Old dog learns new trick. Insurgent Notes finally spells Macomb County, Michigan, properly.
PS
IN comrades, Ronald Reagan in 1980 did not promise to "rebuild America" a la Donald Trump. He promised no government financed, or public-private partner financed, infrastructure programs; no rollback of capital flight;, none of that.
There were three main points to the Republican platform of 1980:
1) reduce taxes and private enterprise would enjoy a great leap forward; lower government spending, except on defense, and everybody would become an entrepreneur,
2) reverse an imaginary US decline in international status (by increasing military spending).
3) the core appeal to reaction, i.e. family values: "We will reemphasize those vital communities like the family, the neighborhood, the workplace, and others which are found at the center of society, between government and the individual. We will restore and strengthen their ability to solve problems in the places where people spend their daily lives and can turn to each other for support and help."
Good job on the spelling though. Keep at it.
This is a little unfair; Trump's promise to rebuild America, 37 years later, is different from Reagan's promise to unleash industry. This is clear. But it is also clear that the important similarity is recruitment of votes and "support" among the populace, because they will somehow benefit from this increased industrial activity. Reagan said it will trickle down, Trump says the benefits will be more direct.
ReplyDeleteAmiri--
ReplyDeleteWell, if I'm being just a little unfair, then I must be getting soft.
First off, hope all is well and congratulations are in order.
Next, Trump's appeal was very much different, on the surface-- he was appealing to "labor" as VOLK in almost classic corporatist/fascist terms. Behind that labor as VOLK is racism.
Reagan used a different "code" on the surface, although the appeal is similarly racist.
Reagan posed, presented for "unleashing capitalism"-- to let it do its "job" free of government programs. That is completely different than the "volkish" appeal of Trump where the state is supposed to reconcile the interests of workers and capitalists.
In addition, the great asset liquidation plan of capitalism had not yet been unleashed. Overproduction had certainly taken a toll, but the bourgeoisie had not marginalized millions, in both city and countryside; had not yet gutted small town, and small factory production/small workshop in rural areas in the 1970s leading up to Reagan. That's more than a mere technicality.
As a matter of fact, what capitalism had done in the 1976 recovery, and before the 1980s double dip recession, was actually turn to employment, increased employment and reduced capital spending.
Point being-- just what I said it was. Reagan's appeal was not to 'volk'/labor. Reagan's appeal was 1) a different code for racism 2)a claim to restore international dominance 3)and all the comforts of family values, of course the family involved is Ma Barker and her sons... but still....
Thanks, S.Artesian! Both of their rhetorics address this white-supremacist body politic. They call it and thereby also summon it. Reagan didn't have to go volkisch because less damage had been done to that "white working class" self-image and actual economic condition. Seems to me like he had less working-class persuasion to do than Trump!
ReplyDelete