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The American Age Is Over (www.theatlantic.com)

submitted 6 days ago by Midnight@slrpnk.net to c/collapse@slrpnk.net

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[–] voxthefox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 6 days ago (2 children)

That's a funny way to spell Nixon

[–] keimevo@lemmy.world 25 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I disagree. The Nixon government was awful, but so were many governments before. It wasn't a decline per se, it was just part of the constant change (both good and bad) in leadership.

The real decline began when corporatism started to take over the political/legal system, which was mainly a Reagan phenomenon. Large businesses started pulling everything towards their shareholders, nothing for the workers. Syndicates lost power. The political system started being bought by the corporations. Whole laws started being bought by the corporations.

While corruption has always existed, previously it was something to hide, to be ashamed of. But with the corporate takeover of the USA it gradually began to be normalized, and now it's almost expected from any relevant figure.

[–] NakedNateRollerSkate@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Corporatism has had a hold on the political and legal system in the US since the beginning, just to varying degrees. Shareholder primacy gained a foothold in the 30s and 40s alongside the decay of antitrust law. Prior to that, the Lochner era of cases defined the era of corporate control. The late 1800s had robber barons and oil and railroad tycoons killing people with private police forces. Slave plantations and the vestiges controlled the South, and with it the rest of the country, since the 3/5ths compromise and before. We are just in a new form today with tech companies controlling everything, including the public forum, while SCOTUS green lights everything in favor of corporations, conservatives, and the wealthy, and Congress is absolutely deadlocked. It is definitely a far side of the pendulum swing, and it might be the one we can't realistically swing back from any time soon, but it is well within the political and legal themes of the US historically.

[–] Fribbizz@feddit.org 8 points 5 days ago

Check out the Powel Memorandum. From the 70s moneyed interests started to systematically shift power to the wealthy and large corporations. They created think tanks like the Heritage Foundation to give the project the veneer of scientific legitimation. Reagan was the first to accept a policy blue print from Heritage. Since then they have been working to stack the courts, form government policy and legislate a shift if money and power to the few. Trump is reaping the benefits of what has been prepared since Reagan. Trickle down economy was one of the greatest scams of all time.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Even funnier way to spell Wilson

[–] hex_m_hell@slrpnk.net 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Pretty sure it's Washington....

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Washington told us to avoid partisan politics at all costs. He didn't do everything perfectly, but he was trying to avoid the mess that we've created with the two party system.

[–] hex_m_hell@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 days ago

He was a slaver. He literally owned humans. The Constitution is a reactionary document. The electorial college, the 3/5ths compromise, and are all anti-democratic institutons that established the oligarchy of the elite we have today. There's a straight line between his presidency and Trump, and it runs straight through his suppression of dissent and advocacy for those anti-democratic institutons.