Alan Lessoff | Note from the Editor | Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 8.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the JGA online. About 252 words from this article are provided below; about 594 words remain.

If you are a individual subscriber to the Journal of the Gilded Age, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the Journal of the Gilded Age, you can:: • subscribe here.
• Purchase this article in PDF form for $10.00.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of the Gilded Age (1.1-present).
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

Alan Lessoff | Note from the Editor | Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 8.1 | The History Cooperative

Note from the Editor

Of the appeals to ignorance blustered during the recent presidential campaign, the notion that the new president is a closet socialist would count among the most ridiculous, if one did not have to contend with the unshakable belief of some that the officialdom of Hawaii has conspired to cover up the Kenyan birth of a clandestine Muslim who is in turn covering up his despise-the-real-America sensibility, imbibed from an unrepentant Weatherman in his circle of acquaintances. To be fair, depressing nonsense kicked around on the other side, too; many would prefer to spread rumors about the birth spacing and parenting arrangements of the former Republican vice-presidential candidate than to stick to emphasizing this candidate's cluelessness about international relations, public finance, and almost every other pressing national issue.

Others can more accurately categorize the new president's ideology, but it probably resembles an updated social democracy or urban liberalism, leavened by appreciation of the neoliberal and neo-progressive critiques of the welfare state and concentrated authority that have appeared in recent decades. This counts as "socialism" only to minds capable of taking at face value the Victorian rhetorical flourishes that made all public-sector activity more extensive than constables and cobblestones appear dangerously socialistic. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of international political thought over the last thirty years knows that as a positive program for running countries, socialism is deader than the mastodon. Geneticists might have more success with reviving the mastodon than Chicago education professors would socialism.

. . .

There are about 594 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.