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A review by ethanhedman
For Might and Right: Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy by Michael Brenes
informative
fast-paced
4.5
There are too many damning quotes in this 248 page book to include without posting the entire book. Brenes argues that cold war defense spending "transformed the nature of of social democracy in the United States, altering American politics and creating a unique coalition of individuals invested in the "military industrial complex" for personal and political gain.
That "unique coalition", Brenes argues, includes defense workers in the rust belt that were slowly disappeared, 'small government' Republicans driven by rabid anti-communism, neo-liberal Democrats driven by short-term political gains in keeping their constituents' jobs (which were on the way out and only hurt those Dems in the long term - no meaningful effort given to conversion programs from defense to domestic programs), and the defense companies that were complicit in the fostering of the Cold War Coalition and financially stood to gain the most from government contracts, all at the expense of the New Deal and its coalition. "The Cold War created a marriage of convenience between those who materially benefitted from defense spending and groups of national political actors who backed the defense economy for ideological reasons". Thus, Brenes argues, this coalition is partly a story of "how wealth was expropriated from working-class to wealthy Americans, and how American democracy was transformed in the process".
This is already too long, you should read the book, but I'll close with this from Brenes. "The ultimate legacy of the Cold War therefore lies in its ability to transfigure American politics in ways that created new coalitions of Americans to keep the United States fighting the Cold War after 1991 - to align militarism and austerity with the interests of American democracy".
That "unique coalition", Brenes argues, includes defense workers in the rust belt that were slowly disappeared, 'small government' Republicans driven by rabid anti-communism, neo-liberal Democrats driven by short-term political gains in keeping their constituents' jobs (which were on the way out and only hurt those Dems in the long term - no meaningful effort given to conversion programs from defense to domestic programs), and the defense companies that were complicit in the fostering of the Cold War Coalition and financially stood to gain the most from government contracts, all at the expense of the New Deal and its coalition. "The Cold War created a marriage of convenience between those who materially benefitted from defense spending and groups of national political actors who backed the defense economy for ideological reasons". Thus, Brenes argues, this coalition is partly a story of "how wealth was expropriated from working-class to wealthy Americans, and how American democracy was transformed in the process".
This is already too long, you should read the book, but I'll close with this from Brenes. "The ultimate legacy of the Cold War therefore lies in its ability to transfigure American politics in ways that created new coalitions of Americans to keep the United States fighting the Cold War after 1991 - to align militarism and austerity with the interests of American democracy".