09-10-2018, 07:48 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-10-2018, 07:54 PM by Eric the Green.)
(09-08-2018, 02:35 PM)sbarrera Wrote: I don't what could be done to bring manufacturing jobs back for the less-educated worker; as the world economy has continued to evolve, it is the kind of work best done by robots and best situated in places where low-skilled labor is cheap. I think a large part of the backlash (as I put it) that brought Trump to power is resentment of this fact - but what solution is there? Economic nationalism as Steve Bannon put it (whatever happened to him?) can't resurrect an outdated mode of economics and I doubt it can stop capital from flowing to where it gets the best returns.
I think progressive policies - redistributing wealth through taxation, single-payer healthcare, raising minimum wages - are what is best for the working class. But Trumpistas have made it clear their priority is border security and ethnic cleansing.
I think our extreme polarization definitely comes from the Idealist Boomer generation, who still are more than half of congressional leadership, and it will start to simmer down once the Boomers are in the minority. And I would say that Obama is definitely a Gen-Xer - he was pragmatic and cautious in his Presidency, at a time when other qualities might have served better.
As far as polarization is concerned, Generation X has merely intensified the Boomer fires. You could certainly see that in this forum and its older version over the years. Xers here were the most polarizing and the most difficult to dialogue with. Of course there were exceptions, but the Boomers by contrast were measured and reasonable. And if you look at congress, the Freedom caucus is now majority Xer, although with still a strong Boomer contingent. I looked at its members and their birthdays and posted the results here already. There are more core Xer voters than core Boomers now, but the polarization keeps getting stronger.
As for Obama, only a cusper prophet/nomad could combine his long-viewed perspective with pragmatic approaches, and remember the other celebrated gray champions, Lincoln and FDR, were hybrid and cusper respectively, so Obama could have been one too if he had the right stuff. And another one might still come along.
Maybe, just maybe, the leaders of the Parkland school gun control movement, late-wave latter-day JFK-type cohort millennials, can show a combination of dedication and strong determination and the potential of charismatic leadership, yet with the ability not to get too hooked into partisanship. Millennials will be the largest voting bloc generation from now on, so it's in their hands now, as their best-spoken leader I have seen so far, Matt Post, confidently says.
