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The reason why the US has never, and likely in its current configuration will never, have a socialist revolution is because political lines are drawn on race/culture/worldview and not $$$. Black wealthy elites are Democrats. White workers more likely Republicans
Given the history of this country, Black working class and Black professional class have far more in common (historically and same contemporary interests and values) than Black working class and white working class.
The entire “We’re going to force the Dems to be a working class movement” is a farce anyway. The Bernie/Warren left is driven by college educated whites upset they aren’t as wealthy as their parents, not HS educated working class construction workers
The moment these college educated whites see an economic opening that benefits them, they’ll leave the working class farce behind. Its just a useful euphemism, because “We’re upset we’re not as wealthy as our parents” doesn’t sound as good.
The reason why these white left “working class” movements don’t generate any momentum in the south/poc communities is because the drivers of these movements don’t share any interests with these people. Its why they are angry at the types of candidates Black voters choose
A good term for it would be a “weath grievance” movement. Truth is that they romanticize the post WW2 era, a time period which was an anomaly in US history. In no other era was the US such a huge share of global GDP. Greater competition meant relative living standards had to fall
But as relative living standards fall in the west, the beneficiaries of globalization are nonwhite emerging markets. I’ve said it time and time again—look at photos of Lagos or Beijing in 1950 and look at those cities now.
The wealth transfer from middle class whites in the west to an emerging global nonwhite middle class is what these movements are truly upset about, but they can’t verbalize it because they don’t understand history or the scope of global markets.
And as I’ve also said before, these movements will be unable to stop these global forces of capital movement. Unless there is some new productivity increasinf innovation (or a major war), more efficient areas of the world are going to outcompete regions like the US midwest.
US politicians are smart enough to understand this, but don’t dare tell constituents the truth. Would you tell the kids to eat their broccoli if they could vote you out of the house? The constraints they face prevent them from stopping this phenomenon anyway.
I could see the west trying to stymie globalization by creating silos, maybe trying to silo their markets and allies away from China. But long term it won’t work, for structural and demographic reasons.
But the US left can’t even unite itself, let alone attempt to create an international workers movement. Too many interests that separate labor, & the cultural history of the US makes it virtually impossible for white working class to unite under a banner where POC make the rules
Of course, the US left isn’t truly a workers movement anyway, rather it is a group of wealthy college educated whites masquerading as a workers movement. If they could afford those rising Brooklyn/Oakland rents one day, this whole thing dissolves overnight
