08-17-2016, 01:22 PM
People might wonder why I seem to stress elites and discount the idea of "the people rising up". The people rising up was a real source of political-economic change in Europe, but not in America. As American Marxists noted, America is exceptional. The key to see this is to note how throughout the entire post-Civil War period, the working class (i.e. the Marxist proletariat) has always been politically divided between the two major parties.
It's true today; Bernie Sanders activated one group of frustrated working people, while Donald Trump activated another. Worse than that, only about half the constituency on the Left that Bernie sought to activate went for his economic message, as shown by the BLM protesters taking over one of his events early in his campaign. The take home message was there were non-economic issues just as important as economics (e.g. Black and Latino civil rights). Analysis of Donald Trump’s working class supporters has shown that they are just as motived by noneconomic socio-cultural issues as economics.
And it was true in the years leading up to the Great Depression. Urban working class immigrants “wets” were Democrats while white working class “drys” (along with Blacks) were Republicans.
The only time it changed was during the Depression and the years after, when the memory of it remained fresh. When the memory faded with the departure of the GI generation to normal pattern reasserted itself. The cause of this difference from Europe. America’s original sin, a legacy so engrained, so pervasive, and so unresolvable as to be un-discussable.
It's true today; Bernie Sanders activated one group of frustrated working people, while Donald Trump activated another. Worse than that, only about half the constituency on the Left that Bernie sought to activate went for his economic message, as shown by the BLM protesters taking over one of his events early in his campaign. The take home message was there were non-economic issues just as important as economics (e.g. Black and Latino civil rights). Analysis of Donald Trump’s working class supporters has shown that they are just as motived by noneconomic socio-cultural issues as economics.
And it was true in the years leading up to the Great Depression. Urban working class immigrants “wets” were Democrats while white working class “drys” (along with Blacks) were Republicans.
The only time it changed was during the Depression and the years after, when the memory of it remained fresh. When the memory faded with the departure of the GI generation to normal pattern reasserted itself. The cause of this difference from Europe. America’s original sin, a legacy so engrained, so pervasive, and so unresolvable as to be un-discussable.