In reading historical sources from the mid-70's, I find a huge amount of talk expressing the idea that Americans were feeling oppressed by an overload of bureaucracy. This talk wasn't just coming from anti-government conservatives; often liberals would say it in a sort of "I hate to admit it, but..." kind of way.
^^^^^^^ CB: All the talk from then expressing the idea that Americans were feeling oppressed by an overload of bureaucracy reflected the fact that there was more struggle and protest going on against that bureaucracy, unlike the present. And more importantly that one could protest and WIN ! Protests in marches, riots, written word against the "system" and social ills were common, the norm. And their recent experiences with significant successes. In 1972, the Democratic candidate for President, McGovern featured opposition to the Viet Nam war as his main platform point *. Even though McGovern lost in a landslide, it was extraordinary that someone with extremely liberal positions could get a major nomination. Then Nixon was pushed out as President in 1973. But even with him, as is often noted on this list, many or at least some of the legendary conservative Nixon's programmatic points were to the left of today's liberals' positions. That was the impact of the movement, and we knew it. We had shoved Nixon to the left ! The US withdrew from Viet Nam. This was followed by the so-called Viet Nam syndrome, meaning a dominance of the view that the US should be hesitant in waging imperialist war. At some point there was Senator Church's committee putting restrictions on the CIA. They have, of course, faded, but to even have a Senate committee doing such a thing would be unthinkable today. Affirmative action, in school and work, Black, Brown , Red studies programs were popping up all over the place. Thus, the Supreme Court _Bakke_ case in reaction toward the end of the decade, as the Nixon appointments began to undermine the Warren Court gains. Black mayors were elected in many major cities. The Supreme Court decided Roe vs Wade. The ERA just missed amending the Constitution by one or two state legislatures. Popular music had more political and social content. There was more.
My point is not that this was revolution nor that many of these gains were not significantly reversed ;nor as, others have said , that there was no rightwing and racist backlash against them. My point is the feeling we had was that we could fight back against the "bureaucratization and regimentation", the "system" AND WIN VICTORIES , significant victories. There was an ongoing progressive movement.. then along came Reaganism-racism-imperialism-demagogy. That the American people would put such a reactionary creep in as President felt like such a betrayal of the idealism and rebellion of our generation.
The wikipedia article discusses the mixed bag that Chuck refers to. Nonetheless, compared to the present , which is predominantly and relatively conservative and repressive after decades of dominance by reaction. the seventies seemed full of opportunity for winning more gains against the system, as had "just" happened in the late 60's and early 70's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s
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Nowadays, at least among people my age, this sort of feeling doesn't exist (in my experience) except in scripted right-wing boilerplate.
^^^^^^ CB: My guess is this quietism reflects the fact that the rightwing has sort of politically hypnotized/anesthesized the masses. The oppression and control by bureaucracy and regimentation is efficient and significantly unconscious. If you all were protesting and raising hell more like the 60's/70's it would be a sign that the system controls were being challenged, not functioning efficiently. Big Brother is a roaring success in actual America life today.
The '70's were genuinely the Good Ole Days compared to the '10's.
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Did actual American life seem so much more regimented or bureaucratized in the 70's?
SA
*McGovern ran on a platform that advocated withdrawal from the Vietnam War in exchange for the return of American prisoners of war[128] and amnesty for draft evaders who had left the country.[129]
McGovern's platform also included an across-the-board, 37% reduction in defense spending over three years;[130] and a "demogrant" program (later dropped from the platform) that would replace the personal income tax exemption with a $1,000 tax credit as a minimum-income floor for every citizen in America,[131] to replace the welfare bureaucracy and complicated maze of existing public-assistance programs. Its concept (a conservative one) was similar to the negative income tax long advocated by economist Milton Friedman, and by the Nixon Administration in the form of the Family Assistance Program, which called for a minimum family grant of $1,600 per year, later raised to $2,400. The personal income tax exemption later became $1000 under President Reagan. (As Senator, McGovern had previously sponsored a bill, submitted by the National Welfare Rights Organization, for $6,500 guaranteed minimum income per year to families, based on need.)[132] In addition, McGovern supported ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McGovern#1972_Presidential_campaign