I had a great conversation with Rick Perlstein yesterday that I’ve been wanting to have for a long time.
Rick’s four-book series chronicling the rise of the American right, from Goldwater through Reagan (Before the Storm, Nixonland, The Invisible Bridge, and Reaganland), is the most comprehensive historical account of, to use his metaphor, how the right-wing storm gathered. It’s not the kind of teleological synthesis that tells you all of it was inevitable, but a day-by-day history — one that I recognize, because I lived through nearly all of it. It should be read to hold accountable all the pundits and commentators who have been making up a version of that history that suits their own purposes.
We covered a lot of ground — the right-wing movements of the 60s and 70s that most historians ignored at the time, the tragedy of how the left and center responded (or didn’t), and the through-lines to where we are today.
We dug deep on the battle between individualism and communitarianism — a framing war that the right won, and that Democrats helped them win. The right managed to convince half the country that freedom means getting the government off your back. But what about getting the boss off your back? What about the real freedom that comes from having the things you need to actually flourish — healthcare, education, information, some floor of material security?
We talked about how making collective demands of people in power is the best way to gain these types of freedoms — and how unions, for all of their historical flaws, have been the only institution that gives ordinary working people this kind of collective, truly democratic power.
So it’s no wonder that people in power, from both parties, have worked so hard to marginalize unions. When Gary Hart called unions “just another special interest group,” that was a key break in Democratic politics — one that still drags the party down today, as they try to narrowly poll and message-test their way to victory instead of building real power and consensus.
Rick just finished the manuscript for his next book, The Infernal Triangle. It covers the period from 2000-2010 and argues that Republican authoritarianism, Democratic fecklessness, and mainstream media complicity have created a doom loop for American democracy.
Subscribe to Rick’s Substack, Rickipedia, here.
