Reason and Radical

Historical Turning Point

The question Chalmers Johnson poses in his latest piece is: Have the Bush years, most recently in the form of a global financial Katrina, created the conditions for a rare turning-point election in U.S. politics, as with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democratic Party in 1932 -- or will deep-seated racism and entrenched regional/party loyalties prove too much, even for this catastrophic moment?

With his usual acumen, Johnson, whose latest book, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, warned of the possibility of a profligate, militarized U.S. going bankrupt, then explores the nature of a turning-point election in recent American history. He speculates about the conditions under which "the 2008 election might set in motion a political reconfiguration -- and even a political renaissance -- in the United States, restoring a modicum of democracy to the country's political system, while ending our march toward imperialism, perpetual warfare, and bankruptcy that began with the Cold War."

posted by Leimodnu @ 3:42 PM