tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post4929172209790003647..comments2024-03-29T01:07:30.224-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Commemorating the Bolshevik RevolutionStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-3976610844815819142017-04-01T15:03:59.254-07:002017-04-01T15:03:59.254-07:00October 1917 and October 2017 - are new hidden rev...October 1917 and October 2017 - are new hidden revolutions afoot? And who will lead these revolutions, Left or Right? And Trump and Bannon as self-declared populists perhaps are plotting right now? Maybe Sanders would have destroyed from the left, but for now its the right that is in manufactured chaos before the storm we can't avoid.<br /><br />It does get complicated that Sander's "Democratic socialism" idealism is so easily grouped with the murderous USSR communism that banned private property as if there is no middle ground. Really I have no idea why FDR's efforts didn't end up will tens of millions dead. And Sander's socialistic populism maybe be the only other game in town if we abandon the imagined "Meritocracy" ideology of Hillary, propped up by cheap debt from the Federal reserve, that does the same thing as Republicans, helping the wealthy get more wealthy, just slightly more slowly.<br /><br />I saw Peggy Noonan had an interesting article yesterday, basically seeing Socialism in our future, unless Trump (or another to follow) can really be the Moderate Populist Trump promised to be.<br />---<br />Near the end of the campaign I wrote a column called “Imagine a Sane Donald Trump,” lamenting that I believed he was crazy, and too bad. Too bad because his broad policy assertions, or impulses, suggested he understood that 2008 and the years just after (the crash and the weak recovery) had changed everything in America, and that the country was going to choose, in coming decades, one of two paths—a moderate populism or socialism—and that the former was vastly to be preferred, for reasons of the nation’s health. <br /><br />A gifted politician could make his party the leader toward that path, which includes being supportive and encouraging of business but willing to harness government to alleviate the distress of the abandoned working class and the anxious middle class; strong on defense but neither aggressive nor dreamy in world affairs; realistic and nonradical on social issues while unmistakably committed to protecting the freedoms of the greatest cohering force in America, its churches; and aware that our nation’s immigration reality was a scandal created by both parties, and must be redressed. <br />...<br />It amazes me that in his dealings with the health-care bill Mr. Trump revealed that he has no deep knowledge of who his base is, who his people are. I’ve never seen that in politics. But Mr. Trump’s supporters didn’t like the bill. If they had wanted a Republican president who deals only with the right, to produce a rightist bill, they would have chosen Ted Cruz. Instead they chose someone outside conservatism who backed big-ticket spending on infrastructure and opposed cutting entitlements, which suggested he’d be working with Democrats, too. <br />...<br />Crisis reveals the character, the essential nature of a White House. Seventy days in, that is my worry.<br />---<br /><br />Noonan is not hopeful that Trump can be anything other than he is, a puppet for whatever voice whispers into his ear or twitter feed.<br /><br />I'm curious how Trump will handle an economic crisis or even the impending 20 trillion dollar debt ceiling brinkmanship. It seems clear that he'll be weaker than most - he'll listen to moneyed interests tell him how to protect their wealth, about the same as W and O did in 2008/09. New fake money will be created, even other other fake money (or net worths) are destroyed.<br /><br />It's easy to see Trump's revolution will be different. <br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.com