America is a sick society

[Eric the Green]

(08-01-2017, 09:10 AM)David Horn Wrote: The degree of indoctrination, for lack of a better word, has been fine tuned this time -- much more so than the period leading up to the GD.  There are simply no strong countervailing institutions supported by the middle and lower middle classes similar to trade and industrial unions or even fraternal organizations.  The elites learned their lesson: kill the institutions first, and replace them with institutions favorable to the elite.  Fox News is a prime example.

That's a good point. There are corners where the left messages get out, but they may not be venues frequented by middle and lower classes; such as late night comics, PBS and Meet the Press, the internet roots, etc. But the people in flyover country have had countervailing institutions rubbed out, and the main one left is the authoritarian church.

David Horn Wrote:I agree that Bernie had little chance of winning, though beating Trump might have actually occurred.  Assuming he would have lost, he would have represented the Barry Goldwater of the left.  Goldwater lead to Reagan, and might have sooner if Nixon hadn't bungled things by being, well, Nixon.

McGovern was already the Goldwater of the left. The hope for a Reagan of the left did not materialize. Oh well.

David Horn Wrote:Since we can agree that it isn't viable long term, then it gets resolved later.  The longer it takes to rise to the level that triggers a massive response, the greater that response will be. I'm not sure capitalism as currently understood can survive that.

I don't see that the USA can survive as a leading democratic country and economy if another entire saeculum must take place before it changes course. The forces of decline will prevail in that case. The momentum will not be stoppable. The backlash will have been robbed of any awareness or power to stop it, and the result of the overextension will be collapse pure and simple, augmented by climate collapse on a massive scale. A large middle class is usually necessary for a revolution to be successful, unless it's a temporary one soon taken over again by the new boss, same as the old boss.