2021: generational tipping point

[Eric the Green]

(01-29-2021, 01:50 PM)mamabug Wrote:

(01-28-2021, 03:47 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: And now the Democrats are busy running away from OWS while the Republicans are busy pretending they weren't taken over by the Tea Party.

You could make a credible argument that Trump was the backlash to the establishment Republicans marginalizing the Tea Party after their first round of election victories.  

For the last four years, the democrats were able to keep their populist elements in the fold by uniting against Trump (divide and conquer is always an effective strategy for the rulers to control the ruled) but it is bound to start fracturing badly if they don't address it.   I am not seeing anything to suggest they are - witness the semi-hilarious 'Game Stop Rebellion' and the less hilarious reaction to it.  The establishment DNC is working overtime to divide and conquer by portraying this as a bunch of Racist Trumptards who are persecuting the poor, white, male, ivy-league educated, hedge fund managers but I don't think it is playing well.  When you have AOC, the Young Turks, and Ted Cruz all on the side of the Redditors and the administration unable to comment on it beyond pointing to diversity, something is breaking.

Sometimes the reaction to a thing is more important than the thing itself.  I felt that way about the Capitol Breach and the same about WSB - both are signs that the general sentiment that institutions are failing those not part of the upper classes is still predominant on the left and the right.  We live in the heart of antifa country and my husband drives around downtown for work.  All the graffiti on the plywood covering store windows is now reading F*** Biden!   

I'm beginning to think Trump was the distraction from the true battle to come.

Interesting post to reply to, as usual

You may be right about the battle to come. But will this battle shape history? I doubt it. A right-wing rebellion like the one on Jan.6, even more organized and enduring, will be crushed. It will not occur unless the Democrats are in power, but it will be crushed if they are.

A left-wing rebellion consists of angry young people who can do little more than break windows, set tires on fire or paint graffiti. It would have no chance regardless of which Party is in power. But it could join some battles against white supremacy conspiracy theorists like those who invaded the Capitol. But, that will be the distraction.

The word "populist" has been horrible abused and deformed by the media and pundits. It means power to the people. But those whom are called populist today want power taken away from the people.

Trumpists are indeed largely former Tea Partiers, who in turn were mostly supporters of George W Bush, who were in turn mostly supporters of the Contract With America, who in turn were mostly supporters of Reagan and Bush and the moral majority and tax revolt, who in turn were mostly former supporters of Wallace and the Nixon southern strategy, who in turn were mostly supporters of Barry Goldwater, who in turn were mostly supporters of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who in turn were mostly opponents of FDR and Truman, who in turn were mostly supporters of Harding and Coolidge, etc.

The gamestoppers are of as little consequence politically as other online cults that millennials and younger Xers have mentioned here from time to time. Real politics is still where the rubber meets the road. The gamestoppers are not a political group. I have no idea what WSB means. 

But right now, Biden is doing as much as anyone could do to address the real needs of those not part of the upper classes. His Party is doing the same, and will be united enough to help Biden get some of what he wants. The only fault of any failure will lie with the resistance put up by the Republican opposition, just has been the case for 40 years now. Those on the right, to a person, support the upper classes and oppose the interests of everyone else. That fact is not changed by the fact that Trump was able to deceive many of them that he, an upperclass conman, was on their side.