Uprising — of the left or right?
WASHINGTON –The country is perched on the edge of an uprising that could go either way — left or right — while significantly affecting the presidential election, author David Sirota says in an intriguing new book in which Missouri and Illinois play a role. He was recently interviewed in Washington.
In “The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington,” Sirota argues that much of the population is either in a state of disaffection and apathy, has moved on to the stage of ferment or rising up, or is engaged in a full-fledged movement. He bases this on his observations gained while traveling throughout the country for a year, including with Minutemen in Missouri and activist Saul Alinsky in Chicago.
The “seething popular discontent” could greatly affect this year’s presidential election, but it could go either way — conservative like the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s, or liberal, like the civil rights and other movements of the 1960s or the 1930s uprising that developed the modern labor movement and the New Deal, Sirota says. Leftward, which he clearly favors, would mean advocacy for universal health care and action against the oil companies, while rightward would involve an anti-immigrant campaign and possible war with Iran, he argues.
It’s the second book for Sirota, a syndicated newspaper columnist who previously wrote Hostile Takeover, an equally provocative look at the corporate and monied influence in Washington. He’ll discuss his new book at 7 p.m. July 1 at Left Bank Books in St. Louis.
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Wow, Mr. Sirota spent a whole year out amongst the unwashed multitudes? Such a hero. I’m sure he found all kinds of anecdotal evidence for his theories. He may be right about the change, but I think there is no doubt as to which way it will go.