{"id":183,"date":"2026-04-20T13:33:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/?p=183"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:33:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:33:48","slug":"the-usas-historical-cycle-of-capitalist-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/the-usas-historical-cycle-of-capitalist-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"The USA’s historical cycle of capitalist racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each day, Heather Cox Richardson<\/a> captures the events of today and compares them to the events of the past. Her daily work brings history to life in amazing ways, reminding us of the lessons of the past and helping us see how those lessons can help us understand and shape the present and future. Even though she does this on the Crapstack, which is really unfortunate<\/a>, her posts are one of the best things on the internet every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here’s a terrific example: On Monday<\/a>, she summarized the cyclical nature of capitalist racism in the U.S.A. in just a few short paragraphs:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Before Trump won the presidency in 2016, the modern-day Republican Party was well on its way to endorsing oligarchy. It had followed the usual U.S. historical pattern to that point. In the 1850s, 1890s, 1920s, and then again in the modern era, wealthy people had come around to the idea that society worked best if a few wealthy men ran everything.<\/p>\n

Although those people had been represented by the Democrats in the 1850s and the Republicans in the 1890s, 1920s, and 2000s, they had gotten there in the same way: first a popular movement had demanded that the government protect equality of opportunity and equal justice before the law for those who had previously not had either, and that popular pressure had significantly expanded rights.<\/p>\n

Then, in reaction, wealthier Americans began to argue that the expansion of rights threatened to take away their liberty to run their enterprises as they wished. To tamp down the expansion of rights, they appealed to the racism of the poorer white male voters whose votes they needed to maintain control of the government, telling them that legislation to protect equal rights was a plan to turn the government over to Black or Brown Americans, or immigrants from southern Europe or Asia, who would use their voting power to redistribute wealth.<\/p>\n

The idea that poor men of color voting meant socialism resonated with white voters, who turned against the government\u2019s protecting equal rights and instead supported a government that favored men of property. As wealth moved upward, popular culture championed economic leaders as true heroes, and lawmakers suppressed voting in order to \u201credeem\u201d American society from \u201csocialists\u201d who wanted to redistribute wealth. Capital moved upward until a very few people controlled most of it, and then, usually after an economic crash made ordinary Americans turn against the system that favored the wealthy, the cycle began again.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The only good news here is that, if this cycle continues (and there\u2019s no reason to think it won\u2019t), we\u2019re about due for the next economic crash that makes ordinary Americans turn against the system that favors the wealthy and join once more a popular movement that demands the government protect equality of opportunity and equal justice before the law. That\u2019s how we will begin to reverse the murderous devastation Trump has wrought and build a better society and world for everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The real question is: How do we stop this cycle? How can we convince people to stop falling for the \u00a0lies and fear mongering and demagoguery of the wealthy that keeps derailing the progress of society toward greater equality, justice, and freedom for us all?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each day, Heather Cox Richardson captures the events of today and compares them to the events of the past. Her daily work brings history to life in amazing ways, reminding us of the lessons of the past and helping us see how those lessons can help us understand and shape the present and future. Even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184,"href":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theimbroglio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}