Goodbye, "3 1/2 T"

[David Horn]

(08-05-2020, 08:03 AM)sbarrera Wrote:

(08-05-2020, 03:16 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Much of the economy seems dedicated to the devouring of middle-class assets. Corporate farms are squeezing out family farms. Advanced college education becomes necessary for the professions that still pay-- and it becomes increasingly expensive. If you remember the bumper-sticker that read "We're spending our grandchildren's inheritance" -- nursing homes now do that. Life is getting drearier and grimmer... and the delights are more exploitative and ephemeral. That cannot last.   

Trump is of course horrible, the sort of leader that one gets if a country has scorpions in its souls. I have said enough about him. I hope to see our society promoting more rationality and equality of results, an anathema to Donald Trump and the Tea Party types who presaged him. 

COVID-19 will leave us with a changed culture. Too many people have died for any other consequence to be possible.

I agree, but how do we change if we just teeter between the resentment politics of the Trump Republicans and the neoliberal world order of the establishment Democrats? Those are the two options our political system has offered up. But as you say, COVID-19 will force our hand. It's already forcing us to establish a paltry version of UBI in the form of extended benefits and relief money.

Time should name the coronavirus its person of the year.   

(I assume they'll actually pick healthcare workers or essential workers as a group).

It's noteworthy that the New Democrats are backing Joe Biden, even though he's definitely not their cup of tea.  They know that four more years on Trump and the GOP running the show in the Senate, will be nearly impossible to reverse.  In that, I have some faith.  Politics is the game of the possible, and the New Democrats are acknowledging that.  Good for them.  Now, when it's their turn, they will expect reciprocity.  I know I would.  Will the neoliberals accept the end of their dominance? TBD!