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177 THE PEOPLE IN TURMOIL FIVE Although Americans moved in various political directions in the thirties , forties, and fifties, there was always a master plan that sought to push the expression of democracy and liberalism in some directions and not others and to limit the full exposition of personal desire in political debates. Since political life in these decades tended to emphasize the power of institutions over individuals, the concerns of men over women, and the power of whites over blacks, the expression of democracy and liberalism was generally distorted to serve this political reality. Thus, in the thirties, democratic rights were sought mostly for workingmen and pursued through strong union and governmental organizations. Discussions of liberalism were tied mostly to the fate of capitalism and the need to balance an ideal of personal uplift with one that called for restraint. The full access of women and minorities to work, unions, capitalist enterprise , and political influence was minimized. During World War II the need for unions, capitalist enterprise, and white male hegemony was not forgotten, but a broader political vision was articulated by political leaders that included a defense of democratic and liberal rights for all citizens. This more inclusive understanding of political rights was driven to a great extent by a reaction to the images and threats of fascism. However, organized politics changed after the war. American political leaders still defended the concepts of democratic and liberal rights, male power, and capitalist expansion, but the capacious language of wartime, which was more welcoming to women and unions, was curtailed. A dawning recognition of the problem of white supremacy was indeed recognized, although this was still not a topic that commanded considerable attention from major political parties. The crusade against communism certainly defended democratic and liberal ideals in the post- war era, but in a way that continued to weaken the labor politics of the thirties and the democratic and liberal rights of many citizens who were viewed with suspicion. The ability of mainstream politics to sustain master plans such as the New Deal or the Cold War was weakened considerably in the 1960s. Obviously, events like the war in Vietnam and the civil rights movement had much to do with the splintering of white male authority and the demise of traditional political alliances that marked this fall. Yet it must be stressed that many of the stories, images, and characters that circulated through American culture in the middle decades of the twentieth century had already cut away at authoritarian and dominant political values as they were constituted. Changes that took place in the sixties and beyond were not only the result of the well-known political controversies of the time but were also induced by the growing ability of mass culture to dominate both cultural and political expression. Thus, by the decades of the 1970s and 1980s, with the power of political, moral, and even film authorities in some decline, the disorder, confusion, and anger that existed in the emotional and social worlds of common people was transferred more directly to the screen than possibly at any time in the era of sound pictures. In a sense, the imagined life and politics of the lower classes now had a complexity and a grounding in social and emotional realism that were unprecedented. Democratic and liberal aspirations were still imagined to exist among the people, and in a few instances they were realized, but they were challenged effectively by depictions that showed the ire of ordinary individuals and even more “grim antagonisms” of lower-class life than was normally the case. Common people were now portrayed as wrestling with the demise of male authority, the ebbing of unionsponsored democracy, the war in Vietnam, the rise of racial tensions, and the new possibilities for women. The congruence between political and cultural expression that marked the years of World War II returned, but now the collective story of working-class life in film was much more elaborate and was riddled with conflicting streams of liberalism, democracy , and illiberalism—much as it was in real life. The sixties were harder on the Democrats than the Republicans, and therefore damaging to the interests of organized labor. The problems are well known. The coalition that had forged the party and the New Deal in the thirties began to come apart over its policies in Vietnam and over civil rights. The Great Society initiatives of Lyndon Johnson were viewed in many working-class neighborhoods as...

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