I bought my copy of The Seventies: Problems and Proposals, edited by Irving Howe and Michael Harrington, at a meeting of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee I attended in 1973. My copy was signed by Michael Harrington. In the early 1960's Michael Harrington inspired the War on Poverty with his book The Other America.
The Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee was a minority faction of the American Socialist Party. DSOC opposed the War in Vietnam. The American Socialist Party opposed America's entry into World War II, even after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Then the American Socialist Party supported the War in Vietnam. It is a long story.
The Seventies was published in 1972. It was an anthology of articles which had recently been printed in Dissent Magazine. Dissent Magazine is a leftist opinion journal which often posts articles advocating democratic socialism.
DSOC evolved into Democratic Socialists of America. Democratic Socialists of America does not run candidates but advocates democratic socialism within the Democratic Party.
When I belonged to DSOC it was strongly supportive of Israel. I am a registered Democrat. I thought about joining Democratic Socialists of America until it supported the Palestinians against Israel.
By 1973 the left liberal period of American history was in retreat. Richard Nixon had been elected president in 1968. He was reelected by a landslide in 1972.
Nevertheless, in 1972, when this book was published the War in Vietnam continued. So did the antiwar movement. Democratic socialists could hope that young people radicalized by the War in Vietnam would retain their radicalism after the War ended.
As one who was active in the antiwar effort, I can tell you that this did not happen. After Nixon ended the draft, it was difficult to get many people to show up for an antiwar demonstration, even though American bombing of Vietnam continued. The students from elite universities, who had been active in the antiwar movement, were nowhere to be seen. They had gone back to their books, and to looking forward to the solid gold futures that awaited them after graduation.
What you would see at the much smaller antiwar demonstrations were the kind of failed professionals who belonged to organizations like the Trotskyist Socialist Workers' Party. These had been born into the middle class. They had failed to achieve their goals in life, and they slid down into the working class.
You would also see teenage "freaks" who attended with the intention of engaging in vandalism.
Those on the left hoped that the Watergate Scandal would reinvigorate their movement. Nevertheless, Americans who in 1974 wanted President Nixon to resign did not wish that they had voted for George McGovern in 1972. They wished that in 1972 they had been able to vote for a conservative without Nixon's penchant for neurotic self-destruction. When the Republican Party offered them the opportunity to vote for Ronald Reagan, they did in 1980. They reelected him in a landslide in 1984.
The articles in The Seventies consist of a left liberal wish list. In 1972 it was time for a retrospective on what had gone wrong. Why had the hopes generated by the eloquence of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King in the early 1960's been disappointed? Why did they culminate in the presidencies of Nixon and Reagan?
The black ghetto riots that began in 1964 are hardly mentioned. The doubling of the crime rate that happened during the 1960's and the rise in crime that continued until the administration of Ronald Reagan are not mentioned either.
The authors of these articles do not seem to care about the crime wave that was bothering most Americans. In his article "Crime On and Off the Streets," Bernard Rosenberg wrote, "No one presses for truly unlimited enforcement efficiency."
No one? What about people who live in dangerous neighborhoods?
In his article "Public Schools: the Next Decade," David K. Cohen wrote:
"[I}n the federally sponsored Equality of Educational Opportunity Report, James Coleman announced that differences in the quality of the nations' schools bore only a trivial relationship in differences in the educational achievement of the nation' students...
"By 1968, newspaper accounts of the failure of local HeadStart and Title I programs had become commonplace. By 1969 several national studies of these programs had found no discernable impact on children's performance in schools."
This undercuts the leftist assertion that an improved environment improves the behavior and performance of poor people. It substantiates the assertions of race realism, and what those on the left disparage as "scientific racism." A movement should not be inspired by beliefs about human nature and human potential that are not true.
If democratic socialism is to become a popular movement in the United States, it will need to appeal to the self-interest of working class and middle class Americans. For several decades their incomes have stagnated or declined, while the rich have become richer. These people do want a "truly unlimited enforcement efficiency" for the police. The movement cannot appeal to disinterested compassion on behalf of the unemployable welfare recipients and crime prone members of the underclass.
The Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee was a minority faction of the American Socialist Party. DSOC opposed the War in Vietnam. The American Socialist Party opposed America's entry into World War II, even after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Then the American Socialist Party supported the War in Vietnam. It is a long story.
The Seventies was published in 1972. It was an anthology of articles which had recently been printed in Dissent Magazine. Dissent Magazine is a leftist opinion journal which often posts articles advocating democratic socialism.
DSOC evolved into Democratic Socialists of America. Democratic Socialists of America does not run candidates but advocates democratic socialism within the Democratic Party.
When I belonged to DSOC it was strongly supportive of Israel. I am a registered Democrat. I thought about joining Democratic Socialists of America until it supported the Palestinians against Israel.
By 1973 the left liberal period of American history was in retreat. Richard Nixon had been elected president in 1968. He was reelected by a landslide in 1972.
Nevertheless, in 1972, when this book was published the War in Vietnam continued. So did the antiwar movement. Democratic socialists could hope that young people radicalized by the War in Vietnam would retain their radicalism after the War ended.
As one who was active in the antiwar effort, I can tell you that this did not happen. After Nixon ended the draft, it was difficult to get many people to show up for an antiwar demonstration, even though American bombing of Vietnam continued. The students from elite universities, who had been active in the antiwar movement, were nowhere to be seen. They had gone back to their books, and to looking forward to the solid gold futures that awaited them after graduation.
What you would see at the much smaller antiwar demonstrations were the kind of failed professionals who belonged to organizations like the Trotskyist Socialist Workers' Party. These had been born into the middle class. They had failed to achieve their goals in life, and they slid down into the working class.
You would also see teenage "freaks" who attended with the intention of engaging in vandalism.
Those on the left hoped that the Watergate Scandal would reinvigorate their movement. Nevertheless, Americans who in 1974 wanted President Nixon to resign did not wish that they had voted for George McGovern in 1972. They wished that in 1972 they had been able to vote for a conservative without Nixon's penchant for neurotic self-destruction. When the Republican Party offered them the opportunity to vote for Ronald Reagan, they did in 1980. They reelected him in a landslide in 1984.
The articles in The Seventies consist of a left liberal wish list. In 1972 it was time for a retrospective on what had gone wrong. Why had the hopes generated by the eloquence of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King in the early 1960's been disappointed? Why did they culminate in the presidencies of Nixon and Reagan?
The black ghetto riots that began in 1964 are hardly mentioned. The doubling of the crime rate that happened during the 1960's and the rise in crime that continued until the administration of Ronald Reagan are not mentioned either.
The authors of these articles do not seem to care about the crime wave that was bothering most Americans. In his article "Crime On and Off the Streets," Bernard Rosenberg wrote, "No one presses for truly unlimited enforcement efficiency."
No one? What about people who live in dangerous neighborhoods?
In his article "Public Schools: the Next Decade," David K. Cohen wrote:
"[I}n the federally sponsored Equality of Educational Opportunity Report, James Coleman announced that differences in the quality of the nations' schools bore only a trivial relationship in differences in the educational achievement of the nation' students...
"By 1968, newspaper accounts of the failure of local HeadStart and Title I programs had become commonplace. By 1969 several national studies of these programs had found no discernable impact on children's performance in schools."
This undercuts the leftist assertion that an improved environment improves the behavior and performance of poor people. It substantiates the assertions of race realism, and what those on the left disparage as "scientific racism." A movement should not be inspired by beliefs about human nature and human potential that are not true.
If democratic socialism is to become a popular movement in the United States, it will need to appeal to the self-interest of working class and middle class Americans. For several decades their incomes have stagnated or declined, while the rich have become richer. These people do want a "truly unlimited enforcement efficiency" for the police. The movement cannot appeal to disinterested compassion on behalf of the unemployable welfare recipients and crime prone members of the underclass.
