11-11-2019, 03:40 PM
(11-11-2019, 11:10 AM)Anthony Wrote: "Yes -- we are in a Crisis Era, and even an Obama-style Presidency might be utterly inadequate. We will need major reforms of the political system to prevent another play-for-pay system even more blatant than what Trump has shown us. That is even before I discuss changes in economic norms. "
I have always maintained - and still maintain - that we have been in an unprecedented hybrid Unraveling-Crisis era since 9/11, with the "security state" (remember the good old days when cars were allowed on the Staten Island Ferry, for example?), Trump's Muslim travel ban (and the wave of hate crimes against Muslims), etc., indicative of the Crisis component, and the still-very-much-alive Culture Wars and the likewise still-very-much-alive Cold War Bloody Shirt Syndrome that is preventing us from tackling issues like health care and education, indicative of the Unraveling component.
But this "hybrid era" will not last much longer. Either a stock market crash or the outbreak of the Second Civil War on the heels of the 2020 election will put an end to it.
It will be an economic meltdown. Trump has used a combination of easy money and big government spending to buy political support, and when those come to an end, then down goes the economy. Is he vindictive enough to do that in the event that he sees himself doomed to defeat?
Probably.
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.