11-13-2022, 02:04 AM
(11-13-2022, 01:13 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: The big change that America needs is one of culture. We are best off with one that is rational yet adequately permissive, and tolerant of benign and unavoidable differences. Crisis eras redefine the material and intellectual world.
Neoliberal economics were good for stopping inflation (if at great cost to younger workers who needed opportunity and adequate pay if they were to fulfill even the desire for starting families and were denied that). They were pushed to their limit in staleness, effectiveness, and harm.
I look at the Siena poll of historians, and I notice that two Presidents have slipped greatly from once-high perches. Andrew Johnson was a political hero until Americans started judging the removal of First Peoples in part to allow the expansion of chattel slavery. (America would pay a high price for that in the Civil War). Reagan has also slipped some. Jackson has lost standing in recent years, and the assessment of Reagan is theoretically reversible. Taking Reagan's ideology to the logical conclusion leads to Donald Trump.
Here's one of the paradoxes: Trump is a lousy President for his gross immorality (including cruelty, which is one of the worst expressions of immorality), a paucity of lasting achievements, debasement of political discourse, and his tendencies toward despotism. He demanded unqualified loyalty from Republicans even to the extent of endorsing the Capitol Putsch soon after it was over as a test of loyalty. He tried to rule as a dictator, and the Constitution got in the way. The President may have great powers in the event of a major war, and economic calamity, or a natural disaster to the extent that Congress authorizes such power.
Had Trump won a smashing electoral victory in 2020, getting re-elected with firm majorities of lackeys in both Houses of Congress, then he might be #1 because dissent would be driven underground and flooded with macabre cynicism. Everyone would be obliged to praise His Undeniable Greatness if they want to keep teaching, preaching, or doing journalism. Maybe Democrats would be old-whale figures in giant cities (think of "Red Budapest" in Horthy's Hungary), but outside of such sanctuaries for liberals, getting along in life would depend on holding the sort of values consistent with the GOP/MAGA/John Birch Society. Kiss up, and always be thankful that no matter how harsh reality is, it at least isn't as bad for one as someone who grumbled or even failed to show a big-enough smile. Even the mass culture would be corrupted, as movies, TV shows, and pop tunes espousing Trump-era values would get advantages over others. Want to attend a public college if one doesn't have a million dollars for attending a private one that still exercises academic freedom*. Then make sure as a high-school student to praise Trump and unbridled plutocracy in high-school essays -- and be sure to join the politicized youth movement, the Trump equivalent of Soviet Pioneers or Mussolini's Balilla (I could name another, the female equivalent being the Bund deutscher Madel), instead of the Catholic Youth League, Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, 4H, Y's, Future Farmers of America, Junior Achievement, Campfire Girls, or Boys' Clubs -- unless those are taken over and corrupted.
Trump, MAGA, and Q-Anon have failed to win enough to stop the slow erosion of support that is now sure to make the current Hard Right increasingly weak in electoral contests. Young adults are the future in American politics, as Boomers are going to lose their constituencies unless they can make solid appeals outside their generation. Millennial adults will increasingly find themselves in high public office and will be able to reshape the debate into one consistent with Millennial rationality and insistence upon equity. Conspiracy theories are not their style. Other generations have had a difficult time in fending of the garbage appeals of the Hard Right.
The 1T is nigh, and it seems much closer now than it did even a week ago. Just look at 1T values that form in a 4T and supplant those of a 3T because the hard struggles wring out failed ideas and practices. The late 1940's looked little like the Roaring Twenties even if multitudes of the had participated exuberantly in that giddy time. Bathtub gin or GI Bill? Slum housing or Suburbia? Burlesque halls or sanitized entertainment? Labor unions that give workers a stake in the economic order or being at the mercy of a boss who could always demand unpaid overtime if there were a large order to complete? A world in which one nearly had to be a WASP to get ahead in life or one in which anyone white had a chance (rights for blacks did improve in the 1T outside the South, but at a glacial pace).
I can't imagine a huge technological revolution, and I can't imagine huge new rings of suburbs in which blue-collar workers get to live up to middle-class standards. I can't see an equivalent of Interstate Highways or television reshaping American life this time. I can see MAGA stuff becoming objects of ridicule instead of fearful reverence.
*From what I hear one country offers an outlet: Finland, which welcomes foreigners who can learn one of the most difficult languages in a Latin script. You will effectively become a Finn, which is part of the idea. Finland has "Russian winters".
So we may be at the point where the 3T values are starting to be rejected more, but I am not confident the new 1T values have been established yet. What even are the new values? Unions appear to be finally coming back but we have a long ways to go.