Suicide of the Left: What the Hell Happened in the 1970's?
Suicide of the Left K.J.L. Kjeldsen Table of Contents Introduction . 1 I. Thomas Frank: Politics . 2 II. Adam Curtis: Culture . 6 III. Peter Turchin: Structural-Demographic Analysis . 10 IV. Ibn Khaldun: Asabiya . 18 V. A Rough Sketch of the Continuing Trends . 20 VI. The Left Will Remain Dead . 24 Introduction In 1970's America, the Democratic party abandoned the working class. The strategists and thought-leaders of the party started to drift from the economic left, and began to seek a new voter base: the white-collar professional class. This educated, liberal elite, which was one part of the Democratic coalition, decided to exclude the interests of labor, and run the coalition themselves. They then embarked on a course of legislation and party reform with the aim of openly privileging the interests of the professional-managerial class. This trend took hold, and only became more pronounced ...