And Lasch was one of three influential Marxist historians. The other two being William Appleman Williams and Eugene Genovese. Today they would be conservatives. I read Lasch’s work in Grad School at St. Johns in 83. It was an eye opening analysis of much that was erong with America. I was a Scoop Jackson liberal in those days but my change of direction began with Reagan, with the impotence of Carter and his seeking to blame Americans for his failures, and with The Culture of Narcissism.
Interestingly, Lasch was never much of a joiner of communist/Marxist parties (as possibly opposed to “organizations” such as the Socialist Scholars Conference).
Williams remained a softcore Marxist and kept some academic status for the Left.
Genovese defected, over time, from being a hardcore Viet Cong supporter to being an intellectual anti-communist (and possibly more traditional liberal - I’m not clear on this side of him). He even condemned his support for the VC and Hanoi during the Vietnam war. Now that took guts and the hardcore Left went after him with a vengeance.
Obama is a super-Narcissist with very strong Marxist and Islamic propensities. Also, he views himself as the “Avenging Angel” of Black Americans even though he is not one. Perhaps a Munchhausen By Proximity role.
Also he is so filled with hatred of America, having been raised by Marxists and communists and having them for friends and advisors all his life - father, Marxist; mother - leftist; grandfather - communist sympathizer; Frank Marshall Davis - CPUSA operative, Hawaii; neighbors - reds and hardcore leftists; Canter - Soviet asset/CPUSA; Rose - Communist sympathizer by own admission since the late 1940’s; Axelrod - mentored by Rose and Canter; Jarret - from a leftist in-law family; Anita Dunn - advisor - Maoist; Bill Ayers - colleague in Chicago - psychopathic communist terrorist, along with his wife (probably Cuban trained while a member of the Cuban DGI/KGB created Venceremos Brigade, etc).
In other words, perhaps even uttered by Freud, “this man is one mixed up muther f*cker”.
Williams was the kind of leftist who'd put in a good word for Herbert Hoover or John Quincy Adams, but he was never going to become a conservative.
The advantage of models like Adams and Hoover for him was that they were very far from both today's liberals and today's conservatives.
It might have been interesting to see how Williams would have reacted if, say, Ron Paul became the Republican nominee, but I suspect he would have found a way to stay with his friends on the left.