US didn't collapse after Vietnam, why would they collapse now. People who are politically powerless hope for catastrophe but the left in most countries no longer have the mass base and political power to do anything when the opportunity presents itself. There is a lot of work to be done.
Yes... Kind of... The fall of the soviet union was less a failure of the soviet system and more a failure of the party. The CPSU was a hollow shell of a revolutionary marxist movement and lost any ability to lead, so when there was a genuine political shock to the system it didnt have the capacity to react. dinklesplein gets a big part of it, the other part was the inability for the party to actually interface and generate a truly democratic polity for the people. So when the citizens of the soviet union were given the offer of the illusion of material abundance vs the moribund stagnation of the CPSU they took it. People will accept less in terms of material gratification if you give them a reason too and a vision to make part of their own to work towards. Democracy isnt just counting ballots dropped through a slot, you can make ballots say anything. Genuine democracy is making sure that the will of the people is reflected in the shape of the polity.
Hence why the current failures of liberal leadership are so important to any organizing effort we make.
yea, the core of it is that the cpsu failed. the stuff i mentioned was simply the symptoms of it.