--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On May 16, 2008, at 3:07 PM, Dennis Perrin wrote:
>
> > Yes, yes -- but don't romanticize the young out in
> these parts, or
> > in my old
> > stomping grounds of central Indiana. There are
> plenty of young
> > reactionaries, and their demographic is fed things
> like mixed
> > martial arts
> > and fundamentalist Christianity. I see it every
> day. It depresses
> > the hell
> > out of me.
>
> For sure. I said things are getting better, no more.
>
[WS:] Were not people saying the same in the 1960s and 1970s? And then we got the "Reagan revolution."
I think that the best predictor of the popular attitudes is the economy. If it is growing, everyone has high expectations about the future and becomes more receptive of liberal ideas. It it is going south, people get scared, bitter, close in thier ranks and adopt reactionary ideas.
Based on the way economic winds are blowing, I am afraid that we have not seen the worst of reactionary populism yet - in which the youth of America will be leading the way.
Wojtek