02-08-2020, 12:55 PM
(02-08-2020, 02:27 AM)Snowflake1996 Wrote: The realignment of American politics in 2016-2020 indicates a very strong shift from 3T individualism to 4T collective action against our problems. Trump’s takeover of the GOP shifted the Party to a more collectivist way of thinking compared to Bush and Reagan (clearly defining enemies in the form of the immigrants, foreign trade competition, etc) and the possible takeover of the Democratic Party by Bernie Sanders is definitely a bigger collective shift for liberals.
The transition has taken longer than many might have expected -- perhaps because the extreme individualists (as opposed to promoters of individuality) still had the power to buy the political process. Some elites still hold onto the ethos of the slave-master -- that no human suffering can ever be too great so long as it facilitates the power, indulgence, and gain of the elites. Such people bankrolled Tea Party politics, got the support of "thinkers" such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, and created a climate in which Donald Trump could win just about as few votes as possible to win the Electoral College. Donald Trump (see also the now-dying Rush Limbaugh) is the definitive expression of such an ethos.
Even if the economy is not in a tailspin and there is no military debacle, Trump was doing badly in polls despite operating in campaign mode even after being elected. We have yet to see what the post-Trump coalition will be. Trump has likely alienated one once-reliable constituency for the Republican Party: the ones who have national security above all else. He has no reasonable way of winning America's "model minorities" who hold Trump's strident anti-intellectualism in contempt. He has been careful to avoid making promises to Corporate America to eviscerate unions... that would go over well with moneyed elites but they are far from the majority of Americans. Trump would be facing strikes on a large scale.
The generational theory explains a big difference between young X and Millennial adults and politics. Generation X was willing to take real hardships in return for promises of plenty in twenty years or so. They took long to realize that poverty for the creation of elite plenty as the measure of prosperity meant little more than their own poverty -- and for their kids. The Millennial Generation has had things rough by the standard of Boom and late-Silent kids ... and knows it. As a Boomer I was able to talk to GI adults about their childhood; unless born to privilege they had hardscrabble lives by standards of my childhood. The Civic childhood may have the blessing of structure and sanity, but nobody says that a Civic childhood is typically one of economic security.
Quote:If Sanders becomes the nominee he will cement his views onto the Party. If he’s elected then expect him to be the gray champion given his robust support among civic millennials.
I expect a Crisis solution to labor-management strife will be to make the organization of labor unions easy and that union contracts will achieve labor peace in return for fair pay that makes the American dream possible for those who do the real work. Cities once ravaged in de-industrialization (Detroit, Dayton, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Hartford) will need revitalization so that this country is not rich at its coasts (with fiendish housing costs and long commutes) and destitute in most other places. Good luck on implementing a practical solution that is both effective and just.
This Crisis most likely will burn through alternatives such as "try to make amends with George III", "give slavery a chance to be part of a modern America", or "appease Hitler and hope for the best". Sometimes it takes a Trump to offer one failure after another until what remains is something that fully rejects his nonsense.
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.