On Sun, 29 May 2005, Doug Henwood wrote:
> How about the counter-example of the American right? In the 1950s and early
> 1960s, right-wing thought seemed utterly dead
In the 50s, McCarthyism browbeat the country, Massive Resistance dominated the south and Billy Graham was second only the Republican President in popularity. In the early 1960s, the far right nominated their dream candidate out of nowhere for president. (And that was in between nominations of McCarthy's right hand man -- so even the center of their party had shifted to the right over the previous decade.)
How are those signs of being dead? If the left were ever that powerful within the Democratic party they'd think they'd died and gone to heaven. We've never nominated our dream candidate ever.
I think this narrative that they were a tiny, embattled minority then is just like their narrative that they are a tiny, embattled minority now -- a constituent part of their self image, and pure bushwah.
Michael