Has the regeneracy arrived?

[Warren Dew]

(01-08-2017, 12:46 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(01-07-2017, 03:30 PM)SomeGuy Wrote:

(01-07-2017, 11:32 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(01-06-2017, 04:25 PM)SomeGuy Wrote: Again, reread the book!  A regeneracy does not imply that all problems are solved, only that a consensus has been reached about how society is going to try to solve them, and that the populace is willing to allow them to play it out for the remainder of the 4T.

Considering the intense anger on the Left, and the total determination to slash-and-burn on the Right, when and how do you see us arriving at a consensus?  If you are assuming the force of external events, what are they?  Because, frankly, the political standoff between urban and rural, religious and secular, open and closed is getting more intense every day.  These differences involve world views that are deep and baked in.  They don't just change on a whim.
The rule for changing entrenched beliefs is life-changing trauma.  Is that your assumption?   Geography and demographics make a parting of the ways out of the question, That doesn't leave many options.

There might not be a cultural consensus, but there's a prime opportunity for the Republicans to forge a political one.  Whether they take it, or piss it away like the Dems did 2009, remains to be seen.  Remember that past crises were not characterized by uniformity of opinion, they remained bitterly divided, only that one side managed to get completely in the driver's seat and stay there long enough to drive the country somewhere new.

Besides, I don't think this crisis is going to be solely about the fight between yuppies and rednecks.  There's still geopolitics to consider here.  I don't think the Empire is done with us just yet, or we with it.

The problem with a Trump mandate is the obvious one: he never received one, and a majority of the country mistrusts him.  The GOP has the reins of power almost everywhere, yet a true majority in very few of those places.  Blustering won't make up for that, though Trump seems ready to try.

In the House, in addition to winning a majority of the seats, the Republicans also won a substantial majority of the popular vote.  Trump may not have a mandate, but the Republicans in the House do.