The Partisan Divide on Issues

[David Horn]

(04-07-2020, 01:49 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(04-07-2020, 01:27 PM)David Horn Wrote: Isn't it ironic, that the two advanced nations with the worst records on preparedness (for anything) are Reagan's US and Thatcher's UK.  Letting the greed heads run wild may have produced some small benefit to society, but the cost is proving  unacceptably high.  The anti-taxers created the perfect storm, and COVID-19 is riding that storm, until the storm gets tamed.  Any bets on how much of the Reagan/Thatcher meme will survive?

Quite a bit, unfortunately.  Think Jim Crow after slavery.  Think the robber barons of the gilded age after the autocratic slave owners.  Elitism, racism, division of wealth, and tribal thinking are insidiously deep in the culture.  With luck we might get another progressive period, but another conservative time is apt to rise come the unraveling.

Alas, not my problem.

The one difference this time is the cost of keeping the old faith: the true believers are playing with their own lives. Of course, some will and they may get away with it -- or not. Not surprising, it's the GOP plan for the elections in the fall: deny absentee/vote-by-mail, scare the sane into staying home to avoid sickness, and count on the Trump faithful to march to the polls regardless. Trump has even admitted it. The follow-on question: how many of his supporters do get sick and how many die.

It's a miserable way to win an argument, if it goes that way. On the other hand, Trump and his GOP may live to rule until 2024. God only knows what that will look like.