What Will Come of This 4T?

[David Horn]

namentstone raises many good questions, but only one really counts: does the US move solidly in one direction, allowing real change?  I don't claim to know for sure, but here are my thoughts:

• After 40+ years of Reaganomics, the social cost of handing the economy to the rich and powerful is at breaking-point levels.  Adding COVID-19 to that volatile stew merely guarantees that change will occur or society will start coming apart at the seams. It's impossible to solve communal problems using libertarian tools, as the last Gilded Age demonstrated vividly, so some variant of progressivism will prevail or the 4T will fail.
  
• We have never been more bifurcated than we are now.  Here we are in the middle of a pandemic with the economy in an induced coma, and the stock market is rising. That tells me that there are people out there who see a totally different reality than I do.  It's hard to ignore a pandemic though, and the less engaged are now finally paying attention. If trends continue, this next election might bring a true sea change at the Federal level, making real policy change possible as well.
  
• The pandemic will not just go away.  I suspect we're in this for many months or even a year before normalcy begins to reemerge.  When it does, the economy will be on life support, and worse in other countries than here.  Displacement will be common.  So building something new will be possible, since reestablishing the old will be just as hard and much less beneficial to the majority.
  
• One caveat: if the plutocrats are able to seize the initiative too early, a return to Gilded Age 2.0 is very possible. That they will seize the day at some point is inevitable. Let's hope it doesn't happen too soon.