American exceptionalism and socialism.

[Dracon II]

I've started reading an article from the NLR entitled "A Republican Proletariat" on the phenomenon of blue collar support for Bush in the 2004 election (echoes of blue collar Reaganism). The author agonizes over why workers would vote so blatantly against their interests as workers... and seems to propose that they have been mystified by Republican moralist rhetoric.

It's an interesting phenomena that the USA never had a really strong socialist/communist movement (excepting Debs' modest successes), compared to Europe and elsewhere. This is probably most exemplified by what Americans call socialism; universal healthcare etc...
I had to do an essay on American exceptionalism last year (Seymour Martin Lipset?), and I came across a theory as to why America never went socialist. Because the USA adopted a functioning liberal democracy before industrialization, liberalism was already an entrenched ideology, in which the working classes already had a language of rights and freedoms with which they could articulate their demands for better pay/conditions.
Europe's industrialization however, still overlapped the (decline) of feudal class relations, and thus these sharp distinctions were mapped onto the new economic system, creating a radical ideology of class struggle and revolution.

What do you guys think? Are American workers brainwashed and bamboozled by moralism, too blind to articulate their own economic interests?

[chequita guevara]

Sounds good to me. IIRC, one turn of the century economist put it, "American will not have socialism while workers can eat steak." Because of the great wealth of our land, most people were relatively better off here than elsewhere. Our socialists where by and large foreign immigrants.

[Dracon II]

It seems to me that the success of American capitalism over socialism was due to the fact that it successfully rearticulated the battle between capitalism and socialism into one between America and socialism. Patriotism has become associated with conservatism, freedom with capitalism, and thus not even the lowliest prole would dare support something as innocent and beneficient as a universal healthcare system. I'm on the outside looking in, so of course this could be far too simple an explanation.

[Bill3000]

Americans in general do not support a universal healthcare system; it's not a matter of patriotism, although it probably is related through tradition, as politics drips down through tradition.

[Dracon II]

True. Political culture has a lot to do with it. From day one, the American citizen's relationship to the state has been defined in negative terms. This is in stark contrast to Australia (despite our superficial similarities); at the foundation of Australia, the State was the economy, and throughout history we have always relied on the state to develop economic infrastructure, arbitrate disputes between capital and labour, and generally take a leading role in national development. That's changing now of course, but it took a long time to get here.
It was probably the major role of the state that muffled socialism in Australia... different method to the US, but similar results (a moderate and deradicalised labour movement).

[Ramo]

I think you have to consider the failure of American socialism yesterday and the rise of working class conservatism today as two relatively distinct issues.

The US had two major attributes that diminished lower class consciousness (preventing the rise of socialism): the frontier and immigration.

Today, Thomas Frank probably has the best answer. The basic idea is that the right has been able to divorce economics from the idea of class. As in the late liberals vs. the heartland ideas that you might see David Brooks pimping. Because capitalism caters to cultural, sexual, etc. diversity, because rebellion against traditional attitudes and authority sells (as in those Che Guevara t-shirts), a naive analysis of the world implies that liberals ultimately control our society. Class thus becomes an entirely cultural idea. The Democrats have played into this frame by triangulating and consistently betraying the working class (see the vote on the recent Bankruptcy Bill), while the Republicans have been careful not to take these cultural issues too far, to foster this sense of permanent revolution which hasn't ended despite the fact that Republicans control all branches of the gov't (Bush campaigned on gay marriage, but governed on social security).

[Ted Striker]

Interesting points.

[Barinthus]

Interesting

I wonder is it possible that America will eventually go socialist? After all we are more 'socialist' than we were 100 years ago. Is this merely a hiccup of conservatism during the march toward the socialist state of America?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

All good points. You should also see the work of Kevin Phillips, whose 1969 book, "The Emerging Republican Majority," laid out a lot of this thinking over 30 years ago.

[mrmitchell]

Americans in general do not support a universal healthcare system;

We do. We just don't want to pay for it.

[DanS]

Unfortunately, we're about as socialist as the next country.

[Dracon II]

The NLR article is about Frank's work. It's quite interesting.

The culturalization of class is quite an interesting phenomenon. I would like to understand how the Republicans can convince the working classes that their hardship is due to cultural factors promulgated by liberal elites...

It would be interesting to be a social psychologist in the USA...

[Dracon II]

Originally posted by DanS
Unfortunately, we're about as socialist as the next country.

Explain (keeping in mind that corporate welfare, medicaid/care, social security, farm subsidies etc are not socialist).

[DanS]

The US government broadly acts no differently than about half of the European governments. It's very redistributive. Before the Great Depression, that was decidedly not the case.

[mrmitchell]

Explain (keeping in mind that corporate welfare, medicaid/care, social security, farm subsidies etc are not socialist).

Actually I would say medicaid and social security are socialist programs. But they aren't the whole noodle. We still need free healthcare, more welfare, more public housing...these programs aren't flawed by their nature, they have just been implemented incorrectly in the US. Very incorrectly.