I dunno… if only we had someone who has read a good bit history of the Cold War recently to ask! My kingdom for a Cold War era historian!
But seriously, if you look at the facts, I do think that’s true. This doesn’t mean that there weren’t some serious anti-democratic forces at work (I’m looking at you, Birchers), but much of the Cold War, politically speaking, the liberal consensus held and the preponderance was on expanding and reinforcing the vote as well as with labor having a voice in public affairs. The 1950s and 1960s were the height of Unions and prior to the beginning of the “runaway” factory phenomenon, the middle class expanded because of that. I do think that anti-communism was able to hold that coalition of liberalism together to some degree. I mean, you start to see off-shoring starting in the 1970s, which is precisely the time the US is far more insular in nature and we are officially in detente with the Soviets, right? I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
But hey, that’s just my take on it. Feel free to look up some of the literature and form your own opinion. Cold War history isn’t a particularly obscure field and lots of great books are out there for you to read.
I’d suggest reading as much as you can and then taking each individual author’s biases into consideration. For me, the best books are the ones that spell out those biases up front rather than attempt to hide them under some veneer of objectivity. Our work is always going to be shot through with our biases, from the choices of subjects to our source base to our way of writing. All we can do is be our own rudder, I think.
Yeah, another way that Trump is just a distillation of the Republican party. I let out a scream every time a Republican accuses the Democrats of “being divisive” (when they’re just pointing out the Republican’s own racist/sexist/homophobic rhetoric or policies), or waging “class warefare” (when the Republicans have just, yet again, attempted to destroy welfare programs, attacked those who use them, and cut taxes on the wealthy). I do a lot of screaming.
Sure, why not? Bristol, WI – a small town near Kenosha, WI. The demographics are mostly white, somewhat centrist, and very rural. One thing to note, our polling location is in a Catholic church, despite the fact that we have a perfectly good town office. I stopped in at around 08:10 and was back in my card before 08:30. Voters seemed fairly calm and orderly, no intimidation that I noticed.
My campus, UW Parkide, is a polling place for the community surrounding it. I did not go through the building wherein the polling was being held, but I park in the lot nearest that building and they did seem fairly busy. No intimidation here, at least none that I saw.
We live 5 miles from the gate. I actually worked on the security team there one Summer. We’re not quite there every weekend, but some years it’s a close thing. It’s kind of a second home sometimes!
In St. Louis City (solidly blue city in a red state, but we’re in the most red neighborhood I imagine). Voted at 10a.m. More of a crowd than usual especially at a time picked to be slow. Still, 20 minutes door to door. A neighbor arrived at 6a.m. and took nearly an hour with a line out the door and “half way down the block”. Overall the mood was light.
It’s the death of nations, democratic or not, and the rise of international corporations, who will probably soon be calling all the shots (that they care about) instead of just some of them. And they are beholden to no-one save their shareholders, who care only about the bottom line.
Seems to me the real reason for the our battling the cold war was not to preserve the liberty of individuals in a democracy, but the liberty of capitalists to make gobs of money. The capitalists were terrified that communism might spread and take away their riches. Perhaps they had to compromise a little in order to get people behind the struggle?
Oakland CA around 11:30 am. Blue neighborhood (historically Black and Korean) in a blue city. Shortish line, in and out in about 15 minutes (even with endless pages of propositions). A lot of smiles all around.
An electioneering panel truck parked across the street (100 ft away) covered in signs mostly for council members and local measures. No Trump or Hillary signs.
I don’t usually wear the “I Voted” sticker but decided to today. While I was out running errands I was approached several times by older women wearing big smiles excited to share that they had voted too. I’m not sure if it’s typical election day civic pride but it felt special to me.