12-15-2016, 12:45 PM
(12-15-2016, 10:17 AM)David Horn Wrote:(12-14-2016, 07:53 PM)Bourbonista Wrote: Hi, new member here, long-time fan of 4T.
Welcome!
Bourbonista Wrote:I think that the Trump election marks the beginning of the Regeneracy. The fact that most of the “establishment” media and political elites missed the strength of support for Trump among rural white voters and especially among educated suburban voters shows that Trump tapped in to a significant consensus among many Americans that the current system is irreparably broken and they are willing to bet on a crude, misogynistic, self-serving dilettante over any career politician, right or left.
But I don’t think Trump is the Grey Champion. He will precipitate the Crisis – trade war with China, Great Depression II, a likely constitutional crisis – but will not get a second term. It may be bad enough that a true Grey Champion, equal to Roosevelt or Lincoln will emerge.
God help us if not.
I agree that Trump can't be the leader we've been looking for. He's an actor taking the biggest stage on earth -- and that's all. His biggest contribution to this cycle may already be in the can: the Russian hacks may have selected a President. FWIW, Hillary wasn't the right person for the job either, just better than this shameless huckster.
I'm less sanguine about the resolution of the crisis. BHO has been a huge disappointment, and now we have The Donald. Unlike the Republicans, who declared total war on Obama, the Dems are trying to play nice. This is likely to be a very one-sided policy. If we swing back to the Dems in 2020, what vision will they offer and how will they deliver? After all, obstruction worked so well for the GOP this past cycle.
Donald Trump does not have majority support, He will only have power in a system that has traditionally stopped any tendencies toward a despotic President. But this time things are different. The President looks to have unqualified support from adequate majorities of both Houses of Congress and many state legislatures. Maybe the Supreme Court will stop the criminalization of dissent, and local police will turn their focus on to people who commit acts of violence and property destruction instead of upon people exercising their First Amendment rights.
Donald Trump can at most bring a false regeneracy, a time in which garish pageantry replaces give-and-take. We have the most one-sided political order that we have had since the Republicans tanked in the early 1930s. Will Donald Trump follow through on his bigotry? We must accept this as a likelihood. Will he become reasonable? Don't bet your life, your liberty, or your material well-being upon it. The United States becomes almost as pure a plutocracy as the Confederate States of America on January 20. Expect Donald Trump to demand great suffering in the name of "Making America Great Again". Great, sure -- only for the Master Class. Expect life to get so miserable in America that there will be about fifty countries that you might prefer living in just for living conditions.
Those of us who oppose him can act upon conscience and reason -- commodities that the President and those around him seem to lack.
Recognize any slight and symbolic concession for what it is -- slight and symbolic. Recognize that a President who was a sociopath before winning office will not suddenly become a saint. Recognize that the government will not help you. Institutions will not help you. People who never bought into the myth of rugged individualism will be stuck with that.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.