10-24-2020, 05:15 AM
(10-24-2020, 04:54 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(10-24-2020, 02:38 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote: I have no doubt that Biden will have his work cut out for him and it's very obvious to me that he's not up for the task and it's also obvious that he's not in the same league as FDR either.
The guy in charge during the crisis generally does get sainted after dying as the crisis ends.
Well, Obama will get credit for calming things and reversing (to the extent possible) some dangerous tendencies that Trump brought back even harder. Trump, of course, seems likely to become the scapegoat for what went on while he was President. He may not have had malign intent, but incompetence can be just as harmful.
Quote:He is generally not considered impressive as the crisis is just getting underway. I do see a COVID vaccine being developed, and anti racial violence legislation being passed.
Joe Biden seems the sort to give the credit for a COVID-19 vaccine to medicine, science, and commerce, where the credit will be due. Figuring that even if Trump got re-elected he would find himself obliged to sign legislation against racist violence (perhaps even banning the Confederate flag and KKK symbols) that house and Senate majorities pass or have his veto defeated. Obviously it is premature by at least ten days to predict what a second term of Donald Trump will be like. Trump could be a brutal tyrant or woefully marginalized... if he wins. I'm sure that you see the contradiction. History works in strange ways.
Quote: I have even seen some support for trying to counter global warming lately. If these happen as anticipated, that will be enough to celebrate whomever was in charge as the change in values is manifested. I'm not sure it will be deserved. The culture is changing anyway. Larger forces are in play than any one man. There will be a need to personify the change, however. It's all in the Great Man theory of history.
COVID-19 may break the concentration of opportunity in a few favored locations. Just imagine a software engineer who can live in Traverse City, Michigan in the summer and the Texas Hill Country in the winter -- or maybe Prescott, Arizona (probably the best year-round climate in America outside of coastal California or Hawaii) year round. 3D printing could make possible small-scale manufacturing anywhere. Paying $4K a month for rent to live where one can make $5K a month is a raw deal.
Quote:But that doesn't mean opposing partisans weren't in opposition early. The old values have to be seen failing miserably before that happens. I read one account of a descendent of General Nathan Forrest being insulted by his being compared with Lincoln as being the genius embodiment of their respective sides of the Civil War. She didn't like talking about 'That Man'. Some people will cling to the old values well past their time.
Some old animosities last long after the struggle is over. Irrelevance has a way of striking back.
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.