Anyone who thinks that the Trump agenda is the wave of the future has a bleak view of America and its people. The question is whether the Trump supporters will entrench power before the People can turn on him.
Should the people associated with Trump entrench themselves as the arbiters of economic, political, and even intellectual 'authority', then America is on the brink of a new era of inequality, hierarchy, and repression. The Great Command will be to suffer for your masters -- but always remember to smile. America will be the sort of country that smart and even entrepreneurial people try to leave if at all possible. Compensation will be so low that being a day laborer in Milan will be better than being an accountant in Milwaukee. But that is an economic nightmare. Bad as poverty is, there can be worse -- like torture chambers and 'disappearances'.
It's hard to predict how long a Crisis Era will last, as they can be relatively short (eight years from the Panic of 1857) or unusually long (think of Russia from the start of World War I to the end of World War II, with several waves of severe events, some nearly inevitable (the Bolshevik Revolution), some chosen by despotic leaders (forced collectivization and the Great Purge) and some chosen by outsiders (the Nazi invasion). Nearly thirty years? Unlikely, but possible with perverse leadership.
The abysmal approval ratings of the President indicate mass discomfort with a dreadful leader who isn't taking us along with him. Let's put it this way -- I prefer political leaders who read the speeches of people well regarded after their wars instead of the speeches of some loser who blows his brains out in a fetid bunker as the world closes in on him.
Should the people associated with Trump entrench themselves as the arbiters of economic, political, and even intellectual 'authority', then America is on the brink of a new era of inequality, hierarchy, and repression. The Great Command will be to suffer for your masters -- but always remember to smile. America will be the sort of country that smart and even entrepreneurial people try to leave if at all possible. Compensation will be so low that being a day laborer in Milan will be better than being an accountant in Milwaukee. But that is an economic nightmare. Bad as poverty is, there can be worse -- like torture chambers and 'disappearances'.
It's hard to predict how long a Crisis Era will last, as they can be relatively short (eight years from the Panic of 1857) or unusually long (think of Russia from the start of World War I to the end of World War II, with several waves of severe events, some nearly inevitable (the Bolshevik Revolution), some chosen by despotic leaders (forced collectivization and the Great Purge) and some chosen by outsiders (the Nazi invasion). Nearly thirty years? Unlikely, but possible with perverse leadership.
The abysmal approval ratings of the President indicate mass discomfort with a dreadful leader who isn't taking us along with him. Let's put it this way -- I prefer political leaders who read the speeches of people well regarded after their wars instead of the speeches of some loser who blows his brains out in a fetid bunker as the world closes in on him.
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.