08-05-2020, 12:09 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-05-2020, 12:14 PM by TeacherinExile.
Edit Reason: Punctuation
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(08-05-2020, 09:55 AM)Tim Randal Walker Wrote: As for new values, the New Deal had very broad appeal because it aimed to improve the economic lot of a multitude. There was no regional emphasis.
This time around we have this red/blue thing. These two side seem to be roughly equal in strength. I think that each would reject the imposition of the other's values.
There is nothing comparable to the New Deal, at least not yet. It may well be that America's new civic order will mean loosening up the federal structure, the country decentralizing.
Indeed, I recall a comment from American Nations, that decentralization may be the only common ground for the different regions of the country.
Yes, exactly. The whole concept of American federalism, which was made possible by our Constitution, seems very much at risk, perhaps more-so than in that rife period preceding the American Civil War. I don’t see a repeat of that bloody episode as possible. Yes, we have hyper-partisan policy makers and media, a very polarized electorate, divided almost evenly on a host of issues. And now it all comes to a head with a global pandemic exacting its heavy and pervasive toll on the country. If no compromise can be achieved, then there are other unpalatable routes to resolution. We forged a nation by means of a revolution, then preserved the union by defeating a rebellion, and later saved capitalism by means of reform. There are other much less satisfying avenues for ushering in a new political order: a coup d'etat; more likely, a dissolution like that experienced by the former Soviet Union and later Yugoslavia. If it comes to individual states or regions accomplishing a “Brexit” by means of a referendum, say...well, at least that’s a more peaceful process than a military coup or civil war. Quite frankly, I don’t see how a Second Civil War would work, Boogaloo or not. The paramilitaries are too dispersed, and our country lacks the clear geographical demarcation of a Mason-Dixon Line, not to mention a singular divisive issue, such as slavery. (Sorry, Eric, but even a “soft” civil war probably leads on to the real thing, eventually.)
Violence, to be sure, may break out all over if the competing values regimes cannot reach a bipartisan resolution by means of a legislative compromise. The potential for bloodshed is self-evident when we see protestors clashing on the streets, many armed with long guns and dressed in camouflage. I shudder to think of the possibilities if “the center cannot hold.” Even in my small Western town, there’s an element that’s “gunned-up and rolling heavy.” To cope with it all, I meditate...