Posted on 06/20/2013 10:36:14 AM PDT by Perdogg
Thirty years ago, the old deal that held US society together started to unwind, with social cohesion sacrificed to greed. Was it an inevitable process – or was it engineered by self-interested elites?
In or around 1978, America's character changed. For almost half a century, the United States had been a relatively egalitarian, secure, middle-class democracy, with structures in place that supported the aspirations of ordinary people. You might call it the period of the Roosevelt Republic. Wars, strikes, racial tensions and youth rebellion all roiled national life, but a basic deal among Americans still held, in belief if not always in fact: work hard, follow the rules, educate your children, and you will be rewarded, not just with a decent life and the prospect of a better one for your kids, but with recognition from society, a place at the table.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
ping
“Thirty years ago, the old deal that held US society together started to unwind, with social cohesion sacrificed to greed...”
Started off with a bang...then saw the word “greed”.
Error, error.
Earth to Guardian dolts, the word “greed” should be replaced with the word “progressives”.
And don’t be smug, we’re just following you folks. You’ll have your war with Islam and Socialism sooner than we.
Roosevelt Republic?
History rewrites itself once again.
I don’t agree with everything this guys says, but he does hit the truth here and there.
I thought the same thing. Roosevelt (both of them) dragged us into this mess. If we could turn back the tides, we’d be much better off.
“Roosevelt Republic?”
Ha! I saw that, too.
I never thought of the two, in any way correlated.
They have it exactly backwards.
If this is what they now believe in England, no wonder Great Britain is broke after being an astounding empire that the sun never sat upon.
Nah. Wasn’t ‘78.
It was ‘65, when the Kennedy crap really started to kick in.
The things they implemented were just cultural Marxist initiatives; the economic Marxism was implemented in the ‘30s by Roosevelt.
The 70’s was when it all started to bear fruit (rotten fruit, but fruit nonetheless). The 80’s was just a bump in the road, as the WWII generation tried to throw a rock on the track to Hell.
But they’re lives are finite, and they are almost gone now.
Been downhill ever since. And pouring tens of millions of desperate foreigners into the country is just gas on the fire.
Which is intentional.
He’s making the case that free trade deconstructed society.
Not soley responsible, but you can make an argument that it played a significant part. Even uneducated males could hold down a decent paying job and maintain a marriage and a family back then. No longer possible.
Though you could just as easily argue that with the social decay the guys in those jobs today would still have bastard children running around and would just be spending that money on drugs or something now.
Abortion and identity politics, and those who gain their power from them, have ruined the country. Plain and simple.
One of the most stalwart advocates of free trade was Karl Marx:
“Generally speaking, the Protective system in these days is conservative, while the Free Trade system works destructively. It breaks up old nationalities and carries antagonism of proletariat and bourgeoisie to the uttermost point. In a word, the Free Trade system hastens the Social Revolution. In this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, I am in favor of Free Trade.”
Agree...
Evidently, nothing happened in America between Carter and Obama
Why do these know-nothings in the UK feel they are able to opine about American history when in fact the material they present is rubbish?
> “In or around 1978, America’s character changed. For almost half a century, the United States had been a relatively egalitarian, secure, middle-class democracy, with structures in place that supported the aspirations of ordinary people.”
First off in 1978, America was facing its second oil crisis in 5 years leaving long lines at the pump. Interest rates were 18% with double digit inflation and high unemployment. This was Carter’s ‘Malaise’ and certainly Americans did not feel secure in any sense egalitarian or otherwise.
Secondly, the American government is not a democracy! Its elections are democratic but governance is carried out under a republican form of government.
The author is almost exclusively focusing on Youngstown, Ohio, which has some unique local challenges.
Like taking a national poll with a sample size of 17.
It's interesting that the Guardian would peg the start at that time.
-PJ
American society didn’t unravel, democrats picked
it to pieces “improving” it.
An awful lot of pure drivel in that article.
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