“I have a lot of skepticism for the future of [America’s] fourth republic at this point,” Lind admitted. “The first one was dominated by the Southern planters until the 1860s. Then it was run by railroad lawyers and corporate attorneys until 1932. Really, the only time working-class interests were represented in American politics significantly was in the New Deal era. We’ve been moving back in the oligarchic direction ever since. … I’m very optimistic about race, but not about economy and politics.”
“If secession won’t work, what happens if we don’t solve our economic and political divide?” I asked him.
“We become Peron’s Argentina,” he answered, without missing a beat. “It’s where I think we’re going to end up anyway. We’re showing signs of it … your capitalists are mostly a rentier class, living off unearned income from banking, agriculture, finance, or stock sales … elites tied to the military and a nationalist coalition of interests. The working class is immobile. It cannot move at all.”
The American future Lind and I discussed was increasingly Latin American in character—a state of affairs where the threat of instability and violence is perpetual. Left and right are rarely meaningful distinctions. Political parties and movements merely represent the facades of elite factions tied to various competing parts of the corporate and security states. Dysfunction and power entrenchment rule the day, and there’s little hope of individual mobility across class lines. Maybe underground tunnels aren’t such a bad idea after all.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member