The Road To The Great Regression

In the 21st century, counter reactions to globalisation have been taking radically different forms.

- César Renduels Menendez De Llano And Donatella Della Porta

IN 1980, the novelist Martin Amis attended a meeting in Texas with Ronald Reagan, then in the midst of the campaign that would put him in the White House. Reagan liked to end his electoral activities with some audience Q&A. The more personal the question, Amis explained, the more Reagan enjoyed answering.

Question: “Of all the people in America, Sir, why you for President?”

Reagan grins.

Answer: “Well, I’m not smart enough to tell a lie.”

Laughter, applause.

Amis relays the exchange:

“But why do you want it, sir?’  Reagan flexes his worn, snipped, tucked, mottled face. ‘This country needs a good Republican and I feel I can do the job. Why? I’m happy. I’m feeling good.’ Here he turns. ‘And I have Nancy to tuck me up at night.”

Laughter, applause, hats in the air.

ANGER, DISCONTENT AND RESENTMENT

Imagine this anecdote today. Were Donald Trump had asked the same question in 2016, it seems like he may have responded: “Because I’m unhappy. I’m feeling bad. And my relationship with my wife is catastrophic.”

And surely his Republican audience would also have clapped, identifying now not with Reagan’s optimism but with Trump’s self portrait of anger, discontent and resentment.

Ronald Reagan, that carefree actor president, may have been the last US leader to channel Americans’ good feelings about the free market. As Robert Putnam outlines in his famous investigation, Bowling Alone, civil society and social bonds in the US strengthened from the early 20th century until the 1970s, when the era of neoliberal reforms began.