I don't see our system as particularly ossified and unresponsive. I see our populous as particularly anxious and afraid. The middle class is diminishing, as is the ability for the uneducated to make a decent wage. For these reasons, there is much discontent, and the blame has fallen upon the system. Much bureaucracy needs to be destroyed, but that is going to happen without Trump trying to rebuild his version of 1950. Silicon Valley is a byproduct of the computer and the internet. There exists a culture that has built up around the replacement of old technology with these new ones, and the creation of new economic models. It's a mistake to think the culture is the seed of what makes Silicon Valley what it is. Our politics are going to change, because our technology has changed our economics. In our anxious impatience, Trump might seem like one way to precipitate that revolution. Unfortunately, his thinking is mostly regressive, and his power base definitely has a regressive agenda. Trump's politics aren't what worries me. His lack of character, his anti-intellectualism, his racism and misogyny, and his reactive nature worry me the most. Progress has been derailed for centuries in the past. He's more vociferously attacking the independence of the press and the electoral process as he is red tape.
I don't view the "creative destruction" that Trump is wreaking as being the bureaucracies he's eliminating or the regulations he's dismantling. I mean more that he's violating the faith we place in our institutions as they exist today to fairly produce goods for society. Also, creative destruction has positive connotations, and I'm not endorsing or liking what he's doing (or undoing I should probably say). This falls along a spectrum, but the fact the primary races are tantamount to victories in a large number of districts due to gerrymandering, and this number just keeps growing, means the system isn't moving towards a coalition that can get anything done. It's a solidification of business interests first and foremost. Agreed. What hope does collective action have against highly energized and motivated special interest?I don't see our system as particularly ossified and unresponsive.
I see our populous as particularly anxious and afraid.
If you unpack your complaints, it all comes down to gerrymandering and the noncompetitive nature of representation. I suspect that will change. The whole argument for the electoral college was to prevent people like Trump from being elected. QED the electoral college is obsolete. Trump may be Republican but he sure ain't establishment; the Gray Men of Government are more likely to defend the parts of the system that work against the virus than they are to let populism destabilize their process. But I haven't the foggiest how that's going to shake out.
Collective action can easily win. It can crush special interests overnight. It's just important that we fight for proper representation and good governance, not for political ideologies. That has been the disaster unfolding these last twenty years. These people that anger us so much are public servants, but we have allowed them to become ideological leaders that have little responsibility beyond fighting the opposition. Trump is little more than a hand grenade.Agreed. What hope does collective action have against highly energized and motivated special interest?
Well let's hope he can keep perspective when faced with criticisms from foreign leaders, or the courts, or civil rights institutions. He's the most powerful leader on the face of the planet, he owes it to every one to act with some degree of dignity and reserve. The most powerful man on earth is really doesn't need to be a vengeful prick, it's something beyond white or rich privilege to pretend that he's being persecuted by scrutiny
Trump has been back and forth from bankruptcy, built major companies, major structures, runs a major enterprise, conducted a SUCCESSFUL major campaign AGAINST the establishment (who the media was in the corner for, undeniably). But you doubt his ability to conduct himself for the successful interests of the United States? The public voted against decorum and dignity in 2016, Trump won, now he's acting like it, going about business the way he knows how.
"I think enough intellectuals are hellbent on destroying this man's power that we can expect it to vanish in the near future." that's a nonsense proposition, if it was true trump never would have won, so I told him to be quite. I wrote :) to show that I am just the type of optimist you suggested
I think enough intellectuals are hellbent on destroying this man's power that we can expect it to vanish in the near future.