After one Trump presidency and on the eve of another, it is now clear that a once mighty global superpower is allowing its gaze to turn inward, to feed off resentment more than idealism, to think smaller.
Public sentiment – not just the political class – feels threatened by the flow of migrants once regarded as the country’s lifeblood. Global trade, once an article of faith for free marketeers and architects of the postwar Pax Americana, is now a cancer eating away at US prosperity – its own foreign invasion.
Military alliances and foreign policy no longer command the cross-party consensus of the cold war era, when politics could be relied upon to “stop at the water’s edge”, in the famous formulation of the Truman-era senator Arthur Vandenberg.
Now the politics don’t stop at all, for any reason. And alliances are for chumps.
Oh yes it’s changed alright, the lie has become bigger.
Consider the TV show married with children, a shoe salesman is married and has 2 children a house and a car, on a single lower end income.
And it wasn’t completely unrealistic back in the late 80’s to mid 90’s.
Here’s a very brief explanation of what happened.
In 1960 minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the price of the average US home was $11,000.00 A popular tour guide was called “Europe on $5.00 A Day” [over the years they did specific cities like Paris or Rome or London…]
In 1964 LBJ decides that he can win the War in Vietnam with a massive buildup and increased bombings. He prints paper money to pay for it, because he doesn’t want to raise taxes. The plan is a miserable failure and protests force LBJ to step aside. In 1968 we elect ‘peace candidate’ Nixon [who sabotaged the Paris Peace Talks]
Nixon kept LBJ’s plan and increased spending. He knew the War was unwinnable but thought he could kick the problem down the road and let the 1976 President deal with ‘losing’ the war.
By 1976 inflation was a major problem, not helped by the Arab Oil Boycott that tripled the price of gas overnight. All those cool loft buildings you see in places like Manhattan used to be small factories making things like purses, clothing, toys etc etc. The owners moved the businesses to the US south where there were fewer Unions.
Jimmy Carter hired a man named Paul Volker to deal with inflation. Carter got voted out before the Volker plan could kick in, so Reagan got the credit for Carter’s ideas.
Reagan’s own Veep, George HW Bush called the Reaganomics trickle down “voo doo economics” until Reagan offered him the #2 spot on his ticket.
In 1968, when Nixon started waging War with paper money, “middle class” was one Union job paying for a family of four with a nice savings account. In those days, $1 million was still considered a vast fortune. By 1992, when Bush Sr. was finished, middle class was two incomes to run the house and $1 million was what a rich guy paid for a party.
And you’re leaving out so much (just like I will)… While all of this is going on, Nixon jumps in bed with Kaiser Permanente to convert all health-care into a for-profit enterprise. All of the unions are demonized and bastardized. Now you have the majority of the people in the US vulnerable and afraid where they can be completely controlled. Simultaneously, you blame everything that is happening on public education so that you have generation after generation of stupid people who are even easier to scare and manipulate and who will no longer believe the actual truth-tellers.
Like I said, very brief…
That almost sounds like you are blaming LBJ. Nixon was the one who caused the 1970 economic disaster that led to everything after. He ended the gold Standard and gave unfettered power to banks. Inflation was the goal as inflation directly benefitted real estate. The owner class became obscenely rich quickly, and it never stopped.
LBJ thought he could win Vietnam with a single bold stroke. Nixon knew the War was unwinnable, but once the US forces were bogged down he kept redoubling down. LBJ made a terrible mistake, but it was Nixon who really screwed things up.
“late 80s to mid 90s”
Calm down cowboy! Grunge music didn’t come from nowhere, the X generation started to feel the pain in the 80s with high unemployment, McJobs and crazy interest rates! Things didn’t look good for them either!