10-02-2020, 10:58 PM
Well, of course, the fact that former Vice President Biden (a Silent) and his running mate, Kamala Harris (an xer - by Strauss and Howe's definition), are currently favored to win the presidential contest. If you look at Stephen Skowronek's book and theory, "the Politics Presidents Make," the first "wild card" presidency was Andrew Johnson (ie a presidency which was in some sense a zombie form of the past majority order, the zombiefication of the Andrew Jackson Democrats, and occurring after a reconstructive/realigning presidency - Mr. Lincoln), but possibly the second was Carter (occurring after a possible 1968 Republican realignment, crystallizing under Reagan) - and I'm not assigning him a moral judgment (being a liberal, and hopefully others will in a basic and objective sense realize that whatever they thought of his presidency he went on to do some virtuous things). But the third I think is Mr. Trump - and here's hoping for his health and well being, and that of his family - who resurrected the Nixon/Reagan ideology after the Obama realignment. If I had to guess I think it was the fact that in both the case of Carter and Trump it's because Americans are living longer, and therefore political coalitions last longer. Also: I'm tired, and going to bed. Have to get up and work on lines for a tv movie about a millennial nanny trying to seduce me (well, okay, she does), and kidnap my son. Peace and kindess.