07-28-2016, 09:23 AM
(07-26-2016, 03:31 AM)Galen Wrote: ... If Trump turns out to be Jacksonian or Jeffersonian in his outlook then he would be a massive improvement over every President for the last century. To the average person Trump is simply a big middle finger to the political establishment of both the left and the right which is one reason I think his odds of winning are actually pretty good.
The left believes that they have every thing in the bag and can impose their will any time they like. This is when movements end in history and a fourth turning is about the right time for something like that to happen. History is never linear at a fourth turning and America has been living with the assumptions of progressive ideology for a century now. It is clear that the technological and societal reasons for their rather mechanistic outlook are starting to pass it seems reasonable to expect that particular ideology will die with them. While the left will never admit it it appears that at a subconscious level they know their time is ending and accounts for a great deal of their hostility.
The pattern is obvious if you know what to look for.
The problem with Trump is the problem with political discourse these days. We've pushed everything forward to the point that no one even considers the possibity that reflection on an issue may be good idea. It's all venal now. So you have Trump, with his sales background and sociopathic demeanor, essentially serving up raw meat to the masses with no regard to the result ... except for him personally, 0f course. Uou have a demagogue and one that's probably a sociopath, and he's popular.
It goes without saying that the Fascists used similar techniques and got similar results. That he is not a Fascist is totally beside the point. He is a narcissist, and he has a huge power jones. That's enough to make hime incredibily dangerous. More to the point, counter tactics need to be counter intuitive. Using facts to dismantle his arguments, if you can actually call them arguments, reinforces them. You have to crank up the emotional appeal ... just like he's been doing since the beginning.
Frankly, I don't see Hillary pulling that together, and proxies may not be enough to cover for her. So yes, Trump has a real shot.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.