In another discussion on this site, someone called Tom wrote this to me:
"You have spoken like a true Libertarian or conservative.. Your sane selfishness is at the root of our sick society and its problems. Individualism to the extreme is also at the root of our problems."
Then he blocked me so that I was not able to reply.

I think a lot of people confound selfishness with self-interest. I hate selfishness, but I'm a fervent advocate of self-interest, enlightened self-interest, that is.
You have to be rich and powerful to be a libertarian, but in any given society there are only a few rich and powerful people. Those who are not have to practice solidarity, which means: it is in their enlightened self-interest to unite, to organize and to challenge and confront those in power.
And it is the self-interest of the powerful to prevent this.

I love unions. When Tom wrote "Individualism to the extreme is also at the root of our problems", he has a point, because one weakness of the (socio-economic) weak in America has always been that they do not consider themselves weak, but as hard-working citizens on their way to become millionaires. One negative side-effect of the American dream, of this enticing story of rags-to-riches is that the lower ranks of society never really developed something like class consciousness. If you're on your way to become rich, why unite with those weak and poor guys around you? You would leave them behind sooner or later anyway.

As a distant observer from "old Europe" I think there are three main culprits of the dire situation in the USA.
First the conservatives who befuddled the minds of the working class with cultural nonsense stuff like anti-abortion and guns, luring them away from their true interest (good wages, affordable heath-care, affordable rents etc...) -
Second the Democrats who in the name of a mirage called "knowledge society" betrayed the working class and turnd to the professional class (my hero Thomas Frank has described this in his books).
And third (and maybe foremost!) the working class itself because it allowed all this to happen. They are and always have been the vast majority in industrialized countries, they could have given the conservatives the cold shoulder, because the GOP has never ever done anything for the lower 90 per cent of society (except certain "values" and other cultural stuff), and they could have forced the Dems to be and remain the party of the working majority. If - yes, if only! - they had acted according to their own self-interest.

Now I think it is too late. The rich and powerful hold all the strings, they have not only consolidated their power but also rigged the whole system in a way that real countervailing power is no longer possible. The working class is mired in a stupid tribal culture war, with poor Rednecks adoring a con man like Trump, and the progressive Left interested in little more than race & gender issues (which is nothing but a side show, a little battle they might be able to win after they have lost the war).