Did the many radical movements of the USA in the 1960s cause a the left-right polarization we see today?

Question

Yes? No? What were some of the other overriding (not specific to a single group but American history as a whole) effects of 1960s radicalism?

Answer 1

No, there was polarization long before the 60's. Even in the 20's and 30's you had conservatives versus progressives. Look back at Thomas Jefferson, he was not liked by Adams. As long as we have had politics we have had different political parties with different platforms. There always has been and always will be polarization in politics. It is a part of human nature to be the alpha dog and politics is a good place to display it. The only reason anyone would say it started in the 60's is at that point in our history media could present information at a quicker pace and everyone could witness the polarization themselves.

Answer 2

No, what it did was bring it to the forefront. There have always been "radical" movements in America. Take the "beatniks" of the 50's. they were the front runners of the 60's "hippies".....in fact, radicalism in the USA can be traced clearly in the 1950's with figures like Timothy Leary., and before, going all the way back to the Revolutionary War.
Leaving aside the Civil Rights movements, Womens Lib, and other gender/group specifics, the effects of the 1960's radicalism was one of questioning. Questioning government in a more realistic way, questioning values and the roles of family on society, questioning everything.
However, most younger people generally reject the more radical aspects of the 60’s ranging from sexual matters to racial integration. The "New Class" have made a lateral move from the radicalism of the 1960’s to a new conservative ideal that denies any connections to previous generations at all but seeks to preserve the current state of affairs as the ideal environment for tinkering our way to utopia. (1) "It is a generation of ahistorical social "scientists" who have vague notions of the value of equality, mass democracy, and state planning but lack any knowledge of the true moral dimensions of such values or what their implications might be beyond pseudo-scientific attempts at perfectly implemented public administration. "

Answer 3

No. The radical movements of the 60s have faded completely. There are essentially no remnants. Mainstream liberalism from the 60s hasn't completely disappeared -- there are still vestiges of LBJ's "Great Society" around -- but radical leftism is completely absent from American politics and culture. The American left would be considered the center in any other similarly advanced country (France, England, Germany, Italy, etc.).

The right-left polarization we see today is the result of a more recent phenomenon: neoconservatism.

Answer 4

The 1960's was not necessarily the founding of American Partisanship. Americans had been a polarized nation since its founding, starting with he Democratic Republicans and the Federalists.

What is significant, however, was the shift in demographies that came as a result of party alliances. The most notable change was in the south; which before the 60's was staunchly democrat. They had long, unpleasant memories of the reconstruction era, which had been spearheaded by a Republican president. It is interesting to note that during this time period, African Americans were almost exclusively Republicans, as they considered the democrat party to be the party of the racist southern whites.

During the civil rights era, the democrat party found its influence waning as the unions were slowly decreasing in prestige and influence. Looking for a new angle, they allied themselves with the civil rights and the peace movements. southern whites, disillusioned with the democrat party, switched to Republican, while African Americans, with their newfound political awareness, switched to democrat. The Republicans, noticing these switching trends, began to focus their efforts on being traditionalists, with a Christian flavor.

So while it wasn't the actual founding of the left/right split, it did, in a sense, lead to the current trends of the modern American political parties.

Answer 5

According to the Venona Decrypts and recently released documents from the Soviet archives, there was a well financed and well led communist insurgency in the United States placing communist agents and activists in key positions and agitating all sorts of labor and social movements for the purpose of disrupting America from within.

One of of those Soviet financed communist organized social movements for the disruption of the United States status quo was the Civil Rights Movement down south. The Civil Rights Movement is documented as having been funded directly from Moscow and organized and led by American communists funded by the Soviet Union for the purpose of polarizing America along racial lines.

The use of willing 'dupes' such as Martin Luther King and other southern negroes, as fronts for their behind the scenes manipulation by American communists had all been spelled out in the opened Soviet Archives.

Other movements and 'dupes' are Leonard Peltier of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and Caesar Chavez of the Lettuce Pickers movement.

The many radical movements of the 1960s were known to the FBI to be funded by the Soviet Union and organized and led by minions of the CPUSA (Communist Party of the USA, President Gus Hall). They caused a lot of problems and some damage but they failed to accomplish what they were designed by their Soviet masters to do, break up and distort America.

Answer 6

i think of you're lacking a elementary element, the conflict in eire that has erupted over a era of numerous hundred years has been between Irish rebels under a guise of assorted names and the british crown forces. it is been the british government that has pushed the line that it replaced right into a non secular conflict. the conflict strains interior the present campaign certainly have been muddied and it could take an prolonged time to tutor people who do no longer fully draw close the region, i'm no longer asserting it is your fault for no longer thoroughly information because of the fact the british government have been specialists in mis-suggestions yet we would desire to continually by no ability help them in this by ability of calling it a non secular conflict.

Answer 7

No. Fear has driven religious fundamentalism to cause this polarization. Note that the Islamic fundamentalism of 9/11 has led to greater fear by Christian fundamentalists.