I am tempted to believe that we Americans do not solve our big problems until those problems are over us as if we felt a bear stressing our body with its weight and we start to feel the hot, bad breath from its mouth. That means, most likely, either
(1) domestic strife, including secession
(2) a war going catastrophically badly
(3) a severely-mishandled natural disaster that top leadership bungles badly
(4) a diplomatic calamity (Russia demands Alaska -- or else; China transforms Thailand or the Philippines into puppet states)
(5) a military coup
(6) an economic meltdown analogous in severity and duration of the 1929-1932 meltdown
Any one of these could transform the public consensus rapidly and set up a regeneracy that starts changing America in a positive direction in January 2021, even if it is in a conservative direction. The Regeneracy of this Crisis could be one in which people recognize a duty to create wealth even ifm uch of the creation of wealth is unpaid overtime, if elites get to accumulate job-creating wealth faster because they are exempted from taxes while the common man pays brutal taxes, if welfare and wage-hour laws are abolished, and labor unions are abolished so that Americans get economic security in return for a much0-reduced standard and quality of life. I don;t suggest that as the solution, but we might be that desperate. That's how Crises go.*
Any one of these could show that the leadership elite of the time has no clue. My record is clear on these Forums: Donald Trump is extremely incompetent as President and he has plenty of yes-men as backers who can solve nothing. He reminds me of the parental style of an authoritarian brute who uses frequent corporal punishment on children and then wonders why the kids have become disrespectful and rebellious.
I have yet to see President Trump get anything right. That is not so far a question of the objectionable quality of his agenda; he has done little but vilify his predecessor and his opponents. I may have disliked Ronald Reagan, but at the least he got some things done. Maybe those weren't what I wanted, but he was effective.
But what can one expect of a Presidential nominee who showed admiration of murderous, corrupt tyrants and not of the usual conservative heroes like Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher? Donald Trump is a political degeneracy in himself.
*I think it more likely that America undergoes a transition to an acceptance of cradle-to-grave economic security in return for a duty to work. In other words, if you are an unemployed engineer and there are crops to pick, then you will pick the crops so long as you can get to the harvest. But we will work fewer hours because our productivity is far higher than it used to be.
(1) domestic strife, including secession
(2) a war going catastrophically badly
(3) a severely-mishandled natural disaster that top leadership bungles badly
(4) a diplomatic calamity (Russia demands Alaska -- or else; China transforms Thailand or the Philippines into puppet states)
(5) a military coup
(6) an economic meltdown analogous in severity and duration of the 1929-1932 meltdown
Any one of these could transform the public consensus rapidly and set up a regeneracy that starts changing America in a positive direction in January 2021, even if it is in a conservative direction. The Regeneracy of this Crisis could be one in which people recognize a duty to create wealth even ifm uch of the creation of wealth is unpaid overtime, if elites get to accumulate job-creating wealth faster because they are exempted from taxes while the common man pays brutal taxes, if welfare and wage-hour laws are abolished, and labor unions are abolished so that Americans get economic security in return for a much0-reduced standard and quality of life. I don;t suggest that as the solution, but we might be that desperate. That's how Crises go.*
Any one of these could show that the leadership elite of the time has no clue. My record is clear on these Forums: Donald Trump is extremely incompetent as President and he has plenty of yes-men as backers who can solve nothing. He reminds me of the parental style of an authoritarian brute who uses frequent corporal punishment on children and then wonders why the kids have become disrespectful and rebellious.
I have yet to see President Trump get anything right. That is not so far a question of the objectionable quality of his agenda; he has done little but vilify his predecessor and his opponents. I may have disliked Ronald Reagan, but at the least he got some things done. Maybe those weren't what I wanted, but he was effective.
But what can one expect of a Presidential nominee who showed admiration of murderous, corrupt tyrants and not of the usual conservative heroes like Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher? Donald Trump is a political degeneracy in himself.
*I think it more likely that America undergoes a transition to an acceptance of cradle-to-grave economic security in return for a duty to work. In other words, if you are an unemployed engineer and there are crops to pick, then you will pick the crops so long as you can get to the harvest. But we will work fewer hours because our productivity is far higher than it used to be.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.