happen as well. The center-right would allow the far-right to enter the party and into politics so long as they would vote for them. The former would have to condemn the latter for branding issues but never take real action against them.
The labor movement was starting to see real cracks for the first time. While as mentioned a few times earlier that class tensions were dying down, people began to see unions as bad and even useless. People had pretty much forgotten why they were there in the first place. The New Deal apparently was branded not to save capitalism, but to make life inconvenient. What happened was that certain union bosses (as they were often called) were becoming increasingly lazy and even in a few instances (though very overblown) became corrupt. This was brought on by the media being increasingly concentrated around a few and being bought by wealthy individuals who had interests in anti-labor policies. If you’re bombarded enough with anti-labor rhetoric you kind of start to buy it. It was becoming common for young people to feel “radical” and say they gladly aren’t a part of unions. But the real break in unions was just around the corner.
In 1978, China was destitute. The Great Leap Forward was a huge failure, and the communist government was desperate for anything. The Soviet Union was clearly going to die at some point and a new direction was needed. So, Deng Xiaoping, who would succeed Mao Zedong as Secretary General, came up with a scheme. He decided to open the country’s borders somewhat to capitalists. Allowing them to do business in China. They were allowed to employ high-skilled, disciplined, low-cost labor in return that the capitalists would do partnerships with Chinese businesses, and they share their technologies. To make it simple, the capitalists would have to share their intellectual property. No one is stealing anything; this is a deal. Take it or leave it. American capitalists took it and ran with it. What started out as a trickle eventually became a flood. Those capitalists alongside some European ones, started to ship their well-paying American jobs at home to overseas in Shanghai. The first to go were the labor union jobs. This allowed an edge the capitalist class would exploit to lower labor costs back home.
Finally, all these events and consequences resulted in the election of Ronald Reagan. Reagan was an eager governor of California who wanted to go to the big stage. A grade-B actor who was willing to do whatever he needed to make the big time. Reagan appealed to all the elements listed above. Mostly the racism and social conservatism, employing the same methods as the Southern Strategy, even starting his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi where civil rights black activists were lynched. Jimmy Carter was unpopular because A) he wasn’t a very good politician, B) the populace was angry at his handling of both the economy and Iran hostage crisis (fun fact: it was prolonged by Republicans making a deal with Iran) [9] and C) social conservatism was a very powerful force at this time. Reagan won by a landslide. If it wasn’t for all these elements however, it would have been a big tossup, likely leaning towards Carter.
The first thing Reagan did was go on the attack against labor. He forced the Air Traffic Controllers Union to disband after the strike. Let everyone know who was boss. Wasn’t this pro-government though? The country was too anti-labor at this point to really notice. He then slashed taxes for the top 1% by 40 points gradually. This all resulted in more economic growth eventually but what happened was that Reagan needed money to pay for low taxes. So, he not only made massive deficit spending (particularly with military buildup), but he also increased taxes nine times. The idea that Reagan bought into was called “supply-side economics” (also known as “trickle-down economics”) to make big tax cuts so that the economy can grow and make up for the deficit. This is of course wishful thinking as it didn’t happen. Maybe 30–40% at least. But who cares the economy was growing and Reagan would go on to crush Walter Mondale in the 1984 presidential election.
The biggest thing that made Reagan popular was that he was credited for the downfall of the Soviet Union. Reagan increased military spending so that the Soviet Union would do the same but spend themselves out of existence. Truth be told that he worked closely with Mikhail Gorbachev in many matters such as liberalization. Reagan gave his very famous speech which demanded that Mr. Gorbachev tear down the Berlin wall and viola he is a hero! The Soviet Union’s downfall was a long time coming because A) they were dependent on oil and B) their centrally planned economy couldn’t allocate resources very efficiently. I’m going to talk about this in another paper. Reagan was still exonerated for the role he played no matter how over-romanticized it is.
The presidency of Reagan was also considered an angel of death and despair. Reagan ignored the AIDs crisis because it was thought of to be God’s punishment for gay people. He allowed Nelson Mandela to be punished because he was black, and it would appease his knowingly racist base. He allowed and supported a plethora of bloodthirsty dictators to arise all in the fight against communism. Afghanistan and the people who run it today, they were originally started and funded by Reagan against communism.
Reagan also continued the policies in what would become the drug crisis. During the Nixon administration, policies would crack down on black and leftist circles because there were allegedly some drugs in those circles. What Reagan did was worse. He instructed the CIA to smuggle cocaine into black communities to finance his operations against communism. He sold weapons to Iran who would then help finance drug cartels in Contras, who would then smuggle those drugs into America. His administration allowed it to happen. This became known as the Iran-Contra affair. The other bonus behind this was he could now demonize predominately black communities to justify a bigger police state. Of course, this stuff could never spread into white communities (just kidding it totally did).
George H.W Bush was elected president over Michael Dukakis. He played on moral panics such as the Willie Horton ad. He recognized that Reagan’s economic policies were unstable, calling it “Voodoo economics” when he originally ran against Reagan and reversed some of his policies.
After Bush really screwed up in politics, he lost his presidential re-election bid to Bill Clinton. Clinton was originally a liberal democrat but because of the influence of conservative politics, he became a lot more conservative as time went on. He signed into office (though it was drafted by Bush) the NAFTA bill which made for free trade between America, Canada, and Mexico. What happened was that America wanted to play its hands into Mexico’s politics to influence their elections to lower trade barriers. Many rural residents of Mexico started to lose everything because American agriculture was dominant in production compared to most Mexican farmers. They went out of business and started to either flee north to the US or join gangs and cartels to make money. This began to affect a lot of American’s jobs as well because either the jobs were offshored to Mexico, or the increased worker competition between American residents and Mexican immigrants. This influenced the increasingly nativist, racist attitude of many white Americans who wanted that American dream.
A common tendency for people to blame job losses on immigrants or foreigners is either false or misleading. Almost no one’s jobs were replaced by immigrants and the number of jobs which shipped overseas is overshadowed by another job killer: automation. The robots have killed your jobs at a much more disproportionate rate than foreigners ever have.
The destruction that these job losses and wage decreases would bring is horrifying. When you’re manufacturing within your community, things might be a little more expensive. But money stays within your community. Americans back then would pay a little bit more, but money would go towards building the community. That in turn benefits you as your surroundings become more economically viable. When a manufacturer wants to send jobs overseas to less paying jobs, the prices go down because they don’t have to charge as much. It outcompetes those who have inshore jobs which in turn, drives those competitors to do the same offshoring. Things appear cheaper than they are. What’s happening is that money is leaving your community. When money leaves your community, things become less economically viable. Businesses dry up and wages become significantly hurt. Many communities have fallen apart because of automation or offshoring. In the Midwest, this phenomenon is called the Rust Belt. Very similar effects happen when a Walmart appears in your town.
By the year 2000, we had a government surplus for the first time in a very long time. In 1993, what Bill Clinton did was he increased taxes on the wealthy and somewhat repealed the trickle-down economics of Reagan. This really got the wealthy donors of the GOP pissed off, so they started looking around for answers. They found it in an obscure Georgia Republican named Newt Gingrich. What Gingrich did his whole political career starting in the 70s, was he started to network with community leaders, cops, principals, and most successfully small businesses. He used insincere; identity based right-wing populism (again the Southern Strategy). This became a 50-state strategy later and it eroded Clinton’s and Democrat support in general across America. The surplus Clinton made also came from slashing welfare programs which lead to a lot of crime, which in part was a result of Gingrich. This crime again was used to scare the public into a bigger police state. Gingrich made the Republican revolution (the midterm election of 1994 and even before that) successful beyond the GOP’s wildest dreams. The democrats lost the 1994 election in such a meaningful way as for the first time in a long time, the GOP had control of the house. This was however to one day boil over and threaten our democracy.
The year is 2000. America was pretty much a conservative country by this point. The Monica Lewinsky scandal caused a right-wing resurgence among the religious. Al Gore was a globalist/interventionist, balancing the budget, but wanted to protect social security. George W Bush ran a campaign of “compassionate conservatism” which would demonize the poor a lot less. Bush took every attack on him as political fuel. He had nothing in common with the working class, but he wore a cowboy hat and rode a horse to be one of them. Bush would go on to “win” election by relying on the decades long push by the right-wing to control the court system.
Bush’s popularity was sub-par at first until 9/11 happened. The reason for the 9/11 attacks given by Al Qaeda was America’s support for Israel and the Saudi Family. Bush got a massive boost in support and was able to wield it to declare “war on terrorism”. This was a euphemism used by Bush to justify the war in Afghanistan. Deaths by motor accidents far outweigh deaths by terrorists but idiots usually meet violence with violence, not realizing the slippery slope it starts. The war in Afghanistan too out the leadership but hey we flexed our muscles. America was able to pass the Patriotic Act which violated American civil liberties just because they weren’t white and just so happened to be associated with the Middle East, it didn’t count. We’ll talk a little more about Afghanistan later, but it gets worse.
Saddam Hussein decided he didn’t want to be America’s buddy anymore, so he wants to take Iraq into its own destiny. Not to say that he was a good guy (he wasn’t at all). He was attacking Kurdish minorities with mustard gas and America didn’t have a problem with it. Until Saddam stepped on American business toes so suddenly those blond haired, blue-eyed children were being butchered. America declared war on Iraq for reasons that didn’t really follow at all. But hey, there’s cowboys and a patriotic flag so let’s take advantage.
Because of the war fervor and people’s pride, Bush was able to take advantage of the commotion to win the 2004 presidential election against John Kerry. Kerry ran a terrible campaign because he kept switching positions, but it needs to be noted that the cards were in Bush’s favor despite him running a good campaign. Liberals will often act as though the Republicans cheated (ironically, they have been for decades) but it was in many ways a fair election.
Everything was going well. America was good and an exceptional place. What on earth could possibly stop us? Well, a lot of stuff. There were many things brewing which would eventually undermine the serenity people felt in that time.
One) People began to wonder why the hell we were still in Iraq and Afghanistan. The real reasons we invaded these countries were to make a profit and scare the Middle East into submission. Halliburton stole lots of oil from Iraq and we were able to sell a bunch of American made weapons for our use and try to equip said countries with them. In Iraq, we replaced their government with young, ideologically right-wing interns who didn’t know what the hell they were doing. Do you know who was funding the terrorists? Saudi Arabia. So why didn’t we attack them? The Saudi family was in league with America and allows us to have military bases.
Two) the 08 financial crisis. What happened to cause the crisis was brought on by the removal of the Glass-Stegall act of 1934 (from the New Deal) in 1999 (pushed by Republicans and signed by Clinton) and replaced with the Commodity Futures Modernization act. This made it so banks can do whatever they wanted and take major risks. This involves loaning money to people who probably wouldn’t have been able to pay it back. It removed any oversight and regulations regarding the credit default swap process. The main writers of those swaps were large insurance companies. Because regulators didn’t require insurance companies to hold enough in reserve, AIG made big loans and Goldman Sacs were holders of those loans. The process got so big that it was too big to keep track of and spread throughout the whole economy.
Three) this is a lesser one but how on earth did we pay for the two wars) Bush didn’t want to raise taxes so what did he do instead? The federal reserve cooperated by giving loans to the government i.e. essentially on a credit card. The effects of this weren’t felt until later when the fed didn’t raise interest rates.
All of this culminated in people losing their homes and never getting them back. Obama gets elected in 2008 by massive margins which was helped by the fact that McCain was not a very good candidate.
Obama was in many ways a centrist Democrat. He was a believer in compromise and wanted to keep a very clean, balanced cabinet of loyalty and competence. When FDR said, “I welcome their hatred”, Obama basically said, “how can I help you?” The world Obama received when he first came into office was in major shambles. The recession was still in throttle, but it was still his fault apparently. He passed many policies that did offer help, but they weren’t enough. The stimulus bill that was introduced was no more than $800 billion which was not nearly enough to help people. Even many centrists like Paul Krugman called Obama’s policies too conservative. Obamacare was based off a Massachusetts Republican plan even though people wanted universal healthcare. Another big part of this is the fact that Obama had a Wall Street Cabinet. Many of whom are the same ones who got us into the mess in the first place. They recommended nothing but corporate subsidies (which Obamacare almost was) and leaving the people alone.
The irony is that the Obama presidency was in many ways, the beginning of a terrifying moment in American politics. Obama was black and this didn’t sit well with those on the far right. American fascism is very much centered on white nationalism usually coated with Christianity. Obama became the target of every conspiracy theory out there from being a “Kenyan Muslim” to being a “Communist” or “Obamunism”. A lot of this hate was also fanned because of a Republican strategy of saying “no”.
Most policies that Republicans loved, they hated the minute Obama came into office. A big infrastructure policy that would have saved America’s infrastructure? Nope. Free community college? Nope. Trade assistance to help workers displaced by free trade? Nope. Job bill which was tax breaks for companies that bring jobs back to America? Nope. Basically, Republicans were thinking every day about how to take down Obama. The biggest instigator of this political strategy was Mitch McConnell. He and the Republican Party were conditioning people to associate failure with democrats by saying “see? Government doesn’t work”. This is only true because the GOP made it so. It doesn’t really dawn on people when you consistently associate failure with democrats and Obama. Let’s just say, this strategy worked beyond McConnell’s wildest dreams.
In 2010, the general election leaned very heavily Republican. 63 seats flipped and many blue dog democrats (conservative democrats) were knocked out. Something else was developing under the wings as well.
Because Obama was so piecemeal, his policies didn’t really reach people. While he did get re-elected in 2012, his policies didn’t reach enough people. Change was promised and Obama didn’t really deliver all that much. Obama was a great speaker, but he was up against an unfair situation.
Inside closed doors, many businessmen feared that they would have their taxes increased as Obama was clearly somewhat of a break from the neoliberal consensus. So, they formed what was called the “Tea Party” which is an “offshoot” of the 18th century tea party. The idea was that Americans were being taxes enough and spending was too damn high! Obama didn’t even touch taxes except on maybe the very rich. But if you argue enough by repetition, then maybe you can argue that something like Obamacare can be considered bad. Now because Obamacare was a half-measure and didn’t reach enough people (also add in some agitating), the people turned against it. The tea party was quite successful in rallying the right and won a lot of seats.
Because Obama couldn’t really deliver change, populism started to really enter the scene. In 2015, two different candidates emerged onto the political landscape.
The first was Bernie Sanders. He declared his run for presidency. What is interesting is that he was in congress for a long time and was considered an extremist. He didn’t run away from the label of “Socialist”, in fact he embraced it. He copied from Eugene V. Debs and his messaging with his populist appeals and rage against economic inequality. Yeah, he was a socialist, big deal. A democratic socialist. During his presidential run, he was more of a New Deal democrat. He was like the social democrats of Europe today. But he did include a section for worker cooperatives which is a very democratic socialist thing to do. Nonetheless, he broke into the scene and made headways immediately. Entirely grassroots, he gave Hiliary Clinton a run for her money. Clinton was already the established heir to the throne but that wasn’t a guarantee. Bernie polled quite well against her. The establishment democrats were worried, so they pulled some strings and manipulated the process. The democrats were caught cheating against Bernie, and this upset so many voters that it wouldn’t be the only thing that cause their eventual downfall.
The second was Donald Trump. He was in many ways the right-wing populist response to the recent rise of populism in America. Donald Trump opened his campaign by doing the oldest political scam in the book, demonizing the foreigner. The one who can’t vote in your election. He started by saying that Muslims are terrorists and Mexicans are rapists. Like all populists, he promised the moon and stars. He wanted to build a wall along the border with Mexico. He also promised protectionism and not to touch many popular programs. Basically, whatever the voter wants to hear, Trump said it. He was very popular with tea party voters. Trump was in many ways, the inevitable result of years of Southern Strategy politics.
Clinton and Trump won their primary elections, and the 2016 presidential campaign was underway. Clinton through the year calls Trump voters “deplorables” and comes off as out of touch. Clinton was in many ways, responsible for the establishment we see today. The lack of any luster outside the political mainstream was what led to her downfall to Trump. Trump was able to capitalize on both Clinton’s lack of popular character and the populist under current which we had growing in the wings. Another thing is that Trump was able to entice corporations with big tax and regulation cuts. Trump wins and shocks the meritocracy.
Trump has been classified from the beginning as a threat to democracy. He immediately went to work tearing down our democratic institutions by ordering many people in the previous administration and his own to be loyal to him. He sacked anyone who wasn’t loyal and replaced many of them with yes men. By centralizing power around him and trying to tear down any bureaucratic institution, which is often cited as the “deep state” even though they are our democratic guardrails. The next move is to attack the media as the enemy of the people which disempower any real criticism. Imagine playing American football and tackling the referee to take them out of the game. The next move is to empower the junta which Donald Trump did by courting many police unions into his ranks. Mass arrests became normalized and usually targeted people he didn’t like. He did this with “undocumented” immigrants. I say this quoted because many of the people his administration targeted were legal citizens.
Trump’s rhetoric was a force to be reckoned with, but he was also incredibly reckless. His actions for example of trade war against China caused the economy to eventually go into downturn. The 2020 economic crisis that is often associated with COVID, economists were already predicting economic downturn. America was in no position to benefit from protectionism. Speaking of COVID, this is what really did him in. Not only did he do nothing for the longest time, but his actions were also worse telling the CDC to not speak of it. He even told people to inject themselves with bleach. All this stuff is very normal with fascists. All these factors lead to the election of Joesph Biden. By a big factor.
Biden becomes president and so far, it has been both an economic boon but also, a revealing nightmare. We’ve had the biggest growing economy in years but where are the gains going? To the wealthy. The latest phenomenon of inflation is called “greedflation” where companies will simply up their prices under the guise of “keeping up with costs”. Biden has honestly been a very uncharismatic leader who is out of touch.
Conclusion:
If I had to sum everything up into one paragraph regarding why things got worse, it would be this. Once class tensions had died down, and leftist forces were no longer a threat to capitalism, the capitalists realized they didn’t need to do this anymore. So, under the guise of anti-communism, they made crippling austerity measures to destroy whatever advantage the workers might have had. Then they loaded them with horrifying debt. Then they tackled the public services and gave them shitty pay.
Sources:
[2] Angry People — Search Images (bing.com)
[4] Socialist Party of America — Wikipedia
[5] The Real Origins of the Religious Right — POLITICO Magazine
[6] Southern strategy — Wikipedia
[7] The Lewis Powell Memo: A Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy — Greenpeace USA
[9] Lawmaker Admits 1980 GOP Plot to Prolong Iran Hostage Crisis (nymag.com)
