Democracy in Chains, by Nancy MacLean, is a history of the Far Right in America. It seems to be a pretty interesting book, from the looks of it. I haven't read it yet, but here are two links to an excerpt from the book and an interview with MacLean:
Book Excerpt: Democracy in Chains
The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
Please discuss.
I'm not sure about any "stealth plan for America." People from both sides of the spectrum complain about the other side having some ulterior motive or stealth plan to either take over America or destroy America. The right-wing has worried about communist plots to undermine America and destroy our way of life for nearly a century.
Oftentimes, when topics like this are brought up, it's hard to discern exactly how characterizes the "right wing" in this country (or the "left wing" for that matter). The rhetoric seems to switch back and forth, where the right wing is either a secret cabal of fiendish billionaires or a bunch of lower-class country bumpkins in rural America. But then, the left also has some billionaires on its side as well, along with some ardently bourgeois pro-capitalist types (such as the celebrity left and the Starbucks crowd). They point at the "country bumpkins" and claim that they're fools for going along with the radical right's stealth plan, yet it was mostly the liberals and leftists who sold out a long time ago. They were the ones who got conned.
If there was any "stealth plan" at work, it had probably been put in motion prior to the election of Reagan in 1980. The fact that so many Americans on the liberal/left side of the spectrum could have gotten hoodwinked and sold out was a major coup and a victory for the right wing in this country. All those former hippies, yippies, activists, and even radicals joined the establishment.
Personally, I was somewhat astonished at the "sudden switch" that took place before and after Reagan's election. My own mother, who was a staunch anti-war activist, pro-civil rights, pro-women's liberation - suddenly thought Reagan was the cat's meow. Instead of harmony, working together, "imagine no possessions," "all you need is love," "tax the rich, feed the poor, 'til there are no rich no more" and all that - everything turned into a money-making scheme, since "he who dies with the most toys wins." It's like everything had turned into the exact opposite of what people preached and believed in back in the 60s. Whatever movement towards "peace" and "enlightenment" also evaporated, as we entered a new resurgence of American militarism and interventionism - all because of an "evil empire." And even though the "evil empire" was ultimately "defeated," the "evil" still persists around the world.
Even the Civil Rights movement started taking some weird twists and turns, going along with the pro-capitalist agenda as long as there was a satisfactory level of tokenism in Corporate America. Feminists put on business attire and also become corporate robots in the process, but that was okay, just as long as they were treated equal to the male corporate robots. But there seemed to be more of an effort to create the illusion of equality than anything substantial.
The right-wing was flying high in the 1980s. They could seemingly do no wrong in the eyes of the public (and even the media). Reagan was the "Teflon President," and we're talking a time
before Fox News even came into existence. There was no "Tea Party" either, although there was the "Moral Majority." I tended to view them more as a distraction than anything else, primarily existing to cover up the sins of the wealthy and powerful who buy elections. And a lot of liberals did get distracted by all that.
Is America's democracy "in chains"? If it is, it's only because we put ourselves there. I don't think the election of Donald Trump is the intended result of any right-wing stealth agenda anyway. If anything, it's a side-effect of multiple competing agendas which found themselves at an impasse of cross purposes. Ironically, all these different competing factions loudly proclaim that they love America and only want what is best for the country, while claiming that the other side wants to destroy America.
There also appears to be fundamental differences of opinion regarding what "America" actually is. Is it just a continent named after an Italian mapmaker? Is it a country? Is it a nationality? Is it a "way of life"? Is it an ideology - a set of Constitutional principles devoted to "freedom" and "liberty"? Is it "purple mountains" and "amber waves of grain"? Do we have some kind of "Manifest Destiny"? Is it our job and goal to make the world safe for democracy and spread freedom all across the planet?
If America's democracy is in chains, then the "chains" are the numerous assumptions made (by both sides) about "America" itself. We don't really want to ask ourselves the tough questions anymore - not like we used to back in the day.