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Godfree Roberts's avatar

"Coming to the end of the century, observing its last twenty-five years, we have seen exactly that limited vision Hofstadter talked about--a capitalistic encouragement of enormous fortunes alongside desperate poverty, a nationalistic acceptance of war and preparations for war. Governmental power swung from Republicans to Democrats and back again, but neither party showed itself capable of going beyond that vision.

After the disastrous war in Vietnam came the scandals of Watergate. There was a deepening economic insecurity for much of the population, along with environmental deterioration, and a growing culture of violence and family disarray. Clearly, such fundamental problems could not be solved without bold changes in the social and economic structure. But no major party candidates proposed such changes. The 'American political tradition' held fast." -Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States (1980, 2003)

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