"I want my country back!"
We've all heard the Tea Party crowd and others of that ilk utter that phrase.
And in a strange way, they have a point. The 1950s (which is the most common reference point for an idealized past in this context) was a time of shared economic prosperity, relatively speaking. It was a time of shared national purpose in the context of the Cold War. It was a time when a generation of poor/working-class people were lifted up into the largest middle class in American (dare I say...world?) history.
But, of course, no history of the 1950s would be complete without mentioning the darker sides of American society at that time, which was pre-Sexual Revolution, pre-Civil Rights Movement...in other words, this was a time when the social, racial, familial,sexual, and economic hierarchies of the older order were still very much alive, even in the midst of the era's shared economic prosperity. And what of the cost to the so-called "Third World"? Keep in mind, this was back before Vietnam, Watergate, investigations into the CIA and FBI, etc. revealed just how ruthless, paranoid, suspicious, and horrific the "military-industrial complex" that Eisenhower warned about was.
Now, two contradictory things are happening. First, the social status of women, racial minorities, the LGBT community, and other marginalized and oppressed groups have improved, overall, in the past 40-50 years. The old hierarchies are unraveling.
At the same time, the economy has been "liberalized" in the Milton Friedman manner, which has wrecked the public sector (in more than one way), thrown millions out of work, eliminated many, many jobs, repressed wages-all for the enrichment of an increasingly global class of economic parasites.
Because these two currents are both radical changes, however, occurring at the same time, it can be too easy to ascribe cause and effect relationships to them. This is the mistake of some well-meaning, but confused people who assume that the two currents add up to the same amount of (negative) change. Thus, you'll see people blaming women, minorities, gays, illegal immigrants, etc. for their own poor economic outlook.
So yes, I want my country back, too. It's important, however, to not misidentify the causes of our anguish. This is what the Tea Party does, which Republicans play on to win elections. Let's not fall into that trap.
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