Has the regeneracy arrived?

[pbrower2a]

(01-23-2017, 05:53 PM)linus Wrote: Did you read that TNR piece asking aloud if Trump will be like Carter?

I'm wondering if a better analogy may turn out to be Andrew Johnson.

I wasn't a political science major and this is the first I heard of "the Politics Presidents Make" but there would seem to be no place in Skowronek’s theory for Andrew Johnson, one of most reviled and least successful presidents, who immediately followed (rather than preceded) a (presumably) "reconstructive" presidency. I'm not going to speculate about what happens, but if Obama turns out to be a genuinely transformative president, in the manner of (but to a lesser extant than) Lincoln and FDR, and Jackson and Reagan, on the right, then Trump may be compared in a certain sense to Andrew Johnson, who gave the South wide latitude to do Reconstruction Their Way, and came to be widely opposed in the North, as well as of course impeached. And he was himself succeeded by someone who sought to extend Lincoln's achievements and legacy, rather than forestall or repeal it.

I didn't  -- but I see Donald Trump as a potential disaster as President, someone who bucks the demographic trends and tries to turn the calendar back 90 years or so except for technology. 

Barack Obama became President with the dream of transforming America, but his biggest achievements with respect to the generational cycle are giving Americans a taste of a brighter future and slowing the rush to a Crisis. Donald Trump could well be the sort of President who shows what to do by making every imaginable mistake that a President could do. He will be the President when the fecal material hits the fan. Just imagine how he responds to the end of an eight-year (yes, it will be that long) bull market. Does anyone expect to see him reacting properly to a big natural disaster such as an earthquake or a volcanic eruption? Or one of our bare allies going very bad very fast? Hollow, vindictive, corrupt, and extremist, he will be unable to offer much solace to those for whom he has no solutions other than "take it, and remember to count your blessings".