Folks on the left and the right should both remember that at the end of the day, the next presidential election is important, but not the most important thing that will ever happen.
Whoever wins, it's only 4 years. You're not going to save or destroy the country.
For the left, remember that America survived 8 years of George W. Bush, despite his best efforts.
For the right, remember that America survived 8 years of Obama, despite his best efforts.
For the left, remember that America already survived 4 years of Donald Trump, despite Ray Epps best efforts.
For the right, remember that America already survived 3 years of Joe Biden, despite his deployment of shunananmaprezure and batacathcare.
Far more important than any single election are the general trends in public opinions, and it's those things that help inform what's really going to happen as the people who are doing things end up percolating through the system.
People forget that George W. Bush and his agenda wasn't just his, a lot of people agreed after 9/11 that something big needed to be done about islamic terrorism, and not just on the right. Most of the congress and the senate voted to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan regardless of their rewriting of history later -- he appeared to be going with the cultural consensus of the time.
People also forget that Barack Obama and his agenda wasn't just his, a lot of people agreed after the war on terror and the ensuing assault on civil liberties as well as the collapse of the economy after the 2008 that big changes needed to happen and at the time it appeared that he was going with that cultural consensus. People forget that the Democrats had a supermajority in the senate for a short time, people were voting en masse for Democrats rejecting the Republican paradigm of the moment.
At the moment, there is no broad cultural consensus around either Joe Biden or Donald Trump. 2016 was a coin flip, 2020 was really a coin flip, and it's possible this November will be one as well.
MAGA populism is the answer that came out of the collapse of the Republican party in 2008. In my view, it's an objectively better ideology than the 2001-2008 strategy, even if Donald Trump as its avatar is kind of a bumbling blowhard.
I was actually hoping that the Democrats would catastrophically lose 2020 because they're working off a strategy book that assumes it's still 2008, and a lot has happened since 2008 including all of us learning that the things they did to "recover" from 2008 didn't really work and everyone's lives have gotten a lot harder.
Anyway, my other post talks more about this cultural consensus, but it's just some whitepills for people who think the world is about to end. It's gonna be ok bros.
Whoever wins, it's only 4 years. You're not going to save or destroy the country.
For the left, remember that America survived 8 years of George W. Bush, despite his best efforts.
For the right, remember that America survived 8 years of Obama, despite his best efforts.
For the left, remember that America already survived 4 years of Donald Trump, despite Ray Epps best efforts.
For the right, remember that America already survived 3 years of Joe Biden, despite his deployment of shunananmaprezure and batacathcare.
Far more important than any single election are the general trends in public opinions, and it's those things that help inform what's really going to happen as the people who are doing things end up percolating through the system.
People forget that George W. Bush and his agenda wasn't just his, a lot of people agreed after 9/11 that something big needed to be done about islamic terrorism, and not just on the right. Most of the congress and the senate voted to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan regardless of their rewriting of history later -- he appeared to be going with the cultural consensus of the time.
People also forget that Barack Obama and his agenda wasn't just his, a lot of people agreed after the war on terror and the ensuing assault on civil liberties as well as the collapse of the economy after the 2008 that big changes needed to happen and at the time it appeared that he was going with that cultural consensus. People forget that the Democrats had a supermajority in the senate for a short time, people were voting en masse for Democrats rejecting the Republican paradigm of the moment.
At the moment, there is no broad cultural consensus around either Joe Biden or Donald Trump. 2016 was a coin flip, 2020 was really a coin flip, and it's possible this November will be one as well.
MAGA populism is the answer that came out of the collapse of the Republican party in 2008. In my view, it's an objectively better ideology than the 2001-2008 strategy, even if Donald Trump as its avatar is kind of a bumbling blowhard.
I was actually hoping that the Democrats would catastrophically lose 2020 because they're working off a strategy book that assumes it's still 2008, and a lot has happened since 2008 including all of us learning that the things they did to "recover" from 2008 didn't really work and everyone's lives have gotten a lot harder.
Anyway, my other post talks more about this cultural consensus, but it's just some whitepills for people who think the world is about to end. It's gonna be ok bros.
I guess you do have a point. It's like carrying capacity. If there was an island that supports 100 deer with the plants on the island, if a 101st deer is born the island does not immediately die, but it starts a long and slow destruction of the island until all the deer are dead.
American has survived so far, but that doesn't mean it will continue to survive just because it isn't dead yet.
Your point on national debt is also kind of a big deal (but also really damning of the 2-party system since both parties stabbed America in the back by racking up the debt) -- 30 trillion in debt and no plans to ever balance the budget, and exploding inflation even after raising interest rates.
American has survived so far, but that doesn't mean it will continue to survive just because it isn't dead yet.
Your point on national debt is also kind of a big deal (but also really damning of the 2-party system since both parties stabbed America in the back by racking up the debt) -- 30 trillion in debt and no plans to ever balance the budget, and exploding inflation even after raising interest rates.
Depending on how you view everything, the problems arguably started before Nixon and have been snowballing since then. The guns and butter of the 1960s turned into the inflation and financial crises of the 1970s which turned into reaganomics in the 1980s, which turned into Bush 1 and Clinton spending gobs of money as well(with both parties in power of congress at different times so while the congress does control the pursestrings besides the veto power and bully pulpit of the president), followed by Bush 2 doubling the 4 trillion dollar debt to 8 trillion, followed by Obama nearly doubling it again, and Trump almost spending more money in 4 years than Obama spent in 8.
The right thing to do was back in the 1950s and 1960s, use the income tax to pay down the federal debt and then retire both.
The right thing to do was back in the 1950s and 1960s, use the income tax to pay down the federal debt and then retire both.
I always like to point out that prior to the world wars there was no federal income tax in either the US or Canada, and there was no state or provincial income taxes either.
In other words, whereas a blue collar worker's last dollar today might consist of 50 cents to the government and 50 cents for themselves, our great grandparents would have paid 0 cents to the government and 100 cents for themselves.
In spite of that, the governments of the past routinely paid back their national debts, whereas today despite taking so much from us they've spent an unimaginable amount of debt.
In other words, whereas a blue collar worker's last dollar today might consist of 50 cents to the government and 50 cents for themselves, our great grandparents would have paid 0 cents to the government and 100 cents for themselves.
In spite of that, the governments of the past routinely paid back their national debts, whereas today despite taking so much from us they've spent an unimaginable amount of debt.
In another post in this thread I mentioned that I think the time to actually solve this problem was the 50s or 60s, when they should have paid off the debts from the world war with the newly implemented income tax then abolished both.
But as you said, the quasi-empire couldn't exist in that case, but I feel like the decline that every generation has lived through since wouldn't have had to happen.
But as you said, the quasi-empire couldn't exist in that case, but I feel like the decline that every generation has lived through since wouldn't have had to happen.
Man, what a concern to have, eh? "Oh no! We won't be handing free money to banks all the time!"
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So what I'm hearing here is if we pay off the national debt we better also repeal a bunch of federal laws. 🤔