Why do American "anti elite" types think the Kremlin is OK?

[Bob Butler 54]

(10-24-2016, 05:18 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(08-26-2016, 06:40 PM)Galen Wrote:

(08-26-2016, 07:53 AM)Anthony Wrote: Therefore, unless Boomers bungle badly, both Moscow and Beijing are natural allies of our "crusade" - or at the absolute least can be persuaded to remain neutral, which would be more than enough for "us" to win.

Given their past history I think we can count on them fucking up very badly.

Galen considers "The Boomers" to be a political party. Granted that the majority of older white Boomer men have forgotten their roots, and have fallen blindly in behind folks like Galen and his misguided ideas.

I don't know that 'forgotten their roots' is fair.  The heart of any awakening lasts only a few years.  Review the history of the Great Awakening and Second Great Awakening.  The evangelical fervor, music and camp revivals lasted only a few years, then faded or moved to another area of the country.  This matches the emotional, musical, political and cultural peaks of the Summer of Love through 1968.  You just can't sustain that sort of intensity in a mass movement.  Granted, putting on one's bell bottoms and trekking to San Francisco for the summer was a much greater commitment and experience than wearing an 'I'm with Hillary' button.  I know I'm with Hillary, but it would be silly and counter productive to sew up some bell bottoms and tuck a flower in my hair.

Then there is the National Malaise.  When America was Great, when our Greatest Generation was flourishing, we were always ready to commit tons of energy to solving the next problem.  There was a firm national belief that no matter the challenge, we were up to it.  We could contain communism, push gender and civil rights, and clean up the environment while flying to the moon.  The Greatest Generation's tremendous energy and resolve has since been scorned as 'tax and spend liberalism'.  This scorn might not be entirely misplaced.  We really didn't have the economic and cultural strength to keep bearing burdens and paying prices forever.  The Malaise of the Carter years followed by the downsizing of government during the Reagan Bush Bush years was a reasonable reaction to the hubris and over extension of the Missionary / GI fervor.  Eternal energy and optimism was hard when Watergate, the fall of Saigon, the oil crisis and hostage crisis were falling on each other's heels.  The belief that we could solve any and all problems all at once became obviously no longer true.

There is a happy medium somewhere between all out LBJ tax and spend and Trumped Up Trickle Down.  I note the Democrats aren't recycling their glory days, talking about a New New Deal or reminding people that the days America was Great was the days of Tax and Spend Liberalism.  They are pushing for a return to the government helping the people achieve worthy goals, but they aren't going to ask folk to bear any burden or pay any price.  They'll be nudging the throttle forward in moderation.  We might celebrate and wish for a return to a time when America was Great, but we aren't as a people great enough to be great.  Given a choice between greatness and a tax cut, too many of us would chose the tax cut plus an (expletive deleted) bald faced lie that greatness comes through tax cuts.

Nudging the throttle forward would be a good thing.  Energy is no longer cheap.  There are too many people in a world growing warmer.  A blind cockeyed optimism that we can do whatever we feel like doing would be misplaced.

At the same time, problems can't be left unsolved forever.  Hillary's policies are a step in the right direction, but the throttle needs to be pushed somewhat more.