The Left & Anti-Americanism
Via Winds of Change comes this post on Fearful Symmetry (permanent link broken: visit main page and scroll down to 5/31). It's an attempt to categorize the various types of Leftism in America, breaking the Left down into four movements: Intellectuals, Social Democrats/Liberals, Bureaucrats, and Democrats.
He focuses exclusively on foreign policy, but I think the larger analysis holds, at least in a cafeteria discussion. There are some points to disagree with (strongly, depending on who you are), but an interesting article nonetheless, and quite germane to our recent discussion about whether the Left is Anti-American. His closing line: "Perhaps the left and right can come to some accommodation in this regard. If leftists won't claim that the editors of Southern Partisan speak on my behalf, then I won't claim that Noam Chomsky speaks for them. Is it a deal?"
It's a deal.
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Hey, John--this is related to
Hey, John--this is related to a subject from further down on the page related to Reagan et al and the Cold War.
The weaknesses of the Soviet bloc economies did not develop until the mid 1970s. The period of detente allowed the communists countries to attempt to solidify some bases of popular support by introducing some elements of consumer production. Furthermore, they attempted to engage in more legitimate finance in order to gain loans from international banks. Correspondingly, these countries lowered their investment in arms production. However, they were always limited in their economic performance. Reagan et al took advantage of these NEW CIRCUMSTANCES in order to bankrupt the communist economies.
My point: the necessary conditions for "winning the Cold War" did not exist before Detente. No American leader could have done what Reagan had done because the consumerization of communist economies had not yet occurred. Even conservative stallwarts like Kissinger were prepared to compromise with the Soviet Union in order to assure US survival.
(see Kaser, Economic History of Eastern Europe, 3 vols, 1986.)