Let's make fun of Trump, bash him, etc. while we can!

[Bob Butler 54]

(08-02-2016, 02:00 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: And Lincoln still had to press hard to get slavery outlawed. The battle is joined till the end.

Back in Britain prior to immigration to the New World and in America with the Revolution and Civil War, the battle was indeed joined.  In the old times, crisis spirals of violence generally escalated into all out military conflict.  As democracy became more established, more crises were handled short of violence.  The Great Depression and Martin Luther King's non-4T push didn't go full military.

Today, I've been mentioning three issues, but would be open to considering more...  We have economic inequality, racial inequality in the justice system and global warming.  Of the three, only racial inequality's spiral of rhetoric and violence seems to be escalating into violence thus far, and it is no where near the military conflict level.

In Europe, Queen Victoria and Bismarck were also able to defuse incipient economic crises well short of crisis scale violence.  I'd note that neither Queen Victoria and Bismarck are generally thought of as progressive advocates for the common man, but they could see a potential threat to the ruling class and give enough ground to avert it.

As Kinser seems fixed to the idea that crises involve destroying the privileged elite class, you seem attached to the notion of all out confrontation to the point of destruction.  In some crises, yes, both things can happen.  The further back in time you go, the more likely you are to see them.  As democracy takes better hold, it is less certain they will happen, more possible that the problems will be solved without taking things over the edge.

I'm not Victoria, Bismarck or FDR, but I like the way they got things done.  If an economic and class problem can be solved as they did, let's do it.  The French and Russian revolutions got things done too, but things got ugly.  The sort of folks that are good at organizing mob violence don't necessarily have the right skill set for running a government that is beneficial to the People.  They are more obsessed with protecting themselves from mob violence than helping the People they are ruling.  The People are in their eyes potential enemies, a risk to their hold on power, not the ones they are there to serve.  

I'd prefer to go the Victoria / Bismarck / FDR route, though, yes, FDR went full military with Hitler.  Don't see that there was a choice with Hitler.

Thus, I'd as son invite lots of people to the table and listen.  I know this is hard on you, but we need John Adams types too.  I'll tell you what.  I'll put some really tough glass in the windows of my table room.  You can stand outside the room and throw rocks if you like.  Might provide some possible incentive.