10-09-2020, 12:54 PM
(10-09-2020, 04:39 AM)Arkarch Wrote:(10-08-2020, 10:59 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(10-08-2020, 09:59 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(10-08-2020, 09:05 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: And for some reason, Trump has chosen today to attack the Governor of Michigan...
Trump had a falling-out with the Governor of Michigan early in the COVID-19 crisis. At the time Michigan was fourth in deaths among the states. Michigan is now ninth. Michigan got hit early and hard.
So far there is no link between the President and the Wolverine Watchmen, the clique allegedly involved in the conspiracy. The people involved are linked to anti-mask demonstrations, including an armed demonstration in the Michigan state capitol. We must of course recognize the legal principle of the presumption of innocence.
Obviously there is no mainstream support for the alleged plot. This said, President Trump promoted contempt for this Governor, singling her out for disobedience to the wannabe despot.
What is incredible is that the reactionaries like Trump and our own Classic Xer scream and shout about "law and order" and denounce peaceful protesters as rioters, and then condone and promote at least a climate in which this kind of lawless terrorism and attack on our country can occur.
As I expressed in a "Howe and the 1T" forum post, I believe we have just passed the 4T tipping point. What worked for Trump in 2016, maybe even early 2020, will no longer work. I believe we have now toppled every institution we hold dear - to include health, police, post office and the Supreme Court. "Law and Order" strategy is just kicking at ghosts.
Welcome back, Arkarch!
The literal meaning of law and order is that people can feel generally safe from criminal behavior. That old meaning implies that people accept the rule of law as the expected standard of personal conduct. Lawlessness is not liberty. Does anyone want to take a trip to Venezuela, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, or Somalia? Brutal policing is the dog-whistle expression of law-and-order, basically "open season for black and brown people by the police".
Donald Trump has taken the dubious ideal of Homo oeconomicus to its preposterous conclusion, degrading civil institutions or aligning himself with people who do so. He is not alone. There have been politicians and such right-wing shock-jocks as Rush Limbaugh (or as I am tempted to call him, "Rash Libel"). He has degraded institutions and the moral foundation of civil society to the extent that much of the work of the remaining part of the Crisis will be either restitution and reform of existing institutions.
Quote:I believe people are now looking for stability so that new ideas may flourish. If the first debate was any indication, people are turned off by the fighting. Also true in culture - a spoken word poet won AGT. Singers are releasing introspective songs. We'll see where the movies and TV go, but flashy seems out.
It is unlikely that this indicates any awakening... but note that the Millennial Generation may have just fully left childhood. The next generation (I am tempted to call it Homeland) will be marked (as is typical of an Adaptive/Artist generation) by a capacity for self-doubt. I see a divide between 2001 and 2002 cohorts in that the Millennial Generation did not miss out on the rites of passage in pure form that the Homeland generation has often had to put off or modify -- from First Communions to bar mitzvahs, quinceaneras, debutante balls, and senior proms. Hivh-school sports became far more difficult and meaningless. Such will mark and mar them, and their cultural expressions will show this.
Quote:National Polls are rapidly moving - and I believe the election is no longer ideological-driven Many centrist Republicans have joined the Biden side. People are just tired of kicking sand castles.
I see a political realignment en masse underway. The plot against Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D, Michigan) demonstrates how badly things can spiral out of control. We may be heading into a sort of Era of Good Feelings in which people coalesce around some political consensus in which we share a recognition for the need of effective institutions and for social equity as well.
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.