Richard Stanley
Well-Known Member
Professor Robert Kuttner, whose interview with Steve Bannon was the final straw that precipitated the exile of Bannon from the White House, has authored a new book, Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? It advances some ideas that I have discussed here already and allows for some further insights.
As I have stated before Ronald Reagan opened the global floodgates of the demise of the "housebroken" capitalist economic system that had built the USA, and the rest of the world that followed along, to its economic apex after WWII and Bretton Woods Agreement. As Kuttner states, this system worked pretty well for the rise and expansion of the middle class. But Reagan and all of his successors have worked hard to erode all of this, thus enabling the likes of Trump and Bannon to exploit the consequent sufferings that took several generations to fester sufficiently, including doing so by racializing much of the debate.
The following interview then discusses how this has played into the cultural issues that have separated the abandoned working class from the Democratic Party, and who have now enabled Trump to cuckold the Republican Party.
http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/robert-kuttner-asks-can-democracy-survive-global-capitalism-in-book-1224038979744
Of course, such as Reagan was preceded by the process that began in the 1950's with the ecumenical movement, the Vietnam War, and the counter-culture. And as Kuttner stated, when people feel under threat they prefer to pull back into their cultural cocoon of reactionary nationalism. In this case feeling ironically comforted by the Chaos of their bold new rhetorical champion, as the Germans had done almost a century before. But, to what ultimate end?
As I have stated before Ronald Reagan opened the global floodgates of the demise of the "housebroken" capitalist economic system that had built the USA, and the rest of the world that followed along, to its economic apex after WWII and Bretton Woods Agreement. As Kuttner states, this system worked pretty well for the rise and expansion of the middle class. But Reagan and all of his successors have worked hard to erode all of this, thus enabling the likes of Trump and Bannon to exploit the consequent sufferings that took several generations to fester sufficiently, including doing so by racializing much of the debate.
The following interview then discusses how this has played into the cultural issues that have separated the abandoned working class from the Democratic Party, and who have now enabled Trump to cuckold the Republican Party.
http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/robert-kuttner-asks-can-democracy-survive-global-capitalism-in-book-1224038979744
Of course, such as Reagan was preceded by the process that began in the 1950's with the ecumenical movement, the Vietnam War, and the counter-culture. And as Kuttner stated, when people feel under threat they prefer to pull back into their cultural cocoon of reactionary nationalism. In this case feeling ironically comforted by the Chaos of their bold new rhetorical champion, as the Germans had done almost a century before. But, to what ultimate end?