ABSTRACT
In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the ghost continued, the main reactionary classes in the United States are the 'petit-bourgeoisie', or small business classes, especially in the South and rural and small town America. They face extinction as large corporations, whether Walmart or big corporate agri-business, take over their markets and communities. The lower middle classes, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight to save from extinction their existence. They are therefore not revolutionary but conservative. The ghost was showing again how up-to-date he was on US politics. "Small business and small town groups certainly seem to be at the heart of the Tea Party and the other right wing populist movements today". Along with some small farmers and other rural and small town businesses threatened by big corporate agri-business, they dominate the politics of conservative rural and prairie states where extreme conservatives flourish.
