The representative form of government in America that existed for over two hundred years was based on the authority and responsibility of individuals on all levels of social organization from the family to the government, a form of social armor that conformed to armor in the average individual living in the authoritarian era.
This was the situation until around 1960 when the authoritarian society began to fall apart resulting in today’s anti-authoritarian society. Accompanying the anti-authoritarian transformation, the structure of the authoritarian family began to break down and, as a result, young people were left adrift as their individual armor also began to change. Increased levels of anxiety resulted in the formation of ocular armor which replaced muscular armor in the younger generation. As a result of the breakdown of the authoritarian family and of individual armor, young people were left feeling helpless and disoriented. Having no parental authority to rely on and guide them, they began looking to the authority of outside groups including politicians for answers.
This was accompanied by a change in the function of politics. Instead of representing the needs of responsible people, politicians became the ones who assumed a substitute parental role as leaders for the emotionally immature, irresponsible young people. They told them what they needed to hear and pretended to be their caretakers (“hope and care”). This was the formula for the rise to power of the New Left politicians in the Democratic Party at the time of the beginning of the anti-authoritarian transformation and why the two-party system in government can no longer function.