“[T]oo much attention in the 1950s was paid to Democrats trying not to appear soft on communism, and too little attention to Republicans accepting most of the acquis of the New Deal in return for safety of private property.” #BrankoMilanovic https://glineq.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-end-of-great-order-under-heaven.html
Screenshot of text: As Gerstle writes, too much attention in the 1950s was paid to Democrats trying not to appear soft on communism, and too little attention to Republicans accepting most of the acquis of the New Deal in return for safety of private property. (“The threat of international communism made possible the transition of the New Deal from political movement to political order and ensured its dominance in American life for 30 years”, p. 46). With the declining appeal of communism and then its eventual fall, there was much less need to acquiesce to labor’s demands. Labor had nowhere to go, or dream that it could go, or threaten to go. Reagan’s firing of thousands of air-controllers was the opening salvo of the war on labor. (Globalization and outsourcing to China might have been the second.) This argument is worth making, but is not new.