The Fall of American Democracy

Historically, the rise of democracy, both in the US and around the world has led to a lessening of aristocratic political power. This does not mean that the upper classes have not tried to subvert democracy to their own ends. Probably in modern times, the high point of democracy in the US was that period of the New Deal through the first decade after WW2 (1932-55) This was the high point of union membership and most Americans were of like mind as far as their economic and social viewpoints were concerned. This was also a period of great prosperity for all classes despite the much higher top income brackets ( 0ver 80% for part of the time, never less than 60%. If the Bush tax cuts are renewed, the maximum bracket will remain 35% ). Even during that period a sizable part of the citizenry was denied basic civil rights in some states. The Civil Rights and "Hippy" movements marked the beginning of political polarization and the American individualistic basic values along with the marked economic boom led to a lessening of interest in unions and politics, allowing the politically focused upper classes to gain control of political parties which first acted in concert and now are violently opposed. The American "Tea Party" movement is basically that of disaffected middle class white americans who feel dispossessed of their political control. It has been fairly easy for wealthy TV demagogs and their even wealthier corporate backers to take control of the movement and steer it into supporting policies which will, if implemented, probably be directly opposed to the average TP member's interests (e.g. changes in Medicare and Social Security).