I said I’d written my last post on this subject, but that was yesterday, and I just came across this.
A week ago I subscribed to Foreign Affairs, since I got a deal for $20.00 a year. The most recent issue asks the question: Can Democracy be Saved? Here’s the opening paragraph from the first article, by Walter Russell Mead, entitled The Big Shift:
As Americans struggle to make sense of a series of uncomfortable economic changes and disturbing political developments, a worrying picture emerges: of ineffective politicians, frequent scandals, racial backsliding, polarized and irresponsible news media, populists spouting quack economic remedies, growing suspicion of elites and experts, frightening outbreaks of violence, major job losses, high-profile terrorist attacks, anti-immigrant agitation, declining social mobility, giant corporations dominating the economy, rising inequality, and the appearance of a new class of super-empowered billionaires in finance and technology-heavy industries.
That, of course, is a description of American life in the 35 years after the Civil War. The years between the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, in 1865, and that of President William McKinley, in 1901, were among the least inspiring in the history of U.S. politics. As Reconstruction proved unsuccessful and a series of devastating depressions and panics roiled the economy, Washington failed miserably to rise to the challenges of the day.
He goes on to make the case that maybe we can survive this time around, as we ultimately somewhat overcame (after wrecking the lives of millions of people in the process) the disasters of the Gilded Age. Bear in mind that it took us a hundred years to even make a start on living up to the promise of equality embodied in the Reconstruction Amendments. Anyway, worth reading. We should learn from history, even though it seems almost a certainty that the best outcome we can hope for is that we are doomed to repeat it.
Post a Comment