Are Some Haters Of Government Sensing The Looming Regeneracy?

[Bob Butler 54]

(03-17-2017, 02:15 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(03-16-2017, 11:44 PM)TKinser79 Wrote: If I may interject here in your lamenting.  Perhaps a fresh perspective is necessary, and I'm the guy to provide it.

(03-16-2017, 10:44 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:  I look at the ‘make America great again’ slogan, and note that the time of America’s greatness was the peak of the New Deal and Borrow and Spend liberalism.

Actually no.  While I have no personal experience with the Great Depression I garuntee you that it was not the peak of American Greatness.  As for the Borrow and Spend Liberalism of the Regan/Bush I and Bush II eras were not the peak of American greatness either.

I think he was referring to the post Depression/World War II era (FDR to Carter). Tax and Spend Liberalism that I think he was actually referring to ended with Reagan. I guess the government could no longer afford to absorb the losses that were carried forward from the Vietnam and Korean Wars, the losses associated with the the recession that followed Vietnam, all the costs associated with establishing and maintaining our new position as a world leader and the costs associated with all the new social programs that were added by LBJ's Great Society.

Correct.  I associate the end of our period of optimism, energy and problem solving with Carter's National Malaise, with the Fall of Saigon, Watergate, the oil crisis and hostage crisis.  We had tried to do too much for too long, and wore out even the GIs.  Reagan's borrow and spend trickle down and 'the government is not the answer, the government is the problem' meme replaced the energetic problem solving approach with the tax cut and stop solving domestic problems approach that Trump is still pushing.

It was bound to happen.  The GI's were excessively energetic, attacked problems aggressively, were willing to accept heavy taxation to get a lot of stuff done.  It was time for an unravelling, a time when the willingness to sacrifice for the common good was going to be replaced by selfishness.  The GIs were the Greatest Generation, and the younger generations just plain haven't begun to match their pace and energy.  The Boomers started out with some of the crazy energy of that time, but lost it with Watergate and the rest of the National Malaise.

But the grand funk has got to end someday.  I can sympathize with the notion of lit fuses, crises and the need for a regeneracy.

I do have problems with the attitude of needing to break eggs to achieve greatness.  They aren't eggs.  They're people.  Since Reagan and the Malaise the notion of helping people is exceedingly out of fashion.  Still, among the conservatives, the spirit of the time seems to echo the 'Whack a Mole' game.  If you see an egg, smash it.  Health care is one place where the unravelling attitude surfaces.  Make things great for the healthy and wealthy and the heck with the poor and the sick.  It's the Reagan pattern of cutting taxes and domestic services continued.

Come the crisis, it's time to come together and sacrifice for the common good.  Those in privileged positions generally don't do so good when the crisis comes to a head.  Yes, it's time for a regeneracy.  Regeneracies generally aren't famous for selfishness and upholding privilege.