Cliff, I take your point that the '60s were probably a more tumultuous time. I think the difference here is that people do not have the same spiritual or communitarian foundations to ground them, and guide their understanding. Trump, and to some extent, Sanders, are capitalizing on the intense alienation that many Americans are feeling right now. There are no institutions or cohesive communities anymore.
So while the race issue isn't as potent as it once was, and the narrative does not have the poignant feeling of truth, it still exists, but is now compounded with the bitter-sweet flavour of repetitive failure.
With a brief period of Reaganesque selective nostalgia, America has had a constant stream of failures trying to deal with the hardships of the '60s. This, compounded by anemic economic growth, wage stagnation, and the real erosion of the middle class has eliminated a lot of the optimism that countered the chaos of the '60s. Things are, as always, getting worse and better. In this case, better for the top 10-15% of American earners, and much worse for the bottom 85%.
|