tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post8263513064372827577..comments2024-03-23T04:01:39.348-04:00Comments on Understanding Society: Strategies for resisting right-wing populismDan Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15953897221283103880noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-56763243035619610362017-05-01T05:46:09.578-04:002017-05-01T05:46:09.578-04:00Dan, you raise an interesting point in your discus...Dan, you raise an interesting point in your discussion of Rothstein and Habermas, the potential tenacity of resentment and ideology. I mean I don't think we can brush aside the racist, antisemitic and other ethnic resentments on the basis that there are no significant immigrant populations in the white working class areas that changed allegiance and voted for Trump in this election. It is a well known fact that is also true of most areas of Western Europe that anti-immigrant and racist resentments of all sorts are strongest in (rural) areas with little or no immigrant populations to account for.<br /><br />Now, it might be the case, as Habermas seems to suggest, that those resentments could be submerged if not transformed in a renewed progressive project of the Left that is also able to improve the actual livelihoods of the today's underclasses but I think we also need some renewed theories of the "Authoritarian Personality" so as to be able to account for the tenacity of those ideologies, the widespread hatred against supposed elites of all sorts, and the appeal of Populist leader figures as ludicrous as Trump.S_Gnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-71258220886963108812017-04-30T13:15:49.603-04:002017-04-30T13:15:49.603-04:00So what happened twenty-five years ago that brough...So what happened twenty-five years ago that brought about stagnation and decline for the middle class? The economist Noah Smith asked this question a few years ago and offered a surmise without either data or a theory. In fact, in his surmise, the event happened forty years ago, when President Nixon ended the fixed exchange rate of the Bretton Woods system. I think Noah is right. Floating exchange rates make it very hard for either political leaders or central banks to follow a full employment policy. It certainly works well for the very wealthy, though. I wish someone would investigate the full story of the politics of how this change came about.David Coxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17686893760480264946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-12745243172019582202017-04-30T13:10:26.895-04:002017-04-30T13:10:26.895-04:00"One answer may be in an issue often neglecte..."One answer may be in an issue often neglected by the left, namely how people perceive the quality of their government institutions."<br /><br />OK. At least since Reagan the right ring has hammered home the message that government is the problem and not the solution. They revel in pointing out every mistake - even when it's been the fault of their own actions or inactions. Yet somehow it's the left's fault. Never mind that the mechanisms for reaching these people - talk radio, Fox News and malt right websites are dominated by the very folks looking to undermine left wing populism. <br /><br />Perhaps the left hasn't tried hard enough. However, Rothstein underestimates the challenge of breaking into the echo chamber.Bob Sharakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11777008612480753658noreply@blogger.com