Photo by frank mckenna

There is dialogue in Stardust Memories by Woody Allen (1980) when Allen’s character, Sandy Bates, a filmmaker, begins a discussion with a group of aliens in a pastoral setting. The scene is very funny because the lines spoken by the alien have to do with the quality of love, the value of Sandy’s older films, and how Sandy can use her talents to create a better world. The scene’s conclusion is the alien’s warning to tell better jokes and not go off to save the world through an activity such as missionary work. “You’re not the missionary type,” is the alien’s observation about how Bates might live his life.

A close relative observed during the early years of the Reagan presidency that “all the issues were moved to the right.” What were the questions in 1981? There were questions about war and peace, questions about taxation, questions about nuclear proliferation and disarmament, questions about the environment and, for those on the left, questions about where we would take and what we would do facing the right. the heavyweight of the wing that was Reaganism. The Red Scare, McCarthyism, and racism in the person of Barry Goldwater were all present in the history of the American right. The Iranian hostage crisis was a coup in the electorate’s perception of a troubled Carter presidency. When I began a registration information program project at the Catholic Center on the campus of the University of Rhode Island, I was struck by the fact that knowledge of how religious fundamentalism is developed in Iran was almost completely unknown in the United States and almost no one cared about it anyway. It may be interesting for readers to know that all these decades later, Iran is considered an enemy of the United States. With a Trump presidency fueled by resentment and anger, there must be serious concerns among Iran’s leaders and its people.

Photographer Ansel Adams secured an interview with Ronald Reagan in which he talked about the environment, a subject Adams was intimately connected to as he was a landscape photographer. Adams spoke some time after the Reagan interview, expressing disbelief that Reagan seemed disinterested and disconnected from the environmental issues Adams was putting forward during the meeting. Indeed, Adams looked like a shocked soldier after his discussion with Reagan. Remember Reagan’s outrageous statement that “trees pollute.” Today, Trump intends to burn the environment with fossil fuels.

Reagan, from the far right’s historical perspective, was the principal actor in the right’s attempt to dismantle the federal apparatus that established the New Deal and the Great Society. Trump, who controls all three branches of the federal government, will likely dismantle what remains of government functions that help people such as the Department of Education and the Social Security Administration. If Trump and his courtiers do not dismantle these agencies, they will bring them to their knees. Placing Robert Kennedy Jr. in a leadership position over health concerns is reminiscent of Reagan’s right-wing heavyweight. “It’s morning again in America” was Reagan’s campaign slogan. Today, the voting electorate bought this lock, stock and barrel in case of disaster.

Back to Stardust Memoriesthe fictional aliens there and how the tragic interaction between artist Adams and Reagan unfolded. What can we do better on the left besides missionary work in the face of the 2024 election debacle? Democrats have clearly missed the opportunity to connect with a base of workers who earn moderate wages and face staggering expenses on food, housing, health care and other basic necessities. The Democratic Party has long failed the working class, and no one is better positioned to capture those votes than the Republicans and Trump, who are focusing their anger on the economy. Joe Biden turned his back on the railroad workers when they staged a strike, almost as if it didn’t matter. The collapse of unions has continued since industries left the United States in the 1970s, and it was Reagan, the great communicator, who symbolically cut off the heads of striking air traffic controllers.

Democrats sought to raise the level of identity politics like never before in 2024, a tactic that completely backfired. The mass media and official newspapers loved this last point and wrote both news in the form of editorials and editorials themselves, as if masses of potential voters cared what the elite had to say.

The extent to which U.S. wars and military spending affect ordinary people is problematic. Michiganders of Palestinian descent were rightly angry at Biden and his heir, Harris. In interview after interview, Harris refused to make a demonstrable statement about the carnage in the Middle East. Although many members of the working class may also feel angry about war spending here, it is unclear how this influenced the choice of candidates. War is not a fundamental issue, but the consensus in the United States is that war does not mean much to most ordinary people and that the direct interests of the United States are not at stake. Wars by proxy, at least at present, suits the military and political results of the United States.

I think the time to reform the American government is long past. The electoral debacle is reminiscent of George McGovern’s defeat by Nixon in 1972, the critical note being that there is no longer any echo of the New Deal on this dark political horizon. There could be great danger for those on the left. Sinclair Lewis’ dystopian political and social drama This can’t happen here (1935) on the United States under the influence of a far-right government is now more than prescient. We are there!