Neoliberalism and Political Realignment, 1980–2015

US life under neoliberalism confused the power of economic markets with democracy, powered the rise of an anti-democratic oligarchy, and led some economists to call for radical economic redistribution. The ideology also ignored the structural-historical reality of racism, as was apparent in “culture of poverty” morality and Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989), which misperceived the dead-end of “low road capitalism” evident in the film. As Abramowitz and others have noted, the political realignment of the Democratic and Republican parties underway since the 1970s, by leading to the rise of polarization, negative partisanship, and racial resentment, has thoroughly reshaped the possibilities for moderate political discourse and legislative compromise. The cutthroat politics of Newt Gingrich and the rise of talk radio speeded this transformation. As a result, films like Lincoln (2012), with its emphasis on social cohesion, racial justice, and the future of democracy, arrived too late to change the politics of the nation. According to Van Dijk and others, the Internet is solidifying this polarization by celebrating neoliberal notions of individual freedom and reshaping the norms of sociality, including the public/private distinction that has been a part of human life since the Pleistocene. By selling access to minds and emotions, the Internet has fostered both the rise of movements like Black Lives Matter and the alternative reality politics of Trumpism.