The triumph of the Right in 1980 was a consequence of several factors: the excesses of the student anti-war and black power movements; the nation’s humiliating defeat in Vietnam; anxiety and confusion provoked by the first signs of the sustained structural crisis of the world-system and the accompanying U.S. productive and commercial decline relative to other core powers; and the national humiliation of the incapacity of the U.S. government to liberate hostages taken from the U.S. Embassy in Iran. Ronald Reagan, a sincere former governor of California and one-time Hollywood actor, offered a simplistic but coherent discourse that named Big Government and insufficient aggressiveness in international affairs as the culprits, and that envisioned a restoration of national honor. In contrast, the Left was unable to offer to the people a coherent, realistic national direction, an alternative to both the program of the political establishment and the proposed project of the Right.
fascinating to revisit this somewhat forgotten chapter in US history. It will be interesting to read the story as it develops - especially the comparison between JJ, who had the potential to be a truly transformational leader but was unable, in the end, to rally public support, and later BB, who I believe did rally public support for transformational change but had no intention at all to carry it out (more flash than substance).
fascinating to revisit this somewhat forgotten chapter in US history. It will be interesting to read the story as it develops - especially the comparison between JJ, who had the potential to be a truly transformational leader but was unable, in the end, to rally public support, and later BB, who I believe did rally public support for transformational change but had no intention at all to carry it out (more flash than substance).