11-12-2016, 11:09 AM
(05-14-2016, 03:30 PM)Bronco80 Wrote: It sure feels like it here in the US given the events of this year, but before expounding further I'm curious if this had been discussed much in my absence on the old board.
Like it or not (and I didn't vote for Trump) but the regeneracy has arrived with him. It'll probably be more or less textbook right-wing populism as we have seen it in Russia, Hungary and other places in this cycle or in many European countries in the 1930s. It's not going to be as bad as Hitler of course but that's the general direction. I expect a big whirlwind of change in the next ten years, more than all of us have ever seen in our lives. A lot of government spending and intervention, measures against illegal immigrants and also some restrictions on minorities (voting rights). This way the Republicans have as solid a majority as the New Deal Coalition had in the 1930s.
The genius in Trump (or maybe evil genius) is that he understood that the elitist Republican establishment with its mantra of tax cuts for the rich and nothing for the rest except cutting safety nets and outsourcing jobs would never work to gain a majority. Instead, you have to also have massive "Nationalist Keynesian" and anti-trade intervention to help your average Joe supporter. Plus he was right to purposefully be mean, aggressive and outlandish to position himself outside of the conventions of the old system. People are now ready to have it torn down and replaced with something new, never mind the risks involved.