02-01-2021, 12:19 PM
(02-01-2021, 11:41 AM)David Horn Wrote: To be honest, I'm not sure that's true. You live in the solid Blue Seattle area. I live in solid Red country, where the Trump signs and flags are still up and show no sign of coming down. The hold by the rightwing media on the people here keeps that fire stoked and hot. I don't see it declining soon.
I'm going by sociological studies that indicate hard right is roughly 6% of the population. For what it's worth, hard left is around 8%. True, though, that they may not be distributed evenly geographically.
Quote:Really? We are the most conservative advanced world nation on earth -- even to the right of Australia. There is no chance of sliding anywhere close to a leftwing revolution, though the potential for a rightwing attempt is omnipresent. Just ask Classic-Xer. If anything, we may finally join the rest of the advanced world with universal healthcare and real social security, birth to grave. It's not an accident that the most entrepreneurial nations on earth are Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands -- all social democracies. The downside risk of business failure is mitigated, encouraging people to take those business risks. In comparison, we're relatively stagnant.
'Runaway train' revolutions happen when a society gets stuck in a positive feedback loop. That happens all to easily within groups when anything that might provoke critical thinking of the groups values and ideology are silenced. For the record, I see this happening on both sides at the moment. What is critical in a functioning society is for their to be a sizeable, protected minority 'voice' that forces the majority to think critically about it's proposed policies. In a 1T and 2T that minority is one that pulls us towards needed change, in a 3T or 4T it is more conservative and keeps us from careening off a cliff.
The generic left-wing ideas that have been floating around since the 60's don't worry me all that much. I think there is room to agree on objectives and quibble over the best way to get there. There are some truly scary and illiberal ideas coming from the further left that haven't been shut down by the DNC and which are actively promoted by some of its younger members which concerns me. It is worth remembering that the truly scary 'populists' are cynical politicians positioning themselves as being on the side of change.
Quote:The Golden Rule applies here. Listen to RW talk radio, ignore the talking heads, and concentrate on the politicians being interviewed. The venom is everywhere. If you want comity, you have to give as well as receive. Right now, the Dems are reacting to the backstabbing they received under Obama and the excesses under Trump. If the Reps want common ground, they need to go first.
I'd be interested to know how dems feel Obama backstabbed them, that isn't a story I hear much.
Typically, it is the winner who needs to make the first move towards comity, as they are the only ones with the power to realize it. I'm still withholding judgement on whether the unity being preached will actually move the needle towards real consensus. Politics is downstream of culture so, in a way, it doesn't matter what the GOP politicians are saying as much as it matters what those who might vote for them are thinking.