The U.S. right wing appears to have a lock on conspiracy theories in the Obama era. But historically, such paranoid theorizing has been a bipartisan pastime. Has our dispossession from democracy blunted our ability to see reason?
Worried critics decry the similarities between the corruption-laden late 19th-century American Gilded Age and the crony capitalism of today, but similar historical lessons surrounding the problems of global trade and foreign policy have gone neglected.
As anxiety about the end of American hegemony abounds and the U.S. unemployment rate remains high, talk about the necessity of out-competing China is on the rise. The leading presidential candidates have zeroed in on China as a major threat to U.S. economic security and have vowed to ensure that the United States remains on top of the global economic ladder.