01-02-2017, 03:03 PM
(12-31-2016, 09:33 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(12-29-2016, 12:21 PM)The Wonkette Wrote:(12-29-2016, 08:04 AM)Odin Wrote:There is a contingent that believes that the 4T began on 9/11. I don't know if Classic X is part of that group. Just pointing out that it has not been established when the 4T began.(12-29-2016, 02:45 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote: The 4T was much more extreme ten years ago. American politics is still about the same as it was ten years ago.
2006 was still 3T, before the Crash and before the Tea Party lunatics.
I'm part of that contingent, though I rate Bush 43's foreign adventures as a false regeneracy. He did produce some new values suggesting that force could be used to spread democracy, human rights, and US Big Oil, but it turned out that the ideas didn't work in practice. Fighting insurgents required more force than the US was willing to commit. What happens when the Grey Champion attempts to transform the nation's culture with bad ideas? In this case, I see a return to the stagnation and arguments of a 3T. We have not yet had a true regeneracy, a union behind a new set of ideas and values that transform the country.
Arguably you might have a hope of a regeneracy with the election of a new president. Obama came in with a lot of hope and cheering. Trump, perhaps as well. I don't see the people or the Congress as united enough for the sort of regeneracy and transformation that the United States has had in the past, though.
To me, the 3T / 4T border isn't defined well enough. For me, division, argument and stalemate speak of 3T. United efforts to actively solve problems speak of 4T. Successful efforts to actively solve problems mark a successful 4T.
I suspect the best tool to find turning boundaries is 20 20 hindsight.
I am fairly confident that prophets such as Mr. Howe and myself will be proven correct on that account. The 4T will end in circa 2028. Then those who insist that 9-11 was the start of the 4T, will have to accept the idea of a 27 or 28-year 4T.