04-29-2020, 04:46 PM
(04-28-2020, 09:59 AM)David Horn Wrote:(04-27-2020, 05:44 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Trump is on the McConnell “blue state bailout” bandwagon, it looks like. What a way to unify the country in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic and economic crisis. He should know about bailouts given his personal financial history, but the truth is the big blue states have been bankrolling the red states for, well, ever. And done so happily, because this is the United States, and for a majority of the country, united is what it’s all about.
This may be a breaking point issue. Yes, the Blue states have bankrolled the Red states willingly … in the past. I'm getting the impression that those times are passing.
Except that there are some very "blue" areas in the "Red" states -- like New Orleans, Birmingham, Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, St. Louis, and Kansas City. Besides there are some states that get "Blue" results despite "Red" politics -- like Nebraska and Utah. Besides, "blue" and "red" can shift drastically between eras of politics. West Virginia used to be one of the most reliable states for the Democratic Party, going for the Republican nominee for President only in Republican blowouts.
So what happened in West Virginia? The Democrats were able to offer small government involving low taxes and government spending because the United Mine Workers solved most of the problems. West Virginia invested little in highways, education, and public health because well-paid coal miners could solve all problems other than the hazards of coal mining. Once the mine seams were worked out, the mining jobs disappeared and the Republicans were able to offer low taxes and minimal government spending without the once-powerful United Mine Workers to ensure solid wages and good medical care.
It is also possible that Donald Trump is doing far more damage to the Republican Party than many of us can imagine. In the aftermath we may end up with omnibus politics (the one who follows Biden will most likely to be a Mature Reactive like Washington, Grant, Cleveland, Truman, Eisenhower, and Obama; indeed I can say that the next effective conservative President will act much more like Obama than like Trump. I have loved to compare Eisenhower to Obama for temperament and character; such is the Mature Reactive, and as the oldest of them enter their sixties, such is what we are likely to get before any Kennedy-like Civic offering a 2040's version of a New Frontier.
Boomers had their chance to give America a Churchill-like, FDR-like, or Lincoln-like leader. Instead they gave us the bad Dubya, the middling Clinton, and the horrible Trump. Time is running out for Boomer contributions to the American political heritage, and Boomers proved that they could bring about the worst in their tendencies with little of their best in public life. Culture? OK-- we will remember Steven Spielberg.
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.