In 1929-1932, the ultra-conservative economic principles that seemed to produce prosperity in the 1920s were exposed for the catastrophe they would lead to. They also could not respond to the disaster of their own making.

In the elections of 1932, the public voted for the ticket offering a new direction. Those policies, while they stopped short of being applied equally as they should have, did good for many lower class workers.

The wealthy and powerful were on the ropes as government flexed its muscle to change the rules of engagement in the face of economic collapse. Entry into WW2 shifted the focus from public goods and infrastructure to war manufacturing.

Changing the rules of engagement however, prior to the war, along with the boom in wartime manufacturing, led to a kind of economic prosperity shared with more of the public. …though the civil rights and liberties situation was still shite for many, and the economic situation didn’t change much at all for certain specific demographics either.

In the face of prolonged periods of organized agitation against social and economic injustice, ratcheted up to an ever higher degree by reactionaries that saw things differently and wanted to maintain them as they were, what gains were made in rights, liberties, and regulations presented a panic among the wealthy and powerful, who felt like they were pushed too far.

In 1971, the Powell Memo was issued. It was a document by the rich and powerful, for the rich and powerful, to organize, capture state and federal government, and create avenues whereby they could propagandize the public into supporting their agenda, against the broader public interest.

Buckley v Valeo opened the flood gates to legal corruption.

People often point to Reagan, as I have in the past, before I understood better after being exposed to more information about what catapulted Reagan to the national spotlight, giving him power to further an agenda that was already in full gear years before he was sworn in.

It was the organizing that happened in the 1970s that set the stage for Reagan to be able to enact sweeping changes to economic policy that put lower and middle classes at increasing disadvantages in the economy, while the wealthy reaped a greater and greater share of the benefit, not just in terms of corporate profits, executive salaries, and golden parachutes, but in terms of power, which included increasing power in influencing and directing U.S. foreign policy.

Blame Reagan for being the administration that implemented historic changes in U.S. domestic policy, that got more people thinking in self-sabotaging ways, but the Democrats the wealthy started buying off in 1971 (Joe Biden being among them) helped lay the ground work.

I wrote a bit about this a few years ago. Class Warfare: Lessons from U.S. History: Class Warfare: Lessons from U.S. History (1900-1980) https://millennialcompatriot.home.blog/2022/08/13/class-warfare-lessons-from-u-s-history-part-i-1900-1980/

Every single administration since Reagan, no matter their rhetoric for electoral politics, has continued the economic agenda of the wealthy and powerful. Politicians across each level of government where the wealthy have vested interests have increasingly received more and more money not only for their campaigns, but for themselves, in the form of stocks, personal networks, and lucrative jobs in the event they are defeated or retire.

This is why I’m constantly saying that the United States is not a democracy or a republic, but rather, a kleptocratic corporate oligarchy with a very sophisticated propaganda operation, to fool the masses into believing they have any agency at all in self-government, to prevent revolt and revolution.

This dynamic will not change and the public will always be under threat of exploitation by the wealthy and powerful unless the power dynamic in our society, economics, and government is fundamentally changed.

To do this, enough people will have to unplug from the propaganda, realize what’s been happening to them, who has the real power in our society (not politicians of either party, but rather the wealthy who control both), and organize to overthrow them. In their defeat something better can be built, with better principles of self-governance, more accountability, solidarity, and shared prosperity.

Here is a good companion article, by Josh P Hill: The Second and Final Gilded Age .