This entirely absolves the Democratic party for abandoning its base in labor in answer to Powell's memoranda. That base had lost any concept of purpose in the war that was primarily supported by Democrats, as was the opposition to civil rights, and the party jumped at the opportunity offered by neoliberal market worship that has only tightened its hold on the party's leadership. Biden's "crime bill" was a direct and obvious challenge to the populism of the '60s and '70s on both issues.

The hippie movement, as well as civil rights, were backlash to a culture of free market capitalism as the answer to all ills, not the other way around. The country's rivers were literally on fire and its young people were sacrificed to a fanatical rejection of anything "socialist, commie, pinko". The war was far from a battle for "American values". It was more a repudiation of the New Deal government as a service concept that enabled the captains of industry and banking to gain power in the first place.